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Tuesday, December 19, 11:25 p.m. DJ Omar Galeano greets the
arriving guests outside Tao's Temple Tuesdays. And why not?
It's his baby. A whole night dedicated to house music and
its devotees. Since the event began on May 16, Omar and his
flock of DJ friends have been raining fierce beats down on
the crowd each week, giving locals just one more reason to
venture out on a Tuesday night.
"Only 35
minutes left until the Ketel One Citron-hosted bar ends,"
the doorman tells us casually. He might as well have told me
I've arrived just in time for the free purse and shoe hour.
I grab my wing-date and we dive in.
At the DJ
booth, Digital Boy is getting things off on the right foot.
Already I am completely thrown; with the nightclub closed
and the action centered around the lounge, I was expecting
the music to be mellow, but Digital Boy (aka Luca Pretolesi)
is spinning anything but lounge. Taken straight from the
dance floor at about 2 a.m., his beats are catchy, foreign
and divinely refreshing.
The
doorman was right; we made it just in time for a nice round
on the house. Though the lounge is already fairly populated
and the dining room still quite full, the crowd is just now
starting to file in, as evidenced by the host who comes by
to collect the stools on which we are perched. But he
assuages my momentary pout by pointing out that on Tuesdays,
the lounge is ours for the taking. He gestures to one of the
best VIP booth areas in the joint, which, happily, is
vacant!
A
percussionist with a huge animal-skin drum around his neck
moves from table to table, grin beaming under his knit cap
as he bangs away fiercely in time with the heavy beats. I'm
told later by another DJ that he finds any drumming way
distracting when he's trying to mix, but that he always
concedes as it pleases the crowd. I hear no complaints about
the little drummer boy the rest of the night.
By 12:35
a.m. the music has switched to more recognizable house hits.
It's also right about the time that most are adding Rounds 2
and 3 onto their bar tab. With DJ Morningstar behind the
decks—all 6-feet-plus of him—I am suddenly popping up and
bouncing in my seat. "Ooh, ooh, this is Track 5 on Zee's
MySpace page!" I'm referring, of course, to the mistress of
(the) house, VIP host Zee Zandi at Jet, whose MySpace page
has often been my companion when I travel or work late.
By the
bar, all attention is on one guy and one girl. They bow and
present themselves, then taunt the other just a bit with
some preemptive moves before their impassioned dance battle
officially begins. Their friends keep score with hoots and
hollers as the two go move for move, employing every body
part imaginable as well as a few you might not have
considered. Even the column behind them sees a little
action.
Easing
back into my very free seat and looking around the bustling
lounge, I find it hard to believe the holidays—let alone New
Year's Eve—are just days away. Says DJ Sien just before he
goes on, at about 1:45, "It's only gonna get harder from
here," but he's talking about the music. I pick up a gin and
tonic for my guest and another Citron and soda for myself
to, you know, ease the pain.
Just
before 2:30 a.m., a new chap enters, his arms and legs
swinging in time to the music. He struts as if channeling
John Travolta and I can just hear The Bee Gees ringing in my
ears along with Sien's tunes. "Well, you can tell by the way
I use my walk I'm a woman's man, no time to talk." From the
breadth of his smile I would say he's having some night.
This is my favorite guessing game.
Either
he's meeting a hot date, he's just finished his holiday
shopping or he just scored the last case of something
sparkling and fabulous for his infamous annual New Year's
Eve bash. The crowd parts for him, even the dancing pods of
women and the men who cavort around the outskirts like
dolphins accompanying a ship into port. I lose sight of him,
the DJ plays on, and I turn back to my own sparkling and
fabulous night.
Xania Woodman thinks globally and parties locally. And
frequently. E-mail her at
xania@TheCircuitLV.com and visit
www.TheCircuitLV.com to sign up for Xania's
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