Club de Ville comforts early morning revelers
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
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It's Monday morning, 2 a.m., and I'm nursing a Red Bull with a guy who swears he'll find my sorry posterior if I reveal his name as anything other than Droog.
I'm at Club de Ville, a late-p.m.-Sunday/early-a.m.-Monday weekly at The Living Room at Fisherman's Wharf. And Droog is (I'm taking a wild guess here) a fan of "A Clockwork Orange."
We're on a lounger lit by scattered amber lamps, watching dance floor folk who likely wouldn't be able to conceptualize Monday morning rush-hour traffic unless it entered their R.E.M.-stage slumber 'round sunrise. Droog isn't a de Ville regular, but he strangely insists he's usually somewhere "near the water" this time every week.
"I recognize these people, though," Droog says. "They're like me. ... We can't sleep. We live while you do."
Check, please.
I enjoyed my morning at Club de Ville in that oddly fascinating whoa-is-this-what-goes-on-while-
I'm-recuperating-from-the-weekend-and-dreading-
Monday-deadlines kind of way.
It's got a 150-plus cast of twenty- to thirtysomething regulars with intriguingly divergent fashion tastes and a fondness for keeping the party's vibe on a mellow, but hardly stale, tip. It's got host turntablists Stone Groove Family laying down a soundtrack of R&B and hip-hop classics, currents and mash-ups. And it's got The Living Room's darkened, votive-enhanced below-deck-lounge-party-on-the-HMS-Interceptor vibe.
Doors open at 10 p.m., but de Ville's steady flow of patrons doesn't really begin filing in until 1:30 a.m., as other night spots around town begin shutting down. The crowd generally stays intact until the weekly's down-and-dirty 4 a.m. conclusion.
The persistent call of my very comfortable bed just three miles away had me bolting de Ville 'round 3:15 a.m. But before that came an entertaining 90 minutes of patron-watching on comfortable loungers overlooking Kewalo Basin fishing boats. (Oooh, check out the disgruntled-looking fisherman dude begin his day by conking his head on a hanging floater!)
Among my de Ville highlights were:
The rest of the de Ville faithful was content to keep the very same floor consistently filled and the room active with conversation and imbibing.
A pretty blonde in a blue tank top and tight, low-slung jeans — who insisted I had a twin who lived in Kailua and worked at Jamba Juice — later told me that Droog's real name was John.
Sorry, John.
NIGHTSPOTTING
MARQUES THE SPOT
The ever-soulful mix of turntablist Marques Wyatt is nirvana for fans of stylish and sensual house music. He's the founder and ringleader of L.A.'s long-running house haunt Deep, and a globe-trotting DJ fond of incorporating weaknesses for jazz, soul, psychedelic rock, Latin and African sonics into his elegant house mix. Wyatt spins at thirtyninehotel's Lucky Tiger weekly, Saturday at 10 p.m. Tickets are $15 advance at www.thirtyninehotel.com, $20 at the door.
LIVING ROOM NIGHTS
Game for three straight nights at The Living Room? Sleep now. Then wake up 'round midnight tonight for smooth hip-hop/house vocalist Jennifer Johns at Next Level. Check out former 1739 Kalakaua resident/now Chicago-based DJ FLX at Speakeasy on Saturday, same time. On Sunday, groove to breakbeat DJ K-Swing (see info box above) at Club de Ville.
Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.
