UrbanDK & Black Nation Sound

This was another great show I attended on my last trip, which was an unusual trip because of the amount of shows I actually went to. I never party this much but that’s what happens when you travel with a bunch of DJ’s!

On July 24, 2010 Black Nation Sound was having their 10th anniversary party up in Newcastle, Jamaica. Newcastle is a military training camp at the top of the world…..literally 4000 feet up! Well at least it’s at the top of Jamaica! And getting there in the dark was no easy feat! When the show got packed with hundreds of people I was shocked to know that ALL these people drove that death road and partied all night and made it home without dying! I found this picture of where we were that night. It’s spectacular in the daytime and now I’d love to go back up and see the place in the light!

The purpose of going up to this show was to see my friends UrbanDK Sound from Canada, play a big show in Jamaica. They have been friends with Black Nation for a long time and have played in Jamaica with them before. The funny thing is that UrbanDK are long time friends of mine too but we live on opposite ends of Canada and I’ve never seen them play in the 6 years I’ve known them! They are the ENTIRE reason I went to Jamaica in July!

We arrived up at Newcastle after a harrowing drive on winding mountain roads which, in some parts were mostly washed away! Literally parts of roads had just slid down the mountain and weren’t there anymore, no guard rails or anything! We went inside the hall where the show was being set up and I was in complete awe at the speaker stacks everywhere. The sound was complete overkill with HUGE speaker stacks everywhere….in the hallways, in the main hall area and even in the VIP lounge area that we had full access to.

The atmosphere at the show was beyond loud, so much that when sitting on the couches in the VIP lounge our backs felt like we were getting a full massage from the vibration! I loved being up here because we were literally the only 5 white people at the show and not one single person treated us any differently than everyone else. This is a sharp contrast to being in a touristy area where they all want to hit on white females and ask you to buy them drinks, give them cigarettes, etc. In fact in the VIP lounge they made a point of telling us that THEY would bring us anything we wanted! Sweet!

UrbanDK had no idea what time they would start playing yet so we took full advantage of the VIP area, the rum and the curried goat that was being cooked and served outside the building. We arrived around midnight and expected to wait at least a couple hours for them to play because shows start LATE in Jamaica and there were several sounds playing this night. Finally at about 3AM they were ready to go and their set was great!

I think the time was about 5AM when we decided we’d had enough, we were tired from yet another show we were at the night before. They decided to pack up their gear while the show was still going strong! We still had to get back down the mountain safely and get 2 hours of sleep before breakfast and checking out of our guest house to head back to Montego Bay. This is the spectacular Blue Mountain sunrise at 6AM as we rolled into our guest house.

Here’s a short video clip I made of some of the action from the night. And for more info on UrbanDK you can find them on their FACEBOOK. And for more information on the Newcastle military camp and the surrounding area there’s some awesome information at THIS LINK.

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