When DJs Sku and Konsept christened their Tuesday night event Table Manners, they had more in mind than simple turntable wordplay. "The use of manners implies etiquette when we're mixing music," Sku explains. "Basically, if we drop a hip-hop a cappella over a rock beat, we will drop it in on time so the music flows like it was meant to be." Working with four turntables and two mixers, the spinners extend this polite consideration to almost every genre. "Punk, house, hip-hop, rock, soul," Sku says, "it's a musical massacre — 50 Cent over a Violent Femmes beat or Ying Yang Twins with Aerosmith." Like most DJs who blend beats live, Sku and Konsept despise the term mash-up, which fails to differentiate them from DJs who premix tunes on their computers and simply press play when they perform live. "Our sets are never planned," Sku says. "It's just vibing off what the crowd gives us." Table Manners is the crate-digging equivalent of a swinging singles club: You never know what two unlikely prospects will hook up.
