Maggie Despise Refused to Play Jay-Z or Bruce Springteen

Maggie Despise: “My friend and I drove up to Steamboat, which was a three-hour drive. The venue was at a local bar that didn’t really seem like a place for electronic music, but you never know. We got some food, set up, and I started playing. First someone came up to request Bruce Springsteen. As a drum-and-bass DJ, I did not have anything even close to that. I’m also not a request DJ, so I had to decline. Next, a couple girls came up requesting Jay-Z and offered to even pay me to play some. I had to explain again that I don’t take requests, and I’m actually being paid to play what I was playing.

“Then, toward the end of my set, this guy in a cowboy hat, who was very drunk and rude, came up demanding, ‘Play something less aggressive!’ I wasn’t even playing anything aggressive! I politely said I would try and then dropped the hardest, gnarliest, most aggressive tune I had on me, some breakcore bit. Needless to say, he left after that, and I became a little more cautious about playing random bars.

Maggie Despise is playing Sorted’s Three Year Anniversary at the Fusion Factory on November 10 and Recon at the Black Box on November 24.

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work.