The Beat of a Different Drummer

By Pat Sherman
Photos by Jeff “Turbo” Corrigan

Though he spent more than a decade pounding the skins in a hardcore punk band, DJ Sid Vicious now prefers to create anarchy on the dance floor.

“I come to party and I want the room to party,” he says. “I think it really comes across to the venue that I’m having fun and that the crowd’s having fun.”

Hailing from Dortmund, Germany, Vicious (aka S idney Niesen) kept the alias he aped from the Sex Pistols’ late bassist, though he now says nein to mohawks, mosh pits and the occasional Pistols’ sample that once peppered his sets.

“I’ve kind of almost walked away from it,” he says. “I didn’t want to give people this misconception that I was this punk rock guy that only played rock music and was vicious. Quite contrary, I’m very friendly.”

Though he sold his drums four years ago, Vicious says his raucous roots give him a better ear with which to gauge song transitions-especially when moving between genres and tracks with varying beats per minute.

“A lot of people that know me think I can really read a room better or play to a room better because I have that musical background,” he says. “I think it made DJing a lot easier for me. That timing and that rhythm is just in my soul. It’s there.”

See D J S id Vicious spin S aturdays at FLUXX and Sunday nights at 207 at Hard Rock Hotel San Diego.

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