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  New Years in Uptown Charlotte January 2nd, 2006 Posted by Hunter Wilson

  Happy 2006 everyone!  It is quite possible that the Uptown area became 1 inch closer to sea level Saturday night.  I really don"t recall a time where I have seen it more packed!  Trade and Tryon were closed down, and the rest of the streets located in the entertainment epicenter had a nasty case of gridlock.  I expected it to be crowded, but not like this.  I arrived Uptown around 9pm and checked into my room at The Westin. From there I grabbed a cab to check out the Moet/Skyy pre party at Menage.  En route I took note of the places that already had noticeable lines.   The Breakfast Club, Stool Pigeons, The Forum, and Cosmos all had hordes of revelers waiting to get in at this early hour.

  I got to Menage, and the line was still reasonable. My plans were to spend the majority of my evening there, but it did not happen that way which I will explain in a sec. Menage was decked out with all the celebratory accoutrements, and it"s patrons were dressed to the nines. Menage"s theme was NYE at the Playboy Mansion. They had over twelve lovely ladies in the traditional Playboy "Bunny" costume. Wiiz Kid and Brian Stockholm were the DJ choices of the night. This is one of most simple things that I love about Menage. Techno upstairs, Hip Hop downstairs. You can see the pictures Elliot took here: http://www.carolinanightlife.com/photos_view.php"ID=3037 Pro photographer, Ryan Sumner, was also present. You can check out the pics on his myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/fenixfoto Go ahead and check out all his photos, you will agree that this guy has skills. Between these two, you should get a pretty good idea of what went on at Menage. I was forced to leave around 10:30pm so I cannot give anymore details.

  The reason I had to leave was because my friends arrived too late. By this time there was no parking anywhere, and the line at Menage went from the door all the way down to freakin" Tryon street! No Joke! With these variables in mind, the chance of them making it inside by midnight were very slim. I realized no matter how kickass the party was at Menage, it could not outweigh the fun of being with your friends on New Years. It was obvious we had to pick a place that was not in the center of Uptown. My original plans were to party at Menage, and hit up Lava late night. Therefore it made sense to go on straight to Lava.

  Lava was not crowded at first. Not that I expected it to be, because Lava is always the late night spot. The DJs they had were excellent. I don"t know who they were, but they were definitely hardcore! I know that"s slack me not knowing, but today my slackness will serve a purpose. Carolina Nightlife has an awesome feature called the message board. It"s a great place to ask Nightlife related questions you are just dying to know. I posted a question there now asking who the DJ"s at Lava were. You can check it out here, and someone may have already posted the answer!: http://www.carolinanightlife.com/board_threads.php"ID=177

  Now back to my testimony of hardcore DJs. These guys were so hardcore that there was no party stoppage to have a countdown. Nope, these guys rocked it into the new year. The non-conformist in me appreciated that.

  Lava had acquired a decent crowd by this time, and it was quite the happening scene. However something was missing. I didn"t figure out what that something was until Todd Joffee of Red Door Entertainment rolled up with a bus of about 70 people. I partied with this guy in Vegas, and he is one of my heroes. He walks into a club in Vegas, clears out the VIP section and tells the bouncer to "send back every hot girl that"s the "middle knob" at Dairy Queen." Damn! I wish I could operate on that level. So now the party at Lava was turned up to "11" and everyone had a blast. This was history in the making because very soon Lava will be no more. You can check out some of the pics Drew took here: http://www.carolinanightlife.com/photos_view.php"ID=3036

  By 5am I found myself back at The Westin. I wanted to thank Frank at Menage for hooking me up with that. Menage had reserved the entire 21st floor, so they could offer rooms to their patrons. As a consumer of nightlife here in the QC, I really appreciated that value added service. It"s nice to see a club go above and beyond like that. I also want to give props to the CNL photogs that worked that night. Driving around from place to place in all that craziness taking pics of people having the goodtime you should be having can be sort of a buzzkill on a special night like NYE. Thanks to these guys and gals for stepping up, you are appreciated. I know my account barely scratches the surface of everything that went on. Knowing this, it feels appropriate to create another thread on the message board. Here is the thread: http://www.carolinanightlife.com/board_threads.php"ID=178

  Until next time party people.

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  Hunter Wilson

  Owner, CarolinaNightlife.com1 Posts

  Charles is the Executive Director of Carolina Nightlife and very involved in the nightlife industry in NC and SC. He has been working with venues of all sizes, different brands and products, and countless events across NC and SC for over 8 years.

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