05/28/2026
So I’ve definitely been prone to reminiscing about the “good old days” lately. Last night kind of sent me all the way down the rabbit hole.
Ran into an old club owner from one of my first spots — Sky Bar — where me, Loco, and Mixamyte used to DJ freestyle MC battles every week. And yes… Wichita once had a scene deep enough to support weekly rap battles. Then later in the night I ran into one of the bartenders from my first real long-term home: the original Finn’s.
It hit me that so many of those places barely even exist online anymore. No photos. No flyers. No tagged memories. Just stories in people’s heads.
I honestly wish I could make a complete list of every spot I played over the years, but I don’t even remember them all.
So I did the raves, but the club scene come up was different. I hit the reset button on life and was starting over. There was a rap battle at Club Indigo. I wasn’t DJing yet — I was battling. Yes, at one point I absolutely considered myself an MC. After one event, Indigo said no go, so Onamish moved the battles to Harry & Ollie’s where I became the DJ host. Then later we moved to Sky Bar.
When that chapter ended, I still wanted to play, and my friend Carissa helped get me a weekly spot (I think Thursdays) at Finn’s. The owner gave me enough leeway to do what I did. This was still the vinyl era, and younger DJs will never fully understand how different that grind was.
Back then, if you wanted ONE song, you usually had to buy doubles. A 12-inch single was about six bucks, so you were spending $12 plus shipping just to play one record for a few minutes in a club. And then praying it didn’t melt on your front porch if it got delivered in the summer.
I didn’t like spending money on songs I didn’t personally love. But Finn’s gave me room to figure things out and really play what I enjoyed.
After that came Sunday jams for the b-boys at Club 305. Then eventually I became a resident at Indigo.
And from there it just kept going.
Heroes.
Oeno.
Rock Island Live.
America’s Pub.
Brickyard.
Stepps.
Joe’s.
Pandora.
Industry.
Caboose.
Margarita’s.
Doma.
Candle Club.
…and probably a handful I’m forgetting, plus a whole lot of random one-off nights.
Honestly, I think I’ve played in just about every venue in town at one point or another.
What’s really wild to think about is that I did the nightclub grind for 19 years. At minimum, twice a week. At the peak, five nights a week. All while still waking up and working a full-time desk job during the day.
Looking back on it now feels kind of unreal.
But man… sometimes it’s fun to take a trip down memory lane.
