Club Crawl has a distant cousin that’s a little off.
Downtown turned musical for the weekend, kicking off Friday night with pulsing bass and mesmerizing lights straight out of the raving ’80s. Dub Crawl featured five stages and more than 20 electronic artists from across the nation.
The Rialto Theatre, Club Congress, Sports on Congress and the brand new Centro Lounge teamed up to host the festival.
Unlike Club Crawl, the shows didn’t combine to take over closed streets with temporary stages. The distance between each venue and the lack of cohesion created four distinct events with different styles and environments, spreading attendees noticeably thin.
The creaky old walls of the Rialto will not soon recover from the ground-thumping rhythms of techno. Bartenders hunted Tylenol to survive.
New York City DJ Frankie Bones successfully jump-started a high-energy dance party despite a small crowd. Twirling neon glow sticks moved in wild contrast to the dark theater. It was difficult to distinguish between dance moves and muscle spasms, but the end result was pure entertainment.
Across the street, Chicago’s queen of house, Colette, took advantage of the intimate atmosphere of Club Congress. The tiny room felt packed with frenetic ravers. Her music kept things exciting but fell short of special.
Two blocks down Congress Street, Phoenix’s Kid Kryptic turned up the volume to deafening levels at Sports on Congress. The fast-paced drum and bass mixes provided too much punch for the tightly enclosed setting. Besides a few lonesome head-bobbers, most in attendance found eardrum relief at the bar and avoided the dance floor.
At 20 N. Stone Ave., Centro was the furthest removed both physically and environmentally. Celebrating its grand opening, the lounge’s sleek furniture and modern decorations seemed to have fallen straight from Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. The DJ sets served more as background music than center stage. One rave-seeker in baggy black pants with spikes and bright orange stripes took one quick look around and headed for the door. This venue simply didn’t fit the bill.
