Silly string often conjures memories of childhood fun, a younger sibling’s birthday party or possibly a prank on an unsuspecting friend. Tonight however, “Skribble” aims to bring silly string out of retirement and into the Tuscaloosa party scene.
Rounders on The Strip will host Skribble, a worldwide silly string party, featuring DJ Houndstooth tonight starting at 9:30 p.m. The price of admission is $10 before 11 and $15 for those entering later.
Solidified Sound Ent., an entertainment planning group created by three University of Alabama students, brings the event to Tuscaloosa. Co-owner and promotions manager of Solidified Sound Ent., Carl Case, a UA freshman, headed Skribble parties in south Florida over the past three years and said the night’s twist fits well with their approach to draw interest in Tuscaloosa on a weekly basis.
“We’re trying to bring swap themes from greek life to non-greek members of the UA community through our themed events,” Case said.
According to Case, the night boils down to “a rave with silly string thrown in,” featuring $1 drink specials. Party-goers are asked to wear black. At midnight, workers will spray 1,000 cans of glow-in-the-dark silly string onto the crowd from the top floor of Rounders. Silly string will also be handed out to the first 250 people inside.
Based on his experience with similar events on which he’s worked, such as Dayglow and Zed’s Dead, Case said he expected to see about 800 people in the backroom in Rounders. Co-owner and booking agent Brandon Denson cited the venue as “the perfect atmosphere” for their event.
“The backroom for Rounders is great,” Denson said. “The atmosphere’s great, because they have the upstairs that looks over the dance floor, but also a bar and crazy lights set up.”
Denson said he knew DJ Houndstooth from his work producing a local artist he manages and felt his musical style could keep the party flowing early into the morning.
“He can play anything from mash-ups to hip-hop to dubstep,” said Denson. “He can not only mix music, but he can produce top quality hits.”
Conner Barnes, the man behind the DJ Houndstooth moniker, graduated from UA in December majoring in music production and entrepreneurship, and there developed an interest in taking his musical talents into electronic production – having since earned a living as a club DJ, pursued his passions as a mash-up artist and has finally created his brand of mixes to be displayed at events such as Skribble.
“I play a little bit of something for everyone, I think,” said Barnes. “I don’t lean on any particular genres, and I don’t only blend genres, I blend decades.”
As a taste of his original work and new experiments he’ll blend into his DJ-ing, Barnes has referenced mash-ups jumping from an 80s disco track into heavy dubstep drops. According to Barnes, he blends some of these tracks together to ensure that “the music never stops.”
Intrigued by the strangeness of the theme, Barnes displayed his enthusiasm for bringing his sound back to Rounders.
“I’m not sure if anyone’s been to a silly string party before,” Barnes said. “But you can’t really go wrong with loud music, dancing and silly string.”
