Alegria - no longer the real thing
Alegria was back in town last night. The legendary line by Ric Sena was hosted at Webster Hall in midtown. As a happy veteran of Alegria in it's Crawbar days I got the tix, rallied my buddies and headed to the party excpecting the heavy sexy atmosphere of a multitude of built sweaty bodies and the great sounds that make a night to remember. Boy was it a dissappointment!
Ok, 70$ a ticket I can live with. Lots of preps go into such a night. But what did we get for that?
Webster Hall has many rooms and levels promising an exciting venue but only a few of them were used, the rest were corded and guarded by uniforms (not the sexy type uniform but the MTA types that make sure you don't skip the lines at the subway). Same uniformed guards kept moving through the crowd making sure no one was offending some hard core Red neck values: No smooching, no too much touching, no venturing into dark alcoves, no cigarettes, no, no, no...
Drinks were expensive and the bar lines just plain pushy, again not the rub against me with a half smile pushy, but the I-was-waiting-for-that-cab pushy. Last drink was served at 4, kinda sad for a party meant to go for at least a few more hours. And did I mention smoking? That was the highlight in this newly founded Subway system atmosphere. No smoking anywhere! No balconies, no secret garden or roof top, nada, and NO GOING OUT either. So for those poor souls still enjoying a smoke with their beer, it was like being on an endless flight with a very low frills airline to Disney in the height of season: Pay, get processed with the multitudes, move along and go away while holding your breath the whole time. The music was ok, but no warm fuzzy feeling, no hot and heavy, just ok.
Organizers of events such as Alegria should try to remember what was it like when they were the party goers. We are not just a bunch of credit cards waiting to be processed. I can get that on Spirit Air.
Ok, 70$ a ticket I can live with. Lots of preps go into such a night. But what did we get for that?
Webster Hall has many rooms and levels promising an exciting venue but only a few of them were used, the rest were corded and guarded by uniforms (not the sexy type uniform but the MTA types that make sure you don't skip the lines at the subway). Same uniformed guards kept moving through the crowd making sure no one was offending some hard core Red neck values: No smooching, no too much touching, no venturing into dark alcoves, no cigarettes, no, no, no...
Drinks were expensive and the bar lines just plain pushy, again not the rub against me with a half smile pushy, but the I-was-waiting-for-that-cab pushy. Last drink was served at 4, kinda sad for a party meant to go for at least a few more hours. And did I mention smoking? That was the highlight in this newly founded Subway system atmosphere. No smoking anywhere! No balconies, no secret garden or roof top, nada, and NO GOING OUT either. So for those poor souls still enjoying a smoke with their beer, it was like being on an endless flight with a very low frills airline to Disney in the height of season: Pay, get processed with the multitudes, move along and go away while holding your breath the whole time. The music was ok, but no warm fuzzy feeling, no hot and heavy, just ok.
Organizers of events such as Alegria should try to remember what was it like when they were the party goers. We are not just a bunch of credit cards waiting to be processed. I can get that on Spirit Air.
Comments