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Jealous Lovers dance party brings indie rock from the past four decades to Local 506

Local 506

Local 506, located on 506 West Franklin Street, is a music bar that hosts touring musicians and local bands. Photo courtesy of Evan Millican.

Local 506 and 20th Century Boy are hosting Jealous Lovers, an indie rock dance party, at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8.

Nathan Kotecki, who performs under the name 20th Century Boy, started DJing in high school. When he lived in New York City in the late '90s, he had an indie rock weekly dance party very similar to Jealous Lovers.

Now, Kotecki is best known in the Triangle as a goth DJ. He co-headlines a monthly goth night at The Wicked Witch in Raleigh and has his own monthly Dark Alternative Dance Party at Local 506 called “Darker Black.”

"Most of the nights that I do regularly these days are goth and dark alternative, that kind of thing," Kotecki said. "But I do love indie rock, and I have the records, so every once in a while if the opportunity comes up I'll do an indie rock party."

The flyer for Jealous Lovers advertises “jump-around favorites from the past four decades,” from older artists such as The Smiths and The Breeders to more recent artists like Franz Ferdinand and Interpol.

"I play across multiple decades,” Kotecki said. “I'll play glam from the '70s all the way through post-punk revival stuff in the early 2000s. I chose '60s iconography for the poster design because it doesn't pin me down to one of the decades.”

Kotecki said his DJ nights tend to draw an eclectic crowd. He’s had people come to his parties who remember the music of '80s and '90s as well as students from UNC who have discovered it more recently.

“I really like that it gets a wide audience in terms of age range,” said Geoffrey Berry, a DJ night regular. “There are certainly people from the different colleges and universities and then there are people who are older and everybody's there dancing together — it's just a really relaxed and fun group of people.”

Berry said Kotecki primarily does all-vinyl sets, which many attendees like, but that he’s also good about incorporating requests from the crowd when he can and is always collecting records for future parties.

Amanda Morris, a friend of Kotecki, said his dance parties are important to both her and her husband, who were involved in their college indie radio station in Texas before they moved to North Carolina.

“When we moved to Durham in 2007, newly graduated and married, we didn't know anyone in the area at all,” Morris said. “Back then, Nathan hosted a dance party called TKO, which quickly became one of our favorite weekend activities. We finally had a place to be social, to be around people, to dance and to enjoy music that reminded us of our previous lives in west Texas.”

Morris said she’s gotten to know Kotecki over the years, and that his indie dance parties remain her favorite.

“We'll rearrange our schedules to make sure we can attend Jealous Lovers,” Morris said. “I always have a great time when I go, dancing with other people who are also having a great time. And in the spirit of indie radio, I always leave with new bands and songs to add to my playlist.”

arts@dailytarheel.com

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