The Juice Box

The Holiday Season is here and before you know it we rush in the New Year, and it has been a busy season. Hopefully you and yours are getting time to share, reflect and be with each other during this hectic time, and also to think about the future and maybe the little glints of hope that can be seen and cherished. Take some time to grab someone you care about, tell them you care about them, and make sure you let them know they are never alone; they always have you to count on.

Ok, mushy stuff aside; here are a couple review from the past two weekends, for the parties I was able to attend. And with that, if welcome guest reviews of parties I could not attend, so please feel free to reach out to me if you would like to do a review and publish it.

Matinee

Rating – 4.5 out of 5 Bottles of Water

The party took a little bit of time to get crowded, but by 8PM the guys were there and they were having fun. It was a bit of a grand send off to the final Matinee party. Temple night club had remodeled the stairway entrance into the Catacombs and I felt like I was entering some type of Disney attraction, with appropriate theme music, and would need an “E Ticket” for entry. The music was already bumping and Luke was playing one of his best sets – I found it hard to leave the dance floor. Luke kept turning up the energy and the air filled with that special electricity that a party has just once in a while. Tony Moran took the decks later in the evening and continued to pump up the party with some great dance groves, old and new, and the crowd was drawn into a sweaty frenzy. I loved it and was all too sad to leave when the evening had to come to an end. It was like a reunion of faces with lots of old friends showing up as well as many of the regulars (including me) all there to wish Matinee off on a great retirement. Sorry I did not have the energy to head over to Thick and hear Frank Wild lay down some of his hardcore sexy beat, but I had to work on Monday. Congratulations on a great run for this party, and I am very excited to see what is in store for the new event coming in 2009.

Black XXXMas

Rating – 3.5 out of 5 Bottles of Water

Saturday was a crazy day with too many things happening, so it was great to have the evening end with plans of a fun dance event. Black XXXMas is one of those annual parties in San Francisco that I tend to really look forward to because of the music, the setting, and the ability to blow off a little holiday steam. This year the event moved to Club 1015 and it was the first time I had been back there since Real Bad XX. I was a bit disappointed to find that we had only a portion of the club for the party, but I was able to get over that pretty fast. We arrived early and the crowd was light, but DJ Jaime J Sanchez was kicking some fun music in place and I was able to spin some poi for a little while before it got too crowded. DJ Abel took over later in the evening and I have to say I have heard better sets from Abel and that this was not his best game face. The music was foot shuffling and less dark and meaty than usual and I found myself heading off the main dance floor more than I wanted. I did however really enjoy going to upstairs dance floor and hearing a great set by DJ Wayne G, and I have to say that he can always provide me a special place to dance, and did just that. The lighting was disappointing, and after knowing that Club 1015 had spent so much money on new lighting in the main room, I was very disappointed to see that the guy running the lighting was not William Brown, but the club lighting guy. The main room lights seemed to be set on auto-pilot all night. Even a mediocre DJ set can be elevated and punctuated by great lighting, so why when you have these great lights would you not want to use them to move the crowd and energize the party. Certainly a lesson to be learned there, but overall not a bad event, but certainly room to make this even better, in my humble opinion, and it appeared that many of my friends, old and new, were having a good time.

Twisted

Rating – 4.0 out of 5 Bottles of Water

Leif and I dashed out of the Black XXXMas party for a quick run to our respective homes, a shower to wash off the first party and freshen up for the next one. I find if you really want to make these dance marathons work, fresh clothes, socks and shoes are a necessity, and for a morning party, do not forget the sun glasses. We arrived while David Harness was playing and his music was fun and danceable, and it was a great way to transition into this party. After a lot of socializing with other friends, promoters, go-go dancers, etc., I was able to get some great dance time in with folks and that was what counted. DJ Ted Eiel took the decks after 6 and did not let us down as he pumped out some great dance music, with even enough grove to get yours truly up on the box with Marcus for some go-go bear box dancing. One of my favorite moments, which brought a grin came as Ted played a mix of the Flash Gordon Theme song and it brought back many fun memories, and thing I loved was later on Sunday morning when I was home Flash Gordon was on the movie channel. Overall, this was a fun after party and a great effort by the Twisted team in keeping the energy going into the morning hours.

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