My 4th of July weekend

[wallflour]

If anyone cares... hopefully I won't sound too much like a typical tourist...

It was expensive and tiring, but fun!

Wednesday:

Got off the plane, picked up the rental car, checked into the hotel, went to Space. I thought that Edgar V's tunes were a little old, but the crowd was loving it. Then Taucher came on and he was great. It's a riot watching him in the booth. He sure played harder stuff than the last time I saw him, which was May 2001 at Webster Hall, New York (those who know NYC clubs know that WH isn't the best of places). I wanted to stay til the end and hear a little bit of Deep Dish, but I wanted to see other places as well, and wasn't sure if I would be able to come back later in the weekend.

Next stop was Level. I saw only Parks & Wilson listed on the sign on top, but since I was driving at the time, I probably didn't see the other names mentioned. I later read posts that showed other DJ's were on the lineup as well. Anyways, I got there at 3:30 am, and was surprised to see how empty the place was. Who was it spinning at the end? I thought he churned out the tunes quite well. It seemed like he was putting on a little party for the people in the lounge area in front of the stage/booth.

I was thinking of checking out Danny Howells at Crobar, but it was getting a little late to do so.

Thursday:

I came across a flyer for the free 93.1 party at Bongo's, so I went to check that out. Very nice view of the water, where there was at least 4 different sets of fireworks going off.

For those who didn't see the flyer or hear the radio ads, these were the acts: Live - Fiori, a male local artist (sorry I forget the name), Rockell, Amber, Iio; DJ sets - Marc et Claude, Bill Hamel, BT. Earlier in the night, it looked like 93.1 DJ's (I forget the names) spun between live acts.

It's too bad I had to leave at 3 am, right when BT came on.

Marc et Claude's anthem trance is more my style, but I really liked Hamel's set that followed. Too bad there was a power outage that interrupted the set. Also unfortunate how the records skipped so often for all of the DJ's.

$3 Coronas (during 11 pm - 1 am) were nice. $6 waters were not.

With all due respect, the glowstickers should come to NYC to see how it's done.

Friday: I didn't see anything of interest to me, and had to be somewhere on Saturday morning, so I rested.

Saturday/Sunday:

As I drove into the area from Fort Lauderdale, a friend from Boston riding with me commented on how there were so many beautiful women on the streets.

First stop was Crobar, where David Waxman had things going quite nicely.

I came out to check out Level - while I was there, Acosta (or whoever it was spinning at the time) played The Truth and Awakenings. Impressive light show, with some stuff I didn't see on Wednesday. Quite a good vibe, but I saw quite a bit of empty space on the main floor.

Because a friend (a different one) liked the chicks at Crobar better, and because we had to meet up with some people, we went back to Crobar - allowing re-entry is a very good thing IMO.

Things were great there from 5 to 6 am, but since the crowd was dying, we headed to Space.

Has anyone had problems getting in with Stefan(?) at the door? Dang, I waited an hour and a half, mostly near the front, to get in, cuz I wasn't fortunate to have any ladies with me. He finally let me and 3 others in at 7:50 am when we were the only ones left.

At least I paid $20 for cover, instead of the advertised $30.

When I entered, the main floor was so friggin' dark! So that must be why I saw so many people seem stunned when they walked out of the club and into the sunlight.

On to the patio, where one could enjoy the sunlight. I had lots of fun there and stayed til closing at 1:55 pm. I was tired, but I was amazed at how I never felt sleepy. Maybe it had to do with the combination of beats and eye candy. Rain fell a few times, but when it did, it felt good to be right under the rain, to cool off. The nitro jets also gave great relief from the weather. There was all this red stuff on my shoes afterwards, but no big deal. Some food would've been nice during those hours. Maybe I should have been tried getting a banana from the DJ, like some others did. Speaking of DJ...

I thought Ivano Bellini did a good job, but I see that some on this board don't quite agree about his performances in general. Maybe I'd need to hear him a few more times to get sick of him.

For those who have been to Exit in NYC, and read the New York board, is he Miami's version of Tony Draper?