Musical Genius, Club Scene Madness.

Saturday, Mar. 12, Danny Tenaglia was spinning in his belated birthday celebration at Crobar. This party had the promise of musical greatness and dance scene infamy. On both fronts, it did not disappoint.

I arrived at 12:30 to find the line was very long, ludicrous even. I asked if there was a line for pre-sold tickets, the nice bouncer man pointed to the ludicrous line saying, "That's it." What's the F*CKING point of buying a pre-sold ticket then?!?!? No arguing, I took my place in line and waited.

Almost an hour on line, dealing with line cutters and other dumb ass rabble. No matter, after what seemed like a rush by the club to get people off the street because the NYPD was giving them problems, I was in.

Once inside, the outside world fell away.

Crobar was packed. From the previous times I've been there (Alegria), it was easy to move through. That night, it was nearly impossible. Some people haven't the sense to NOT hang out in major thoroughfares. These drug-addled, common sense-free folk, were causing bottlenecks everywhere. I was supposed to meet up with party pal Frank, but I gave up on getting to our designated spot after one arduous attempt to move through the crowd.

I was anxious to hear Danny spin. He'd said on the message board that he was going to play a "big club" sound. It'd had been a while since he'd played a big club, last one being Ikon, which I totally had a good time. My first hour at Crobar, the music wasn't catching me. The tracks sounded big, but they didn't have that driving beat that would take me away, forcing me to dance.

I wasn't feeling the crowd either. Straight club kids, drugged up, posing, standing around, they were a vacuum, sucking whatever vibe there was. It was definitely eye-opening. As of late, I haven't been a fan of the Alegria parties, but at least during all the times I've been there, when I look up, the whole club is moving and having a good time. Not like now. Big difference is Alegria is all gay. This was nearly all straight. Seems the boys really do know how to have fun.

The "boys" were not in representation at Crobar, frightened away by the long line. Those that were there, you could tell, they had their shirts off immediately. I was shy and demure, I kept a tank on.

I hung tight, knowing things would get better. I stayed with people I knew from the message board. When peak hour rolled around, Danny gave the music an enormous shot of adrenaline and got the crowd (and me) pumping.

What followed was sheer, musical bliss. Track after track of monster bombs that I could not believe. Some old but many new, some old remixed, it was a dance frenzy for me. This was hat i was hoping for. I had a great time. One highlight was hearing a remix of Cevin Fisher's "Work it out." Awesome.

Eventually I even found Frank at about 8:00 (I'm guessing since I don't carry any timepieces while I'm out, in a club.) I'd finally spotted him, when I decided it was easy to walk about and head to the upper level. He'd been in since 3:30 and was hanging out upstairs. He related a harrowing story of nearly being crushed by the crowd, escaping by pulling himself up on to an upper area.

The rest of the morning was uneventful. I'd found out later that there was an incident outside the club at about 4:30. A fight broke out on the line, bouncers were involved and so was the NYPD. After the incident, the club closed it's doors to any additional entrants as opposed to closing the club. This was agreed upon with the NYPD who was ready to close down the club.

I'd left the club at 10:30am, thoroughly exhausted and pleasantly satisfied. Musically, it was what I needed. I did feel badly leaving. I knew there'd be many more musical moments I'd be missing.

Big clubs on a Saturday night, that are not billed as gay, are the dominion of the straight scene and all the bad elements therein. Saturday night may have been really bad since I believe a lot of the attendees were DJ Jonathan Peter's crowd, a notoriously rowdy and druggie crowd, now homeless since Peters residency ended. There's lots of discussion, to not pin blame on any particular faction (guidos, steriod boys, general drunken, drugged knuckleheads), but when in heavy concentration as they were on Saturday, who can you blame?

I love Danny and since the closing of the club Vinyl/Arc, his former residency, I've made it a point to hear him whenever the opportunity arose. I'm uncertain if I'll ever do a straight club night again. It hurts, but I'd think twice.