THE NIGHT STUFF
Rumours' 'Little Chill' needs more musical variety

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Clubgoers were continuously drawn to the dance floor at Rumours on a recent Saturday night for the club's "Little Chill/Planet Q." The dance cages were also a hit with some dancers. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

With the live broadcast already over when we paid our $5 cover at 1 a.m., perhaps we arrived too late for the kind of alternative or beyond-the-mainstream musical gems that might have made the evening truly Generation X-rated (Bronski Beat, The Cure, The Smiths, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, insert your fave '80s or '90s alternative music here). But I doubt it.

Still, in spite of our disappointment with the music, a 75-percent filled room of patrons seemed to have little issue with the same, keeping the club's medium-sized dance floor and tacky-as-ever dance cages consistently jumping.

The sound system was crisp and rarely loud enough to completely drown out conversation. The dance floor's lighting effects were also low-key impressive, leaving the rest of Rumours' interiors seductively lit by the soft glow of tasteful backlighting.

The multilevel club, with its European-reminiscent interior design, remains as refreshingly cavernous as ever, although some of its kitschy-kitschy-koo furnishings should really be eBay-bound or traded in for stuff from this decade.

Watching over the dance floor like a cadre of strip-club sentinels, the dance cages are still the scariest of the club's oddities. But a close second and third would have to be a handful of funky mushroom-shaped lamps, and a collection of furnishings that seemed more "2001: A Space Odyssey" than 2002.

At 2 a.m. — just as the crowd began moving en masse to the dance floor, drawn by the opening conga beats of Santana's "Smooth" (aka the first '90s song I'd heard since arriving) — mid-thirtysomething Rumours first-timers Kelly and Susan (no last names, please) pulled me aside to offer their two cents.

"The place needs a bit of the unusual, don't you think?" asked Susan, cradling her cosmopolitan and scanning the club from a mid-level perch. "It's at least in need of a DJ that makes those people want to strip," answered Kelly, eyeing a middle-aged threesome still groping each other in a dance cage after a half-hour. More than unusual enough for me, thanks.

Though an almost-full dance floor was still grooving happily to Prince's "Erotic City" at around 2:30 a.m., most of the crowd had already departed when longtime Rumours fan Marci Kawahara, 33, offered a devotional for one of her "top three" night spots.

"Yeah, it is kind of retro," Kawahara said, "but it's ours, you know? Our generation. That's why we still come here. It's comfortable and classy in its own way."

Then, as The Jets' "Rocket2U" began to spread its own unique brand of aural jetsam over the dance floor, she added, "Plus, it's a 21-and-over club, so they don't have to appeal to kids."

Not that the "kids" would know exactly what to make of the Vicki Sue Robinson or Chaka Khan they'd encounter if they were allowed in.

Or anything by Bronski Beat, for that matter.

Got a night spot or regular club event you'd like us to check out? Reach Derek Paiva at 525-8005 or dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.

What: "Little Chill/Planet Q"

Where: Rumours Nightclub, Ala Moana Hotel, 410 Atkinson Drive, 955-4811

When: 9 p.m.-3:30 a.m. Saturdays

Cover: $5 (two-drink minimum)

Under 21 OK?: No

Age of crowd: late 20s to mid 40s

The dress CODE: No slippers, open-toe sandals, athletic apparel (baseball caps, jerseys, etc.), tank tops, cut-offs

Attire we saw: On both sexes: an even mix of the really dressy and the Banana Republic/J-Crew casually dressy. On the guys: sweaters or button-down shirts (solids and prints) with jeans or pressed slacks. On the women: dresses, dress and pants combos, blouse and pants combos

Our arrival/departure: 1 a.m./2:30 a.m.

What we drank: Whiskey sour, just $3.75 and wickedly strong

How crowded was it?: 150 to 200 people

QUEUE?: No

Sample music: "Give It To Me Baby" (Rick James), "Got To Be Real" (Cheryl Lynn), "In My House" (Mary Jane Girls)

Dancing?: Yes ... a full dance floor

Interior in a nutshell: '90s dance-floor technology meets '80s retro cool interior design meets '70s kitsch accoutrements

You gotta see this: Weekday nine-to-five cubicle drones grinding to Prince's "Erotic City" in Rumour's dance cages

Overheard line of the night: "Could they even try to play some freakin' (Depeche) Mode? I need to decompress."