|
Chicago, IL
773-528-3400
| Well with all the hype about swing coming back, I had to check a swing club out. The place that has seemingly devoted itself the most to swing is Liquid, which now calls itself "Chicago’s original house of swing." As far as I have found, they are right now the only club devoted to swing full time, but judging by the crowd at Liquid, there will be more clubs that will try copying their success. |
|
I went on a Friday night ($10 cover for everyone) at 7:00PM; there were supposed to be swing dance lessons at 7:30. Lord knows I needed the lesson because all I ever saw of swing dancing was people dancing to the one Glenn Miller song they play at every wedding. The dance lesson was delayed for an hour as the band Dem Brooklyn Boys set up, so that allowed even more people to get there in time for the lessons. Liquid has live bands every night I believe, mixed in with DJs while the bands take breaks. |
| While we were waiting, I ordered some food from their kitchen’s menu and enjoyed a martini and a Heineken ($8 for martinis and $4.50 for the Heineken….ouch). There are three good sized bars available on three sides of the club, so you never have very far to for a drink; plus there is a wait staff that will bring you anything that you request. |
At around 8:30 it
was time for the dance lesson. Liquid has a good sized dance floor, but it overflowed with
people. There were well over 200 people trying to squeeze onto the floor and get a view of
the instructors’ dance moves. My first Swingers reference of the night
materialized as a Heather
Graham-looking broad (sorry I can’t help but slip into Rat Packspeak) and her dance
partner got everyone organized.The two instructors made everyone get into rows and face their partners, and then taught a basic move. After we tried out the one move, all of the women in the row rotated down one, and the instructors made us try the next move. The reasoning was that everyone would get a chance to dance with people of different skill levels that night. It was also a cool way for everyone to get involved, especially for all the singles out there or anyone anxious to ditch their significant other. The lesson lasted about a half hour and then my girlfriend and I tried to use the routine we learned and we realized we needed some practice together. |
|
Dem Brooklyn Boys took the stage and they were pretty good. I would say that at least 50% of the people there never had swing danced before and we were all trying our recently acquired dance moves. Nobody looked stupid or was ridiculed, everyone was just there to have good time. Swing dancing is fun, but it is definitely a form of dance where you need a lot of space. I tried a lot of the time just trying to guide my girlfriend away from crashing into others; but no matter how I tried I could not stop the dance floor from becoming a Swinging mosh pit. I swear, I crashed into so many people that night it was like I was at a Pantera concert. I was waiting for someone to pick me up so I could start body surfing, maybe get up on stage and do a Eddie Vedder like dive into the crowd. |
| So while I acknowledge I needed some work still, there were some people there who were very good. Some people actually decided to come in costume, dressing like people did in the 40’s. However, that was a rare few and most people for the most part dressed like the people from the Jump, Jive, and Hail GAP commercial (by the way, I swear I am not making this up, the GAP dancers were going to be performing at Liquid soon. I guess the people from that commercial tour now.) The crowd was mostly twentysomethings, but there were a few other age groups mixed in. There were definitely a few men from the 1940s who were trying to capitalize on being so old that they had a dance advantage over male beginners. |
|
I don’t know how long the Swing craze will last, but judging by a club like Liquid, it’s going to be around a while. We had a real good time that night, and I immediately had thoughts about coming back as soon as possible with some more of my friends who I know would enjoy this kind of place and atmosphere. Now I just have to add some moves to the one basic swing routine that I know and Liquid will have made me someone who can dance really well at least for one song at weddings the rest of my life.