Two weekends ago I made a last minute decision to attend Xanadu, the new on-campus night club. Having heard about its successful opening the previous Friday, I thought that it would most likely be packed full of students looking to have a great time. When I arrived unfashionably early, I was met with an expectedly empty dance floor and a few bored bouncers standing behind the bar.
I was told the event was not publicized by the group sponsoring the party. Apparently they even forgot to send an email to their own members. For this reason, the scene had a slow start. Being that I am pretty lame and do not have much else to do on a Friday night, I decided to stick around and see if the place took off. It was, after all, still early and I had already paid my one dollar cover charge. Also, I couldn't justify leaving when there were two dollar 16 oz Labatt Blues at the bar. So there I stayed, holding up the wall like there was no tomorrow.
The party did improve as the night went on. Not dramatically, but the increase of people that flowed in led me to the following realization: Xanadu is a great place. I compared it to every other on-campus party I had ever been to. These parties mostly included a cramped dormitory room with a sadly constructed iPod-speaker sound system, precariously balanced on the window sill of a 5-by-5 common room.
On-campus night-life aside, the off-campus parties facilitate a completely different scene, which I'll admit is incredibly entertaining. Bravo, off-campus parties. Of course, to my dismay, last weekend's attempt to repeat the fantastic times at Rites of Spring was shut-down. After abandoning the possibility, and rarity, of two great Saturdays in a row, last weekend I decided to once again fall back on the newly constructed Xanadu. Like the week before, I was met with reasonably priced beer (two for one dollar!) and a further lack of student support. Since then, I've heard people say things like, "Xanadu sucks." These people are wrong and I think they are the ones who actually "suck."
Still, I have one or two suggestions for the club. I firmly believe that the music at Xanadu should be limited or almost exclusively done by DJs. Live bands are great, but many of them already have decent venues to wow students with their talent. I'm talking about the Grille, Pearsons, Coltrane and even the Gamut room. If you want Xanadu to be successful, it should remain a club, not a concert hall. Also, I would like to see the club head in a direction which avoids charging ridiculous fees at the door. Last Friday, they were charging 12 dollars to get in.
Despite these problems, I think Xanadu clearly has more positive qualities than negative ones. For example, whenever I go, I can move around, as opposed to the absurdly packed Angela's where you can expect to wait 30-45 minutes to get a beer. That's assuming you can even get in. The amount of kids that show up to Angela's on a Thursday night make it look like the greatest place on earth. I'm sorry. It's not.
After experiencing several areas of social night-life at Middlebury, I can say I am genuinely happy that students took the initiative to set up Xanadu. To me, it feels like an alternative pub-night. I love it. You're probably thinking that the cheap Labatts were making me emotional, but despite my slight build, I don't think the two beers I was nursing impaired my judgment.
What is the point of supporting Xanadu? The point is that if this club fails, I can see no way in blaming the school for a terrible social life. I've been known to complain about Middlebury. I tend to agree with many people who believe the social scene here is a joke, but Xanadu has a lot of potential. If students do not take advantage of it, then it says something about the student body and not the school itself. There are people working incredibly hard to start this thing, and I think the place is great. The music is fun, the bar prices are right and the atmosphere is not bad. Furthermore, if it ends up being successful, I wouldn't be surprised if Middlebury were to fork over a hefty sum of money to completely renovate the space. The only way this idea could fail is if the student body fails to take advantage of what it has to offer.
Written by Opinions Editor JAY DOLAN
