The Juice Box

Rating: 3 out of 5 bottles of water

by Steve Kleine

It is hard to get every element right for a good party, but perhaps the most frustrating thing is when everything is set up for a good old school club night and the one thing that is missing is the crowd. I had not been back to Spin/Montage since its latest remodel, but was impressed with the changes. They moved the DJ booth down to the just above the dance floor and added a lighting rig that moved up and down with just the right amount of lasers and lights bouncing off the series of disco balls hanging over the dance floor. The sound system was pumping out clean sound, with some very rich bass. Phil B laid down the tracks we wanted to hear with his signature sampling, looping and even a few mash ups that really worked. He had a perfect balance between heavy beats, vocals and even a nice bouncy trance feel at times. While there were a couple musical drop outs that I felt were ill timed he did his best to get the crowd going. But the crowd never showed up. In a club with three levels and a dance floor that can hold a few hundred, there were at the most 60 people in the club. We all made the best of it. Smiles were everywhere as the friendly crowd grooved to the great music, but at 3AM they called it a night and stopped the music.

Apparently they have just revived gay Saturday nights there. Hopefully word will get out and the numbers will increase. The potential is certainly there.

Tags: Phil B, Spin, Steve Kleine