Citrus, Taiwan’s longest-running house night, squeezes out its final serving of sexy house music tomorrow night at The Loft.
One of the four masterminds behind Citrus, Chris Sostad, aka Saucey, is moving to Canada next week and there is an agreement not to throw the parties without him.
Proud new dad Shiuan Liu (劉軒), aka SL and Xuan, said the name for the night came to him while he was doing events in New York City in 2001.
Partying came to a halt after 9/11, so he returned to Taipei and searched online message boards for what was going on. Soon he was deejaying in the VIP room of @live and met a “kindred spirit” in Saucey.
“We immediately jived musically because I played soulful East Coast house and he played funky West Coast house,” Liu said.
Their parties were intimate affairs at first. Then the pair teamed up with Dominik Tyliszczak, aka Hooker, and Shawn McClelland and Citrus caught fire.
“What started as 30 people in the VIP room soon turned into 1,000 in the main room,” Liu said. “After one particularly amazing night, I looked at Saucey and told him, ‘We’ve created a monster.’”
Longevity and creativity have been the two key elements for Citrus parties. Besides a slew of local talent, big names like Jazzy Jeff, Dan, Steve Mac, Johnny Fiasco and Hipp-E have graced the ones and twos for Citrus.
Liu says that the gang of four has always swum against the mainstream current of hip-hop and trance.
“We’d do a lot of stuff before its time,” he said. “We did a taike-style (台客) party a few years before taike was hip.”
Other themes included “pimp ’n’ ho” parties, as well as the Ceelander nights at which contestants competed in dance-offs like in the movie Zoolander.
Hooker, who created many of the flyer designs for Citrus parties before he started deejaying at them, would be ecstatic if tomorrow’s party turned out like his favorite Citrus night, a Miami Vice-themed do.
“I’m not exactly sure what happened at that one, but all the girls started stripping down into their bras, and even a few pairs of underwear were thrown at the DJs,” said Hooker.
Hooker says Saucey will be severely missed from the music scene here.
He “added a funky sound, and people realized they could enjoy themselves without getting hard-edged music pounded into their heads,” said Hooker.
Though Saucey is departing, Citrus may be resurrected in the future.
“We could fly Saucey back every once in a while to do another Citrus,” said Hooker. “Anything’s possible.”
A “very” limited amount of free entry passes are available from Hooker (call 0916-751-251), or at tomorrow’s Oasis pool party, which takes place from 1pm to 9pm at Taipei Country Club (台北鄉村俱樂部), 1 Qingyun Rd, Taipei City (台北市青雲街1號). On the Net: www.taipeicountry.com.tw, liquid-lifestyle.com/English/upcoming.shtml#oasis. Admission to the pool party is NT$200 (women) and NT$400 (men), which includes one drink.
Citrus, tomorrow from 10pm to 4am at The Loft, 6F, 201, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路四段201號6樓). Admission is NT$600 at the door (includes two drinks).
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