Rating: 4 out of 5 Bottles of Water
by Steven Satyricon
Some nights out, while perfectly satisfying and without complaint, manage to not quite reach that “epic” level of enjoyment. The last event I reviewed here, IndepenDance, left me drenched in sweat and grinning ear to ear as we were herded out of a closed club; this month’s Industry–while entirely enjoyable–just didn’t quite reach that degree of satisfaction for me, which is why i can’t fairly give it a 5-bottle rating.
I arrived at the club around 11:45PM to meet friends who arrived rather early from the East Bay. there was no wait to get in and my coat was checked immediately, a great contrast and improvement compared to a recent party with DJ Abel where the lines meant a long wait to get in. I made my round of hellos and was pleased to see the arrival of many of my stalwart dance floor buddies within minutes of my own arrival, though we all congregated in the bar area initially–the dance floor itself was somewhat slow to fill this night. Luke Johnstone was spinning a typically energetic set, definitely flavored by a preview of the deep drum beats which Paulo would be serving up. After a fair bit of mingling I hit the main dance floor, which seemed to be a bit sparse until around one o’clock; I wasn’t actually keeping close track of time so I confess that time’s strictly estimated, but my perception was that the bulk of the crowd arrived unusually late. Paulo himself didn’t come on until close to one (so far as I was aware), but started his set with the current standards of “Not Myself Tonight” followed by “Telephone”–definite crowd-pleasers and a decent nod to the vocal-rich style of his predecessor on the decks for the night. Soon enough though, he was dropping the rich tribal tracks that are the reason Paulo’s been dubbed “Master of the Drums.” I remained entrenched in our spot on the dance floor for a good long while, and noticed that by 2AM the crowd was definitely solid, the floor more crowded and everyone seem to be buckled in for a long ride. The heavy beats had us under their sway and there seemed to be little that could convince people to stop moving. Since I knew I had a somewhat early and long day ahead of me Sunday, I checked out shortly after 3AM but there was definitely still a dedicated and sizable crowd committed to the groove the club was in.
As a venue, Mighty is thoroughly decent in that “industrial warehouse” vein. I believe opinions are generally somewhat mixed about this club but at the very least I feel that they are consistent with what they give the public and it’s rare that I have any serious complaints about this space. Still, I do often find myself wishing that the lighting scheme was better. I do enjoy the projections that they employ, but overall there’s not much comparison next to, say, 1015 Folsom. Also, not that I’m against smoke machines, but why fill the dance floor with fog if there isn’t a laser system in house to take advantage of that cloud cover? I do kind of love their huge speaker stacks though–I always wear earplugs when on the dance floor and I love the vibration that heavy bass sends through your bones when in close proximity to these literal walls of sound (and heavy bass is one thing Paulo delivers in spades).
Everyone appeared to be having a great time, smiling and friendly; I was introduced to a decent number of new folks myself, and i didn’t see any obvious fall-outs or drama–perhaps people were taking it a little easy after the spate of holidays. As the stalwart companion of the local gay dance community’s most visible ladies (Suzan and Joanna), I fielded MANY questions regarding their absence (both girls took it easy and took the night off in preparation for our big Sunday plans), which I found entertaining but which also points to one reason why I may have enjoyed the night just a little less; namely, the lack of two of my favorite dance partners!
So again, I’ll say that the night went well and a good time was had by all; even if it wasn’t the most memorable night out, I’m always grateful to Jamie and Luke for giving us this space to sweat out the frustrations of our week and congregate with friends. Though Paulo isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, he has rarely ever let us down in delivering a thumping and hard-hitting set that compels asses to keep shaking. And Club Mighty provides a respectable, low-key setting for the crowd to cut loose and dance into the wee hours. Overall, another successful night at Industry, and I’m sure to be back again next month!