BC183 - Dancing at the Dinkytowner: An/other Oral History

Techno and house at the late-night Minneapolis bar/diner/venue in the mid-2000s

Photo by Sharolyn Hagen

Last week, Barry Walters and I discussed, among much else, writing long and cutting (cf. BC182). It was on my mind in good part because I was in the middle of doing just that—actually, for the second consecutive time. Both were for Racket, where I’ve been contributing regularly for a couple of years. The first appeared a few weeks ago, about Conrad Sverkerson, the legendary stage manager of First Avenue (gift link). The second ran this week: an oral history of the Dinkytowner Café (gift link), a place I went to a lot more than you’d guess, given that I didn’t live in Minneapolis at all during its lifetime. I just ended up there every time I visited home—a couple times a year, typically. I loved the place, and I think that shows in the piece.

As I mention there, the Dinkytowner piece was particularly sprawling: I wound up with 56 interviews altogether, though a couple of them I had done prior to this year. TML’s quotes came from the interview I did for my Racket profile two Januarys ago (gift link), and the DVS1 quotes actually come from my 2012 interview, a dual-purpose sit-down for The Underground Is Massive and my oral history of The Bunker New York for Resident Advisor (link). Most of the latter Q&A hadn’t been used at all, saving me (and him) some time.

Needless to say, there was a lot left over. I figured I’d be utilizing some of it here—meaning stuff I hadn’t necessarily earmarked for the feature itself. I’m happy to say that isn’t the case. Instead, what follows are mostly things that were in the longer draft before I began cutting for space. Techno and house were a significant part of the Dinkytowner’s mid-decade calendar (I’ve included one of those below, as well), but the sheer volume of activity in that building meant that its treatment in the Racket piece is nicely concise. Here, a few of the same topics are covered in more (or alternate) detail, but a lot of it is completely outside the realm of the big feature. My thanks to my paying readership: this one’s for you.