I spent Saturday morning working and doing some shopping. I rested a little bit at the hotel, and Danilo, a guy I met the day before, came to pick me up at around 2am at the hotel.
In the way to the club, I was told about the mega-fight that is happening in the night life of São Paulo. Basically there are 2 guys with 2 different types of ideas, and it sounds like only one of them dominate the after hours life at the time. Imagine, we are talking in a city with 20 million people.
Previous to "The Week", the king of the clubs was called "Level", now is "The Week", which is going super strong. Kristine W, when she performed at this place back in November 2005, commented in her review of the evening, that she was brought to tears during her show. Coming to a country where Portuguese is the official language, she could not believe how five thousand people sang along with her during the show - according to her, this was super emotional. I know what many of you are asking, and no, she was not there this past Saturday.
Back to my January 28 review - got to the door of the place, located in the middle of nowhere, with tons of boys and girls arriving from all sides. From the beginning I could tell this was going to be a good evening. I was also told that the other "owner of the after hours Paulista" had just openned a new club on January 28, but the rummors were it was not a good crowd, so people decided to hit "The Week", instead of checking out the new place.
Anyway, we got to the doors of the club, and Danilo started to introduced me to a lot of people. He also showed who was the most powerful man of the Paulista evening, the host of the club "The Week". It is funny how everyone wants to be friends with this guy. I think I got lucky, because the ticket/door person kind of liked me, I entered as if my name was in the guest list of the club.
The Week is an incredible place people - a combination of afterhours with open spaces, big enough for 5,000 people. It is divided in 2 major dance floors, one with DJs spining a more darker house music, and the other, smaller compared to the main one, with a more vocal type of house music.
In the main room, the DJs spinning were:
· PACHECO (Babylon)
· RENATO CESIN (Babylon)
· JOÃO NETO (Babylon & Toy)
In the Second room, where unfortunately I did not spend that much time, just came to see it how it was, they had the following DJs spinning:
· Paulo Agulhari
· Marcos Viana
The first thing I noticed when I walked thru the gates of the place, was the outside chill out area. There are palm trees and long white sofas everywhere. A wonderful swimming pool, which I was told no one goes in, unless is for the famous pool parties, and two strategically well placed outside bars. The view is just breath taking, and this is just the chill out area.
I cannot help but to mention, the number of good looking people, men and women at this place, was out of this world. Besides the beauty of the crowd, another thing that grabbed my attention, was a crowd almost evenly divided between straight and gay people, the only thing I didn't see were lesbians. I was told they don't like to hang around at "The Week".
I couldn't stop looking at so many beautiful men and women at this place. The energy is superb, and it is friendly enough to make you feel good about partying at the club. I didn't notice too much attitud, something you might expect from a place hosting so many people at the same time.
One of the girls, dancing in the stage, had probably one of her most beautiful tragedies of the evening. She was dancing with another girl, doing a type of a lesbian mini show, in boxes which are almost twice as tall as the ones at Stereo. In one moment I saw her dancing up in the box, and next I saw her lying down in the floor almost beside me. Man, it must had hurt, because that fall was as powerful as the high hills she was wearing - but no sweet, she stand up and went back to dance on the top of the boxes. Could not stop noticing some people kind of making fun of her misfortune, which did not impress me at all. Just to add to this info, I was informed the girl that felt from the box was not actually a girl, it was a drag queen - guys, "she" really looked like a woman.
The gogo boys and gogo girls all looked like models - beatiful muscles, great curves - it is a view to make any straight & gay person look up, to see them dancing. Once again, I cannot point out how beautiful people where at this place.
The barbies (this is how the muscle gay men are called in Brazil), I was told, stay up in the front of the DJ both. The DJ both is situated as it was the table for the last supper. The VIP area is located right behind it, and some of the more VIP people get to hang out with the DJ.
The VIQ (Very Important Queer) area is located on the right hand side, second level, of the main dance floor. At the begining it was empty, but at around 3:30am the queens arrived.
The boys loved my Montreal dance moves - and I have to thank Danilo for showing the best time ever at "The Week". Did not get to get up in the box to dance, again might be because I didn't want to have a beautiful tragedy happening to me either. Can you imagine?
The inside chill out room is decorated in a Japanese style, with nice scultures, and sofas strategically placed everywhere.
