TAB’S AFTER (FASHION SHOW GALA) PARTY FEATURE CELEBRITY DJ CATO – AGAIN

26 Feb TAB’S AFTER (FASHION SHOW GALA) PARTY FEATURE CELEBRITY DJ CATO – AGAIN

A smokin’ hot DJ CATO, by TV Carpio

He’s back – and likely better than ever.

We are talking about DJ Cato, a.k.a., Congri, who became the Man of the (After) Hour. Cato turned the Telluride AIDS Benefit’s After (TAB’s gala fashion show, this year, Saturday, March 2, Sheridan Opera House) Party into a no-miss event, instead of the afterthought it had been for years.

Originally from Friedberg, Germany, Cato’s family relocated to the States when he was age six, settling in Gainesville, Florida. Obsessed with music, even as an adolescent, Cato felt compelled to spin around town at local soirees. After honing his skills in Atlanta shoulder-to-shoulder with DJs T-Rock and F.Y.I. – ultimately the Headknod Squad – Cato made the move to the Big Apple.

The deal with New York was the same in the mid-1990s as it is today: If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. For seven years, faced with stiff  – what’s new? – competition, Cato had to straddle the fence between the corporate world (he worked for the Diesel chain) and the underground club scene. But when he finally broke through, there was no turning back.

Since he was last on this scene, Cato held down residencies at The Double Seven, Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel, a new underground (literally) hot spot/Mexican Restaurant called Pulqueria. Every Sunday, he could be found on the rooftop Pool/Cocktail lounge, JIMMY, of The James Hotel in Soho.

Cato was as far in as any New Yorker in the club scene could get – and now he’s getting out. He and his longtime sweetheart have relocated to TinselTown, where he already did a New Year’s Eve gig at Chateau Marmont’s Bar Marmont.

“It was sexy and a blast.”

With a friend, he also started a monthly party in L.A. they are calling BKLA or BrooklynBeats/California Love. They are now scouting the perfect home.

DJ Cato occasionally travels to Paris, Italy too, and Manila, the Philippines, to ply his fun trade. He’s played in Mexico in Playa del Carmen for the Turntables On The Hudson party and in Puerto Rico for the Candela Music & Arts Festival.

Get it? Telluride and TAB are super lucky Blair Brown of Horny Toad convinced Cato to come to town last year. We are even luckier he found time in the midst of his head-spinning (pun intended) schedule around relocation and work to help everyone party hardy – again – for the cause. The message is clear: if you want to shake a shoe and your booty too, the Sheridan Opera House is the place to be late night Saturday March 2.

To find out why Cato is making time to return to Telluride and support TAB, click the “play” button and listen to our chat.