Dance Satisfaction

After two days, with rest/sleep and a toxin purging, cardio session this morning, I’m recovered from Sunday morning’s dancing at Crobar for Victor Calderone’s Evolve, his birthday fête. I’m sufficiently non-scatterbrained enough to recount my experiences, so here I go.

It was a last minute decision to go. Well… not really. Maybe I’d pre-purchased my ticket sometime Friday night, could’ve been Thursday but don’t hold me to it.

Late Saturday afternoon with the day’s solemn activities behind me, I was online reading initial reviews of Danny Tenaglia’s birthday dance at Crobar. The party had been carrying on from the previous evening into the early, possibly late, late afternoon. Incoming reports were that he was phenomenal as I’d expected he’d be.

Slightly jealous. I truly hoped that VC would deliver an equally good time. I know I should have kept my expectations low, but I couldn’t help wishing to get turned out.

There was disturbing news that the security staff at Crobar had been pulling Asians off the line last night, denying them entry for no apparent reason. Though the stories were unsubstantiated and unclear, being Asian and eventually heading to Crobar, the uncertainty was killing me. The itch to dance was great, eager to balance the weekend.

Regardless, all systems were green as far as I was concerned.

I’d napped earlier in the day and slept a short time again in the evening before finally getting up. Readying myself around 3:30AM on Sunday morning, I was on my way by 4AM.

It’d been a while since I’d taken the train so late at night / so early in the morning. Fortunately the MTA was most kind. I caught the N to the D, one after the other. As an added bonus, the D went over the A line, eliminating the need for my last train connection, to get me over to the West Side. Awesome. Guess you’d have to have lived in NY to understand, and be a commuter traveling in the wee hours of the morning.

Emerging out of the subway, I walked the short few blocks to Crobar.

Police cars hurtled past me on 23rd Street with flashing lights, sirens silenced. They stopped on 9th Avenue, congregating ahead of me. A man was pushing another man towards me, holding him back. Avoiding close proximity to the pair, I veered to the curb, making a bus shelter, an obstacle. There was a cadre of police officers closing in on the men. I scurried into the Korean deli to grab a Red Bull. In hindsight, walking through the confrontation wasn’t the brightest thing I’ve ever done.

Exiting, I continued on moving away from the fleet of vehicles, parked all askew.

Never a dull moment in NY. I love it.

Turning the corner onto West 28th, my heart dropped for sec. It looked like a long and jumbled crowd in front of Crobar. A street meat cart positioned close, swallowed everyone in a seared, seasoned beef smoke cloud. Yuck. Holding my breath I moved through the meat fog. Closer to the club, I realized the line wasn’t bad at all. More people were trying to get in on the comp list, then on the paying, ticketed line I was on. I breezed in, no Asian exclusion thankfully, in less than 15 minutes and followed the sound of the thumping beats.

David, from my Vinyl/Arc days was working coat check and let me skip the few people online, much to the chagrin of the security guy there. I immediately ran into Leks, whom I know from the dtourism message board, and his group of friends. He was leaving, having had enough of the pushy crowd, the zoo on the dance floor. He’d had his fill from the previous morning at Danny’s party and stayed long enough to hear DJ Vibe, who was still tearing it up. Saying good-bye, I braced myself and headed down to the main room.

Packed. Absolutely electric was the main room. DJ Vibe had the crowd frothing with his chunky, hard beats. Just the way I like em. The people had been going from the night before and there looked to be no stopping them. Albeit, you could see the change over of people starting to happen, going from the "out-for-the-night" attendees to the "fresh-for-the-afterhours attendees," like myself.

I was overjoyed, just to be out. Even though Crobar was still filled with Guidos This was exactly what I needed and nothing could pop my balloon. Not even the girl who burned me with her cigarette the first hour I was there. I smiled, she apologized profusely. I let it go and danced on.

DJ Vibe was fantastic to hear and I'm glad to have had the chance. Simply amazing, fluid mixing and fantastic dark beats, woven nicely together. His set, what little I caught was a journey unto itself. I surely won’t pass up on DJ Vibe the next time he headlines. Alas his set would end since he was only the primer for the afterhours, the opener for Sunday’s birthday boy.

By 6:00AM, as I’ve read (I don’t ever keep time when I’m out but I felt like it was sooner), Victor took over and proceeded to pound out a ridiculous, driving and body shaking set. Astounding. (I’m running out of adjectives I think.) Victor took us to the brink of insanity with his unrelenting style. It was too much fun.

By this time, many of the guidos had been replaced with the "boys," lots of cuties and "not so" but that's NY. Still, the homos do love Victor. I ran into a few friends whom I hadn’t seen in a while. They kept me company but I was lost in the music, dancing. It was hard to pull myself off of the dance floor. I danced non-stop for a while.

It was my mistake for escorting my friend Jonny to the bar and then seeing him off. It was then the crushing fatigue was overwhelming me. The desire to get home and sleep won me over and I headed out about 10:45AM. Out in to the miserable rain I went. Drat should have stayed longer.

Whew. I’m back to full strength and I’m ready to do it again. Not so soon, but Alegria is just around the corner. ;)

Suggested Listen:
If you've got the bandwidth and have the urge to hear some of DJ Vibe's sets from his Antenna 3 radio show in Portugal… Click here.