What a night

Sunday night was lots of fun. I've been out to clubs before, not a lot, but I've been out. Out here in Bozeman the music is usually provided by the jukebox or in some clubs a DJ spinning records. The mix is pretty much popular music that I know from the radio, not always what I would choose to play but they usually put in some good dancable songs. But the Quest Club on Sunday was filled to the brim with techno beats.

We got to the Quest just after 8pm for the opening. I guess we should have expected it, but they didn't have the headliners come on right away. The House DJ, DJ Kid Icarus, played for the first 2 hours. There was a good crowd but it wasn't packed. In the center of the dance floor there are some flashing lights embedded in the floor, including a big 'Q' that is the club's symbol. Everyone seemed to be avoiding standing on the 'Q' and just dancing all around it while listening to the music.

When my friends and I go out dancing here in Bozeman (or indeed even at weddings) our friend Emily always wants to play what she calls "Dance Party USA". It happens at every club: a big circle of people where one or two people go into the center at a time to show off their moves. It happened last Christmas break in Chicago when my brothers, our significant others, and my girlfriend's bro and sis and friends went dancing downtown at John Barleycorn's near Wrigley Field. At one point during the night the circle formed and people got in to show off. There were a few breakdancers that had some impressive moves when all of a sudden my youngest brother Matt ventures to the center of the floor. He had had a few (as in "There are a few people in China") beers and was obviously feeling good. When he got to the center he busted out the robot to the delight of the crowd, it was my favorite moment of the night.

Anyway, back the the more recent past. Before too long a circle formed around the 'Q' at the Quest and a few people began jumping in to show off. There were some good dancers and we weren't able to see them all that well because we didn't step up to the front of the circle. One thing that I had no clue was a popular thing was dancing with glow sticks. You know glow sticks, you can buy them at 4th of July fireworks displays or at carnivals at night, a little plastic tube with some kind of luminescent material trapped inside. Well, let me tell you, the last thing I expected to see that night was a bunch of kids with glow sticks attached to long strings whipping them around in the air and around their bodies like nunchaku (aka nun-chucks) to the beat of the music.

In the darkness of the club it was fun to watch. Most of them weren't all that good and kept tangling the lines or messing up some spin, but to me it was very entertaining. After this had been going on for a while this dude in a powder blue baseball jersey and a backwards Kanga hat began "running the show". Steph and I dubbed him the "Ringmaster". He started calling people into the ring to dance against each other and then would tell one of them to get out of the ring if he decided that the one "lost". I haven't seen the movie "You Got Served" (ranked the #4 worst movie of all time by imdb.com) but I've seen the South Park episode that makes fun of it and it's hilarious. Some people take this dancing thing way too seriously.

So this one guy gets fed up with the Ringmaster and basically challenges him to a dance off. The dude busts out some breakdancing moves and stuff and waits for PowderBlue to show his stuff. Gingerly holding a drink in his hand and a cigarette in his mouth the Ringmaster performs a dance that I can only call "The Epilectic Fit" across the circle. Then the challenger picks up his glowsticks and does a few things with them, nothing too impressive, and after he's done tries to hand them to the challenged. The Ringmaster doesn't even want to pick them up, and after multiple proddings he hands off his drink (with a cigarette still hanging precariously from his lips) and finally picks up the glow sticks. He then performs what I have to dub "The Glowing Epilectic Fit". This guy had no rhythm and no moves, it was hilarious. So then the good dancer heads to the center and asks the crowd for their judgement. No one is taking it too seriously and there are a few cheers and jeers for the appropriate combatants. The whole time Steph and I were making multiple "You Got Served" jokes and enjoying the whole thing immensely.

Finally, at about 10pm Sandra Collins is announced and the crowd surges foward to cover the whole dance floor. She comes on and starts laying down the beats. Sandra was much heavier and much bassier than Kid Icarus. After a little bit the bass was getting really heavy and Steve and I started making "This Is Spinal Tap" jokes about how she may not have enough bass and should really turn it up to 11. (If you haven't seen the movie, you should, but until then you won't get that joke.) We could feel the bass coursing through our bodies and indeed a few times we could actually feel the air of the club moving with the beat. She really knew how to get the crowd worked up (the place was packed by this time) and the club was just jumping. The energy in the air was really astounding. Everyone was having a great time.

The heat was really rising inside as well, with all of the people now there and the renewed vigor of the dancing it started to really heat up. Luckily water was free at the bars and I drank down multiple glasses and chomped many pieces of ice. Everyone at the club was dripping with sweat and it reminded me of the rave dancing scene in "The Matrix Reloaded". Near the end of Sandra's set we all headed for the wings nearer the bar where the air was actually moving a little bit and was much cooler.

Sandra played until midnight when Paul Oakenfold made his way to the stage. Nothing too different happened from then on. We were all tired and footsore but we made it out on the dance floor a couple of times. Paul looked a lot different than he does on most pictures of him, he had much longer hair. He really reminded me of Eric Bischoff of the (formerly WWF) WWE. Compare that picture to this one or this one of Paul. As I mentioned in my last post the worst moment came when he attempted to shatter my skull with a certain high pitched sample. He was a lot more animated up on stage than either Sandra or Kid Icarus which could be entertaining--he acknowledged the crowd a lot more and even got a glass of wine out and made a "what a beautiful day" gesture during his mix of "It's a Beautiful Day" by U2.

I was reading through a couple of forums online and it seems that people think that Oakenfold's skills as a live DJ have lessened over the years. A lot of people thought that he was horrible than night and that Sandra was mounds better. Then there were posts from before the show a lot of people were saying that they'd never pay to see him. I have to say that I'm glad that I'm fairly new to this techno thing and have never been to a show before because I didn't have this jaded view going in to it. The music he performed at the Quest was way different than what has been on his albums, way heavier--probably more house than trance (those are sub-genres of techno) but it was highly entertaining and the crowd, for the most part, was really enjoying the show. I do think that Sandra held the crowd a little better and probably produced more energy, but the whole show, 6 hours of non-stop music, was wonderful.

At the end of the show we all filed out in to the euphorically cool night air. It was just after 2am and Steph and I made it back to Matt's house right around 3am. What a night, and what did he have to look forward to the "next" morning? A one thousand mile drive back to Bozeman. Hooray!