Maggie Despise Refused to Play Jay-Z or Bruce Springteen | Westword
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Maggie Despise Refused to Play Jay-Z or Bruce Springteen

Some DJs don't take requests.
Karl Christian Krumpholz
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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.

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Karl Christian Krumpholz
“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.

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Karl Christian Krumpholz
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.
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