John Acquaviva at "Live on the decks 3". Chicago, 02-26-2000.

     This post comes from the Definitive man himself John Acquaviva. His involvement in dance music dates back to the early 80's when he would spin at local clubs and had been DJ'ing at least a decade before founding one of the world's best known techno labels Plus 8 Records with fellow music lover Richie Hawtin back in 1989. That's when his international DJ career really began to take flight. He was also one of the first artists in the early 2000's to spearhead the use of Final Scratch, a computer program used for DJ'ing digital audio files. Seeing that DJ's would also need a place to get audio files for the new medium , he had a part in the creation of Beatport.com. The largest online mp3 music download site that specializes in dance music. In 1993 he and Plus 8 partner Hawtin and friend Karl Kowalski launched Definitive Recordings. The focus was more on quality House and Tech-House which released tons of classics such as "House Music for all" by Blunted Dummies. The label went silent at the end of the 1990's but relaunched in 2005 as an digital label and has been going strong ever since with steady releases by Acquaviva and new partner in crime Olivier Giacomotto. John has had a long history of performances here in Chicago and around the Mid-West beginning with raves in the early 90's then moving over to the club circuit with stops all over the city and was one of a handful of international DJ'S to hold residency at the iconic Smartbar in Chicago during the early 2000's.

    This show was held at the infamous Harvey expo center / Photon Laser Tag venue located in the south suburbs of Chicago which held countless parties over the years. As you can see from the flyer above, this event was jam packed with talent but to many the highlight of this night was John Acquaviva and Richie Hawtin headlining in their own room. Before the show a group of us went to the famous Russian Tea Time in downtown Chicago. After dinner John and the group of about 10 of us made our way from Chicago down to the venue. As we arrived the line was few hundred people long and stretched across the parking lot. After finding a parking spot and making our way in, we headed through the main room, a center room from what I remembered was playing Drum & Bass and on to their room. As we made our way up to the DJ booth through what seamed like thousands for people spread across three rooms, we all knew everyone was in for a great night. After "The Datman" setup his equipment and Acquaviva took to the decks the room really started to fill up. As the night progressed we had heard from people around the booth that party goers still waiting to get in started to rush an open side door to the space and were sneaking by security to get in to the event. In all the confusion, a security guard saw "The Datmans" recording equipment in the booth and since they were not informed of it before hand, got thrown out the event with a few other people from around the DJ booth. In trying to clear up the mishap, he walked up an hour later and told us what had happened and that he had to sneak back in himself because security didn't believe his story.