DJ Ciao Boy’s farewell gig at Lucky Bay Brewery. Photo: Nikki Bailey.
He is an Aussie engineer by day and an Italian DJ by night but now Sam La Macchia has hung up his headphones in Esperance as he chases a new life in Europe.
La Macchia, who goes by the stage name DJ Ciao Boy, performed in Esperance for the last time on Saturday night in front of a high-energy crowd at the Lucky Bay Brewery.
“It went exactly as I thought it would in my head, if not better,” La Macchia said.
“Everyone brought their A-game in terms of energy and dancing and I can’t do what I do without the crowd.”
La Macchia was born and raised in Perth and found his passion for DJing while living in a share house during his first year of full-time work.
He said house music was his favourite genre and the purchase of his first DJ deck was inspired by his “magnificent music taste” and house parties.
His stage name has changed since he first began — the first of which he said he would prefer not to publicise at the risk of embarrassment.
“I played around with different DJ names as well and after a few iterations, Ciao Boy definitely stuck,” he said.
“It’s something that I guess resonated with my whole vibe, my style, my looks, my background and everything like that.
“It’s quite iconic.”
Saturday night’s set started with some fun disco house and sing along tunes before DJ Ciao Boy ramped up the tempo to match the crowd’s excitement.
He ended the night with his classic Italian circle, where the crowd linked arms and moved around in an anticlockwise jig while he pulled out some unique dance moves in the middle.
DJ Ciao Boy moved to Esperance three years ago and has made quite a name for himself in the nightlife scene but he said he does not do it for the money.
“I’m up there doing it because I’m just super passionate and really excited about it and you can see that in the way I dance to nearly every song that I play,” he said.
“I want to continue to put my passion into it so it doesn’t just become a job.”
He is keen to take his hobby overseas but is unsure how the European crowd will respond.
“When I’m in Australia, particularly Esperance, I can do my whole Italian persona but I’m probably at like a B1 language level in Italian so if I go to Italy and try to put on the same persona a lot of people are going to look at me and say, “who the hell is this guy?”.
“I’m certainly going to try to though — I think once I’m settled down or whenever I’m travelling, I’ll just find places that match my vibe and definitely reach out.”
DJ Ciao Boy attracted a crowd of all ages on Saturday night and wanted to thank everyone for coming along to his final send-off.
