balkan beats dance party

living in boston, oftentimes i'm on the tailend of the 'trends' as they say...so, on saturday night mr.man and i decided to drive our lazy bones down to nyc to see just what exactly was going on with this 'bulgarian bar' at 416 broadway and canal that we had heard so very much about. i noticed on the website that a certain dj soko would be bringing his balkan beats dance party there and i have to say, i was terribly terribly excited about it. we got caught in miserable traffic on 95, absolutely miserable...tried to use our gps to find a shortcut through greenpoint and williamsburgh,...will not try that again. (but, we did discover the greenpoint indie underbelly amongst the wharehouses and hasidic jews).

we met with some buds for a bit of dinner, then went to a bar for a spot of drink and to kill some time...ending up at the bulgarian community cultural club at around midnight to find that it was absolutely full to the gills with sweaty, dancing crazy people (although, looking very inconspicous from the street, we almost walked by it, thinking that it was just a really hopping kabab stand in chinatown). the only way to make it to the bar, was to dance...and dance we did...danced our asses almost clean off...up until 230/3am when our craving for a good slice of pizza (which doesn't exist in bostontown), caused us to pull our sweaty bodies out of the crowd and head over to macdougal. i can honestly say that if you like to dance (or just be pummeled by bodies), and you like any sort of roma/gypsy/balkan techno love, you will not be disappointed by the bulgarian bar, especially when dj soko spins. i've also heard that on certain thursday nights when they aren't on tour, mr. eugene hutz of gogol bordello fame also dj's there.

except for the terrible traffic to and from the city (may a pox be upon you, conneticut!), the trip was amazing. i would suggest to all to go support the bulgarians, drink their juice, and rub against their sweaty bodies.