Music+club+people=dancing

Well apparently not. It’s been a long time since two rights made a wrong for me. Friday saw two of the hottest words of the European and the UK’s club scene here in town, Evil Nine, at what is supposed to be one of Austin’s hottest after dark night spots. According to their own myspace page, Pangaea is “The latest incarnation of the enormously successful Pangaea lounges in New York, London and Marbella, Spain, Pangaea Austin is the next chapter in what has been called a New York nightlife institution.”

I admit it, I’ve never been to any of their other incarnations, but for the lavish, Beduin tent style decorations, this club just doesn’t deserve a great dance music act. Things were not looking good from the time I arrived. Yeah, I admit it, I’m probably a bit old for this type of gig. But as a child of the 70’s disco revolution with a daughter who is from the current clubbing generation, I still enjoy the freedom of dance. When I arrived I declared to the “doorman” that I had a paid for VIP ticket. He gestured for me to stay where I was, and then gave some kid in a t-shirt a free ticket. Next-up the people on the entry desk had no record of my online booking and just let me in.

I was taken upstairs and she gestured “the VIP section is over there by the wall”, since I had no visible proof that I’d paid for VIP, I didn’t bother. Inside the club was every bit as good as the pictures. Except there was almost no dance floor. I should have guessed that the night wasn’t going to go well, despite the great warm-up DJ, no one, but none, one was dancing, and there amongst the numerous “bottle service”, red leather covered loungers, were two guys close to puking and spilling drink all over the floor. Nice.

When Evil Nine came on their was no announcement, they just took over the decks to a huge blast of dry ice. Once it had cleared, still no one was dancing, except all but 15 or so people right up next to the DJ stand. Looking around, there wasn’t a glow stick to be found, no luminous clothing, in fact the women dancing on the dance stands aka tables, made the place look more like a strip club where the women were not paid enough to take off their clothes and that was mostly where they’d learned to dance. Trance it wasn’t.

Try as they might, Evil Nine couldn’t get the attention of the crowd. What a wasted opportunity. Not sure who booked them into Pangaea, they’d have been much better off over at Sky Lounge on Congress, or down at the Cowboy Dance hall in San Antonio. Turns out the Earthbird Music had it pretty much right before the gig.

Pangaea either need to remove at least half the “bottle service” loungers for a gig like this, especially since the most obvious use was for people to fall/trip over them or try to move them, but then I’ve never run a club, so what do I know?

Apparently Evil Nine will be back in town for South by South West. I’m sure Pangaea would be great for after parties, I’m at a loss to see what else, nice as it is.