Last night, during a shoeless dance with Philly, he mentioned that a few people were getting together to blues bomb Harvelles. Blues bomb? I thought I'd heard wrong, but I was intrigued.
So, 2200 found me settling in to a swanky, dimly lit bar on 4th street. Not seeing anyone I knew, but finding solace in the grooving beats of Dennis Jones. After not-too-long, I saw Catydid, and we huddled together and laughed as we both longed for a couple of good blues dancing leads. Of course, there were a couple of people moving around on the dance floor, but it was more like being at a junior high school dance than a blues venue.
Catydid explained about blues bombing. Apparently it means that you get a bunch of people to dance at a place where blues or lindy isn't normally the thing. I guess it's much more dramatic to blues bomb a coffee shop instead of a blues bar. However, the thought of introducing dancing at a non-dancing place made me smile.
The bar scene is really very foreign to me. I saw one guy sitting at the bar who personified everything wrong about the bar scene. Alone. Youngish. Wearing a white sweater, thus our immediately naming him Sweater Guy. Sweater Guy wore a rather vulnerable and uneasy look. He wasn't talking to anyone. Didn't look like he was friends with anyone. At one point, he got up to go to the restroom. When he came back, his seat was taken. He stood uncertainly by for a few minutes, before taking another seat at the back of the bar. I just couldn't figure out why he would come out to a venue like this, without friends, and without even seeming to enjoy the music. Catydid and LitheOne imagined up a few scenarios. Sweater Guy had just turned 21, and none of his friends could take him out, so he decided to go alone for his first legal drink. OR, Sweater Guy was waiting for a blind date who just never showed up. I can't remember any of the other ones. I wanted to help him, but I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't sound insulting, so I did nothing.
Anyway, Catydid and I were soon joined by Philly, LitheOne and Arthur. And then things started to sizzle. At one point, LitheOne and Arthur were the only ones moving on the (admittedly small) floor. When the song ended, there was applause all around ... they are really quite slinky.
Dancing to the live band was difficult ... they played mostly fast music, with a hint of rockabilly. However, we were able to get in a few slowish songs during the live sets, and some more during the dj'd breaks.
Took Catydid to the back of the bar to practice leading Nightclub two step for one song. I'm really excited about teaching this to the mid-singles at the end of July, and have been watching this clip of Foosball at the MAC. Makes me long for the easy, groovy dancing there.
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