The DJ that openned up the set, Pacheco, was okay, nothing special about him, it was a good warm up to the next DJ. Then came DJ Renato Cesin - oh my Bhuda, he was just incredible. Not just in the energy put by him but also because of the music chosen for the evening. House Music to its best style. Some of the tunes I recognized, and some other I wish I had heard back in Montreal. What incredible tunes, and crowd moved accordinly. Besides the fact this guy is a good DJ, he is also a cutie, and he was shirtless during his set - a la David Morales.
DJ Renato Cesin was the best DJ of the evening, I really enjoyed his music, and he made me sweet, the only that did not help him out too much was the light show. Somehow this improved dramatically later on in the evening.
The third DJ schedule for the evening was DJ João Neto. I do have to apologize because I'm not really sure if he was at this club, or if he was spinning at the newest club that openned up in São Paulo ("Freak"). I only stayed until 7am and I'm not sure if he started to spin after I left the place. My review only covers up to this point. Once again, as I said, the light show was just amazing later on in the evening. I wonder if the person taking care of the light was changed at this time.
If someone from São Paulo is reading this review, and you know if DJ João Neto was at "The Week" on January 28th, please let me know so I can correct the info posted in this review. I've heard good things about this DJ, nevertheless, Renato Cesin (the second DJ of the evening) was superb.
The crowd was very friendly, and very participative ... what? okay, imagine the DJ spinning an incredible song that everyone loves, now imagine 5000 people singing that song at the same time - listening to that was just incredible, it's like a boost of energy in your body, and you cannot help, but you have to join in, singing with the rest of the crowd.
Men kissing men, women kissing men, men kissing women, more men kissing men. Very sensual vibe, and with the amount of beautiful men and women, how couldn't you be sensual eh?
Now, as soon as 6am came, the sky started to light up, and what an incredible feeling is to come out of the main dance floor to the outside chill out area, having the breeze of the wind, and the light blue sky - people lying down on the white sofas everywhere, people talking, some people dancing, and you look back at the main room, thru the 5 or 6 gates - cannot explain the feeling guys, you have to experience.
Looking at the main room from the outside, I felt like I was looking at a horror house lights and thunder coming from it. Just the visual guys, because the music was just spetacular, and you kind of didn't know if you wanted to stay inside or outside.
The only complain I have is about the floor in the main room. with people drinking and sweeting, it gets really wet and kind of dangerous for people dancing. I almost went down myself at least once because I was dancing on a wet area. It could be suggested to the owner of the place to do something to the floor, but this is a minor thing to improve the place.
One thing that is very common at the clubs in Brazil, is that you don't pay when you get in, or when you order drinks. You pay when you exit the place. When you get in, they give you a card with your name on it, and this is what you use to get your drinks. You order, and the barperson takes you card and check what you order, or you have a pass with a number, and the order goes into the computer. You have to be very careful not to lose this card, otherwise you must pay the fine showing in the card, which in this case was R$ 150.00 (around CND 75.00). People have to line up in two different places, one for customers paying in cash, and the other paying with a credit card. Once everything is done, you are ready to leave the place.
"The Week" is considered a gay place, and you can tell that because the entrance fee is differentiated between men and women. Normal ticket price for men is R$ 30.00 and normal ticket price for women is R$ 35.00. Their explanation for this difference in pricing is this show to all people coming into the club, this is a gay friendly place, and they don't want to see people freaking if two or more men are kissing, or the same for women. If you cannot handle, just stay away, and if you do, just smile, dance and have a good time.
Personally I don't agree with this price differential, but again, I don't live in Brazil. The country is very open minded when it comes to the sexuality issues, but you still see a lot of homophobic people around.
I give a 9 stars out of 10 to the club - what an incredible night it was, and I would love to see some of our local talents spinning at The Week - it would be wild. It doesn't matter who, either Lippé, Torrence or Grondin, I'm sure they would do amazing at this place. Different energy.
One last thing, Nokia is a low profile supporter of the after hour life in São Paulo. I was told there have been some promos in which if a person where to buy a Nokia cell phone 7210, they would get 3 months of free entrance to The Week. In another promo, if you buy another phone, Nokia would pays for X times at The Week, and other things in that style. When you are exiting the club, you see a glass wall with the Nokia logo on it, without the name Nokia of course. Low profile supporter of the professional ravers. Just once in a while they come out of the closet and post their name everywhere.
Had fun, and I hope if any of you, is travelling to Brazil soon, take your time and visit this place.
Patius, reporting live from Brazil
No comments:
Post a Comment