all words: JEB Gavin
all photos: Shauna Alexander

Every time I see the Dance Party play live, I kind of hope they open the show with an audio clip of Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack announcing to the assembled crowd, “hey everybody, we’re all gonna get laid!”  Their show Saturday night at the Rock and Roll Hotel was particularly emblematic of the kind of infectious, danceable, light-as-air rock they do so well.

The smaller venue was definitely to their benefit.  A line formed outside the club for people going upstairs, but downstairs it felt as though three hundred of your friends all showed up at the best-curated house party anyone could imagine.  While the upstairs was seedy and scene-y and packed to the rafters, downstairs you had room to dance, run to the bar for drinks, get right back out there on the floor.

The guys tore through a breakneck hour long set, explaining it was guitarist Kevin Bayly’s birthday and they intended to do some partying of their own before the night was out.  Even on a tiny stage, everyone on stage stomped around, preening and posing, as though this wasn’t just a concert, it was a refresher course on the best antics and clichés of 1980s glam metal.  Guitar modulated synth layered over a driving drum beat and snappy bass line made it nearly impossible not to move your feet.  Though lead singer Mick Coogan insisted on pointing out how you should be dancing no less than once every other song (not that anyone in the room felt the need disengage and stand in the back of the room like a wall flower).  The night ended, as it often does, with a cover of INXS’s “New Sensation”.  The audience, dripping with sweat and beer, loved every minute and then lined up to buy Kevin birthday shots.