Navigating the crowded, drunken students of Halloween for the first time as an Athens high schooler, Brandon “DJ B-Funk” Thompson said he never thought he would find himself atop the main stage, let alone leading a group of thousands pushing at the barrier to his own electronic house music.
Thompson is used to moving large crowds as the primary DJ behind “Athens No. 1 dance party” Dave Rave, which will celebrate its four-year anniversary at the Union Bar & Grill, 18 W. Union St., Friday, alongside up-and-coming electronic music group Milk & Cookies.
But even after four years, Thompson still gets fans coming up to him asking, “Hey, I’m looking for Dave to talk about those beats.” And even though Dave “DJ Timetraveler” Alexander has been a part of the party since day one, he said Thompson has been the driving force.
“Nobody understands it, but it’s really simple to us that in electronic music you have a company that throws a party,” Alexander said. “But it has overshadowed Brandon as an individual DJ talent.”
Thompson has lived in Athens for almost his whole life. He began DJing for parties and growing a fan base that would follow him to some of Dave Rave’s first events in the basements of Red Brick and 19 South, the bars that gave the duo its first break.
Alexander, the group’s namesake, started to learn how to work the tables and the crowd to become an opening act at the early Dave Rave events.
But when 19 South, a bar which used to occupy the space where Habibi’s Restaurant is located, closed down, so did their regular gigs. They thought “the dream was dead,” Thompson recalled.
Luckily a chance encounter allowed them to secure their first show at The Union, which had its reputation as a straight rock ‘n’ roll music venue but had previously hosted dance nights.
“It’s really the closest thing to a club that Athens has,” Alexander said. “It’s been a challenge to get people to come there and think about it in a different way.”
And while the new venue certainly drew a lot of attention, Dave Rave also benefited from good timing as electronic artists such as Skrillex were climbing the charts, winning awards and turning the genre mainstream.
Maybe that’s why people took a chance on us, because we were all about that music way before,” Thompson said. “We were house (music) guys to begin with, but the popularity (of dubstep) took over so we started making parties to cater to those people.”
Moving forward, Thompson said he hopes to expand his personal DJ brand and begin releasing original music, including a new side project called Bass Marvels alongside OU alumnus Chad “Black Rabbit” Vasquez.
“What people don’t get about the Dave Rave thing is that it’s not just something they do, they bring really big name electronic artists to Athens,” Vasquez said in reference to Friday’s show with Milk & Cookies. “The fact that Dave and Brandon are bringing these people in from money out of their own pockets is pretty incredible.”
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