MC Queen Lucky

Style: Hip-hop/Disco/Funk/New Wave Gigs: Fridays at R-Place, Pandora’s Box (last Saturday of month at Re-bar)

MC Queen Lucky helped blaze the trail for female DJs in Seattle. Back in the early ‘90s, crowds waited in line and put up with a fairly bitchy drag queen who hand-picked people to let in at Re-bar. Why? For Queen Lucky’s immensely popular disco night. “I loved that night, but I didn’t like the elitist thing. I kept wondering why was there a line? Why does everyone want to come in when I know I’m gonna mess up?” 14 years after she began spinning, MC Queen Lucky is still going strong. As for her staples today, “You can’t go a night without hearing some Little John, Beyonce, Jay-Z and Notorious.” Recently she opened for Grandmaster Flash. “It was amazing, he was my idol. He was gracious and very sweet. He’s also a little bit eccentric, which took me off guard, but I love that.” Queen Lucky is surprisingly down to earth for having been immersed in Seattle’s club scene for so long. She loves her gig at R-Place, saying, “They are so fun. They request a lot of music, they pole dance, and it’s a big celebration. At Re-bar DJs are a bit removed from the crowd; not [at R-Place, where] it’s nice to be close to a fun crowd.”

DJ Jen Woolfe

Style: Tech/Deep/Progressive House, Downtempo Gigs: January 15 @ Last Supper Club

An emerging house DJ, Jen Woolfe played one of her best sets at a loft party last year. "The promoter came up a couple of times asking me to 'play longer, play longer.' There was just this intense connection between myself and the crowd. Everything I played filtered right through their bodies and back to mine. It was a truly amazing feeling." She also made the trip to perform at Burning Man, an event that now attracts some 25,000 people each year. "The energy flow is so chaotic. One minute there can be two people out on the dance floor, then 100, then two again." Even with this experience under her belt, her dream gig "definitely takes place in London. I'd start off on Saturday night at The End opening for James Zabiela." When asked if it's any harder to be a female DJ, Jen Woolfe takes the comedic approach. "You mean like in archery where sometimes your nipples get in the way? Not at all!"

DJ Mamma Casserole

Style: Garage Rock/New Wave/Soul Gigs: Wire @ Baltic Room, Club Club @ Chop Suey (January 20)

Mamma Casserole (her name a pun on Mamma Cass) is a spunky DJ who’s bursting with energy. Spinning everything from French techno sweethearts Stereo Total to soul diva Marie “Queenie” Lyons, she disregards DJs who pander to their audience. “I think that DJs can go either way, playing only obscure things they like or playing all the obvious hits. I like to play bands people know, but maybe the songs they don’t.” She speaks of keeping a good ratio of cool obscure songs to big, boring hits. “I’m an attentive DJ. I pay attention to what is getting my crowd going.” Since getting her feet wet in musical obscurity in Boston in 1987, Mamma Casserole has DJed all over Seattle, the country, and internationally as well. “My best DJing experience was in Reykjavik, Iceland for the Iceland Airwaves Fest. The Shins, Singapore Sling, Sahara Hotnights and lots of other bands were playing the festival. I was playing in a club called Pravda, and there were some of the bands there. I was freaking out.” Everything worked out okay and she is now a social worker by day, tremendous DJ by night.

DJ Misha

Style: Deep Techhouse/Minimal Techno Gigs: Techno Sol @ Saucebox in Portland (March 10)

"I prefer small, intimate crowds that freak out to new and interesting sounds." However, even in such a setting, being a female DJ can grant you a pass, but stop you short at the door. "I think I stand out because I'm one of the few female DJs that plays techno. I need to work harder at networking with other DJs and producers. DJ guys don't always think about approaching me to talk about the latest music or technologies." Stepping up her efforts, Misha participated in the first Decibel Festival, an event with national and international artists, where she played alongside John Tejada and Markus Nikolai. It proved to be an opportunity that "was very rewarding. I felt a unity that I hadn't experienced before." Continuing to experiment while in search of that same connection abroad, she has her mind set on performing in "Berlin or Europe in general. It'd be nice to play where electronic music isn't the red headed step-child of the music scene!"

DJ Girl 6

Style: Hip-hop/House/Rock Gigs: Winter Music Conference in Miami Beach (March 22-26)

Kanye West vs. Gary Wright. 50 Cent vs. Nine Inch Nails. Lil Kim vs. Billy Squier. Hold your geek fantasies, this isn't Celebrity Deathmatch. It's just another set of mashups from DJ Girl 6. "It's always with a twist–otherwise you could just listen to the damn radio!" Tuned in to the needs of her audience and overall feel of the evening, she prefers to "play to completely packed clubs with sweaty, hot patrons who are losing their mind." Has she ever met opposition in the male dominated scene? "We get the 'joy' of people saying 'You're the DJ? But you're a girl!' You get a lot of blank stares and blatant resistance." DJ Girl 6 will be performing at the twentieth annual Winter Music Conference, the largest networking event in the dance industry, attracting fans and artists from 60 countries. So what could possibly top that? "Probably to play at one of P. Diddy's phat parties in New York. Now they have a production budget!"

DJ Boo Berry

Style: Punk/Oi!/New Wave/Old School Hip-hop/Soul Gigs: None currently scheduled

When patrons of Shorty’s would see a guy carrying in crates of punk records on Wednesday nights, a few were surprised when instead DJ Boo Berry stepped up to the turntables throwing down tracks from bands like Cock Sparrer and Stiff Little Fingers. “Sometimes guys are surprised I spin a lot of Oi! and old punk,” she explained before talking about her history. Boo Berry got obsessed with collecting records early on, then her obsession expanded to her local radio station in LA. She began working in radio, record stores and continued collecting vinyl. A few years ago Boo Berry began DJing Shorty’s, then playing other gigs around town at venues like Re-bar, the Hideway, the Rendezvous and Jai Thai. She likes to feed off her audience, but also approaches a night with a plan of what she wants to play. “I hate it when people request music totally different then what I’m playing, but I love to let people look through my records and request songs.”

DJ Lady Kerrin B

Style: ‘70s Punk/Electroclash/New Wave/’60s Pop/Rock Gigs: Fridays at Bad Juju)

“I used to have a radio show when I was in college called ‘Venus Envy’ back in the riot grrrl days. I was a riot grrrl and that got me into the punk scene.” It wasn’t until years later Lady Kerrin B began spinning at clubs with “Kicks” at the Twilight Exit. She started “Pop Rocks” with DJ Eon soon after, both spun records and they brought in other DJs. As to Kerrin’s approach to DJing, she said “I like to play the music I like, but I really like it when people dance. I’ll play the slower stuff and music I like at the beginning of the night, then when people get a few drinks in them put on dancier tracks.” She likes to play ‘70s punk—just about every set includes the Ramones—but when she wants to get people on the floor, Kerrin relies on trashier electro stuff like Miss Kitten. What does the future hold for her? “I don’t like techno and house music, but where I wanna go from here is to learn to mix punk, ‘80s music and rock to beats. If I can make people dance and play my favorite music, which is pretty much punk rock, then that would be awesome. That’s my goal, that’s my next step.”