Mousetrap Review: Hang The DJ!

When I first started going out in D.C. I thought that Mousetrap, Black Cat's monthly quasi-britpop dance night, was awesome. I hadn't lived here very long prior to it and had spent most of my nights out at cobalt, so hearing "The Boy with the Arab Strap" outside my own iPod was a really novelty. I've been there every month since, though, and the novelty is wearing thin.

In the last four months at Mousetrap I have heard songs ranging from Common People to Laid to...did I already mention Common People? Even a first-time addition of Young Folks couldn't shake my deja vu. This particular Mousetrap happened to fall on my birthday. That fact, combined with a wee bit of overindulgence, gave me the balls needed to finally to request "Naive Melody" to the DJ. His response was something along the lines of "I will never, ever play Talking Heads at this bar."

Though he failed to tell me if I would ever eat lunch in this town again, or so much as wipe my ass without his permission, the message was clear: he was spinning a full dj-tatorship and no suggestions were needed from his peons, even if it did mean playing "London Calling" three times in a row while filing his nails and sighing.

I'm not just being petty here. Early in the night my roommate went over to make a request and came back positively ashen, so affected was he by the DJ's vehemance that T. Rex was not an appropriate artist for the venue. I spent the rest of the night assuring him that yes, "Ride a White Swan" is a great song and yes, if their playing Bowie there's no reason they can't play Bowlan, and yes, the DJ does look and act like the comic book guy from The Simpsons.

If the Mousetrap playlist doesn't change soon I will have to start staying home and dancing to the relative sonic diversity of the "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion Soundtrack." That, at least, has more than 10 songs.