Dance Club Staging --
While Crobar's GLEE Club Sundays recently exited the nightlife scene stage left, Circuit Nightclub re-entered triumphantly stage right. After a six-month closure for remodeling, the long-awaited re-opening occurred on March 12. The weekly Sunday Tardeada T-dances and Thursday night La Nocha Loca parties are back on the schedule with the rest of the weekly and special events calendar for "Circuit 2.0" to be unveiled over time. It sure is nice to have another alternative on Halsted Street.

A club obviously in the midst of a very successful run is Sound-Bar, which will soon celebrate its 1-year anniversary by bringing in John Digweed on March 30. And two days later on April 1 after our fave local DJ, Chris Eterno, blazes an opening set, the red hot Spanish DJ/remix/production team of Chus & Ceballos - who appeared at Montreal's Black & Blue and NYC's Black Party ­ makes their Chicago debut. Congrats to S-B on their first 365 days and thanks for helping elevate Chicago's clubbing status to world-class.

 

John Digweed

 

Minneapolis Dispatch --
While Chicago's gay dance club environment goes through fits of contractions and expansions, the scene in Minneapolis is currently quite robust. Newcomer venues - Bolt Underground with DJ Jon Herseth and Friday nights at Quest with DJ Jason Lanoux - have joined the Saloon in giving the folks in MPLS plenty of quality options, as I recently discovered on a trip up north. Why the city of Minneapolis has oodles more square footage of gay dance space is totally beyond me, but it does.

During my Twin Cities weekend I saw Celeda give a performance that was totally awesome, especially when she sang the current chart-topper "dirtyfilthy." I also joined about 2,000 folks from the local fashion and design community at the HIV/AIDS fundraising dinner/fashion show/dance party event called Diva, one of the best events of this type I've ever attended. Finishing things out was an after-hours party with NYC DJ Joe Gauthreaux controlling the music at Mel's Beauty Bar. And yes, during normal hours it's a place where you can get "your nails did" while enjoying alcoholic libations. While no cuticles were being pushed back during the after-hours, host Linda Stone made sure all in attendance were comfortable as we enjoyed Joe's groovy beats. I envision more excursions to the Twin Cities and highly recommend it as a great place for a quick weekend getaway.

Compilation Round-Up --

Freedom - mixed by Manny Lehman (Tommy Boy)
Following the success of last year's releases, Tommy Boy is on a roll as Freedom is another very solid effort. This is a double-disc mixed compilation that according to the p.r. kit, "celebrates the accomplishments the gay community has made in its continuing battle for life, liberty and equality." While individuals can judge for themselves its effectiveness as a celebratory vehicle, my evaluation of Freedom as a creative presentation is that it will truly delight those who prefer their dance music filled with tribal passion and a limited number of diva vocal tracks. CD1, the stronger of the two discs in my estimation, is subtitled "Big Room Session" and accordingly has more of a peak-hour flair to it. CD2 ­ aka ""Tribal Sessions" - has more of an underground progressive feel to it, thus making it most appropriate as a follow-up after-hours mix to CD1.

Live @ Roxy 4 ­ mixed by Pete Rauhofer (Star 69)
Rauhofer has hit an electronica home run with Live @ Roxy 4! This 2-CD set is a creative tour de force that weaves funky electro stylings throughout tough, dark tribal tracks, especially on CD1. It is the sound that currently dominates NYC ­ home of Roxy - during the peak hours and that will undoubtedly influence the rest of the country in the coming months. While the more accessible CD2 is stylistically consistent with the first disc, it has a bit slower groove that is extremely sexy and erotically captivating. All in all, Rauhofer vividly demonstrates that in an age where most peak hours DJs either 1) only know faster and harder when it comes to song selection; or 2) deliver lowest common denominator tracks that pander to the masses, he has the skills, knowledge, sensibility, and confidence to challenge his dance floors as well as those listening to Live @ Roxy 4. It's a welcomed challenge and all praise to Rauhofer for this effort.

 

Live At Roxy

 

Heartbeat Volume 2 ­ mixed by Julius Papp (Loveslap Recordings)
This new deep house music offering is just what is needed in everyone's CD collection. Julius Papp has been at this game for more than 20 years and with this latest volume of Heartbeat he proves his mastery of all that is lush and soulful in the world of house music. This is a well-structured mix that starts out deliberately paced and slowly increases in groove intensity, perfect for warm-weathered late afternoons on a terrace or early evening cocktail hours in a lounge.

 

Heartbeat Vol. 2