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Tired of the nose-bleeding techno and unadventurous handbag house pumped out by nearly every dance club in town? There’s an alternative: Area 51, an intimate subterranean watering hole that has specialized in cutting-edge electronica since the mid-90s. “I’ve been clubbing for years, but I could never find anywhere that played the kind of music I wanted to hear,” says co-owner John Dee, who rules over Saturday’s popular trance night.
Don’t expect lasers, dry ice or holograms. Area 51 is for those who need to shake their groove thang and those who want to chill out on a comfy couch nodding to an ever-evolving genre that’s being labelled Intelligent Dance Music. Over the years, now-superstar DJs like Timo Maas and John Aquaviva have dropped serious beats in this 120-capacity sonic rec room. And recently, DJs have been collaborating with live musicians — though some might argue that a laptop hooked up to a PA system doesn’t qualify as an instrument.
