I’m a regular at the Headroom workshops held on Flash’s main floor once a month. It’s a chance for local producers to play their works-in-progress on an excellent sound system and get feedback from their peers. I don’t produce or DJ, but I like to hear what’s new and it’s a good place to network. This party was a chance for Headroom producers to show off their chops, and damn it was fun.

I was late getting out the door and parking on a Sunday was trickier than expected, so I missed a chunk of DJ Winterman‘s set. When I came in, he was running smooth and energetic. Later he hit us with breaks and drum & bass.

The night was a sampler pack of styles, just as the Headroom workshops are. The audience came and went over the course of the night, but it was a great assortment of DC producers and DJs.

District & Circle laid down just good old house music, including some samples from classic Cypress Hill. Nebo slowed down the pace with a live set of contemplative piano, live guitar, and vocals. Lovely set. It was the calm before the storm.

Symmetrical hit his custom rig for a live set and kept on hitting it, he said later, because parts kept fritzing out. His sets are always lively but this one was the wildest mad-scientist techno I’ve heard him crank out. And he was deep in it, too, riding the storm.

Darius Twin took over next and piloted us out with smooth, hard techno. It was almost relaxing. JP Jed continued the techno grind, dropping one of his own tracks quite perfectly into the mix. And then Sid Waters smoothed us all down with some heavy trance. An excellent way to end the night, and it fulfilled my recurring “problem” with Ten Tigers: I always end up staying later than I meant to.

It was a long show, and on a Sunday, but no regrets. Here’s to hoping this becomes a tradition.