DJ Messiah defies musical classification
Jason Purdie, aka DJ Messiah, hates the term rave music.
It’s far too restricting for a musical genre with such universal appeal, he said.
Since classification is a necessary evil to describe music, Purdie prefers “electronic music,” or better yet, “future music.”
“Electronic music is used in commercials and on movie soundtracks, yet it is labeled rave music and associated with drugs when it’s at more places than rave parties,” Purdie said while sipping a Corona at The Twilight Room, 112 S. Monroe St., last weekend. “Raves give the music a bad name and classifying it doesn’t give it a chance to grow and change.”
Purdie, who runs Element Tribe Networks entertainment company, holds the prime spot at the free “Can Spokane?” voter registration concert on Saturday night at The Detour, 175 S. Monroe St.
Other names on the bill include singer/songwriter Matt Kelly, piano balladeers The Side Project, ultra-eclectics The Awesome Miami, and Rebel Alliance deejays Cinch and T-Spoon wind things up into the late night. It’s an all-ages event and has a beer garden with ID. All you need to get in is your voter registration card or register to vote at the event. Sponsored by the Spokane County Young Democrats, the goal is to get 1,000 people registered to vote by November. Everyone is welcome, regardless of age or political affiliation.
“This is a chance to challenge people to think on their own and make their own decisions,” said Purdie, 22.
Purdie will fuse his usual mix of drum and bass, new school breakbeats and hip-hop records with political speeches from the likes of President Bush and spoken-word poet Saul Williams.
“Music is a language, and I’m fluent in all forms,” Purdie said. “Sometimes we speak soft; if we feel like getting rowdy, we’ll get rowdy, if I feel like chillin’, the whole crowd will chill with me.”
It will be similar to the set he spins at The Twilight Room. Purdie jumps into downbeat early in the night for an older crowd that’s looking to chill and have a drink after work. Then he progresses into what inevitably becomes an all-out sonic assault by the night’s end. Starting next week, Purdie takes over as the house deejay at The Twilight Room on Thursday nights. Until now he’s been drawing crowds bi-monthly at The Twilight Room.
“One night this guy walked in and he was like, ‘Is everyone on ecstasy in here? They’re playing techno music and everyone is happy,’ ” Purdie scoffed. “It’s the concept that you can go out and have fun and not get messed up. We’re trying to create stimulation without intoxicants. Music, art, poetry: Get drunk on that instead of getting liquored up and collecting phone numbers.”