Hit up Dragonfly this past weekend.  Hadn’t been in months, pretty much since the near-riot that occured when The District first opened.

In summary, Thursday brings live bands to The District.  Mostly unknown, entirely modern punk, and given the size of the place it really feels more like a private function than anything else.  Crowd was about 60% amazingly attractive women, all done up in their emo glasses and faux-band t-shirts.

Friday is Latin night, with true-to-life formatting — not just Ricky Martin and friends, they’re running the gamut from merengue to reggaeton.  DJ Matrix is handling all the promotions and management decisions for that night, and it’s doing ridiculously well (”bonkers” in the words of Cosby).  Partly because there’s no competition, but probably mostly because it’s an alternative format with a well-behaved crowd having fun.  I don’t know what’s going on in The District Fridays.

Saturday is DJ Smooth doing mainstream hip-hop upstairs, DJ Herc doing Baltimore house downstairs, and DJ Ill Cosby doing lots of ambient and downtempo tracks in The District (think Noma with a “dark side of NYC” feel).

It looks like the place might finally be onto something.  When they went mainstream and tried to compete against their neighbor, they failed pretty badly.  Now that they’re catering to niche markets again, it looks like they’re filling up on a nightly basis.  And doing so BEFORE midnight.  Doesn’t hurt that the crowds aren’t as ugly as they were before — dropping the deep-south hardcore hip-hop will do that.

My first Nightstalker is coming out any day now.  My second is set for publication in October:

Dragonfly
234 North Second Street
Harrisburg PA  17102
www.dragonflyclub.com

Dragonfly nightclub is an 18,000-square-foot three-level venue located in the heart of downtown Harrisburg.  Opening in April 2002 with an all-dance format, the club was a major force in the revitalization of the formerly-deserted Second Street corridor.  As time went on, the club attempted to capture more market share by incorporating mainstream and hip-hop formats — and failed.  By mid 2004, the club’s numbers were suffering.  In early 2005, the owner undertook a massive image rebuilding project, ripping out the prior formats and residents by the roots.  The basement was excavated into a third level, market research was done, and new formats were added.  The club has now moved back to its origin by catering to niche markets — but will it work?

STALKER #1

Back in the day you could find me at Dragonfly every single night, enjoying their trendy crowds and all-dance formats.  Then they suddenly dropped dance music entirely and I stopped going.  Over the last year it seems like the club has changed nights and formats a few dozen times, and none of it seemed to make any difference.  Tired of the attitude problems at some of the other clubs in the area, I decided to give “the Fly” one more shot.  We went there Saturday night, camera in tow, for my first visit to The District - Dragonfly’s “club within a club”.  With very-well-done subway art covering every inch of wallspace, 1970s black-and-white TVs showing static and 70s TV cop shows, and vintage (working!) games like Space Invaders, The District paints a really gritty, underground picture.  Add their downtempo and ambient music, and the contrast is amazing.  I literally climbed up onto one of their oversized couches (this was bigger than my bed!), struck up a few conversations, and told the guys to come back for me at 2.  I had found my new home!

STALKER #2

Dragonfly used to be THE club in town, but with so many changes in such a short period of time, I had my doubts about their latest “format of the week”.  The last time I was there, The District had just opened to a very ugly crowd.  Needless to say I wasn’t expecting much better this time.  We rolled in a little after 11, paid our $7 cover, and headed inside.  The ground floor is a long, narrow, dancehall-like layout with an 8’ high DJ booth and raised platforms at one end, a long bar down the entire side, and a large stage with multi-tiered VIP seating.  Service at the bar was quick, prices were a little on the cheap side, and the overall layout was well-done.  My biggest pet peeve at a club is when I have to cut through a packed dancefloor just to reach the bar / restrooms / etc.  DJ Herc was spinning hip-hop with a funky edge and I’m pretty sure I heard some Baltimore house mixed in as the night progressed.

We took a trip down to the basement level to check out The District, and it was not at all what I expected.  It’s billed as a “club within a club”, but it’s more like a private room.  In fact, the overall vibe I got was that I was at someone’s private house party.  The room was packed with a crowd that couldn’t have been more than 150 people.  Missy wound up spending the rest of the night down here, and I can’t say I blame her.  DJ Ill Cosby was laying down a very chill soundtrack to the night.  Harrisburg recently lost the closest thing we had to an ultralounge with the closing of another venue (they turned it into a BEACH CLUB - thanks guys, real classy there, real fresh).  It looks like The District is poised to pick up that crowd and run with it.

The second floor was a whole other story.  Mainstream hip-hop until the last 20 minutes.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against hip-hop.  It’s just not my format of choice for clubbing.  Ordinarily I wouldn’t give a mainstream-hip-hop club a second thought, but resident DJ Smooth did a good job of keeping the crowd energized.  I was blown away when one of the last songs was Percolator, but the crowd loved it.  My only complaint would be that the second floor appeared to be at capacity, so getting around was tough.  But the bartenders did an excellent job of keeping the drinks flowing, and the second floor has enough recessed nooks that we were able to step out of the crowd when we wanted to.

STALKER #3

I was really sad when Dragonfly got rid of their last remaining dance night a few months back, when former resident DJ Andy Vicious left the club.  Between that and the abysmal conversion of downtown’s best martini lounge into a tacky beach club (1988 called…), it really started to feel like downtown Harrisburg had become ordinary.  Nothing special.  Vanilla.

We rolled up to the big white building, paid our cover, and went inside.  21 MX-4s, 4 MAC-250s, 4 MAC-300s, 3 Atomic 3000s, 4 CX-4s, JBL mains and subs, and QSC amps, all done by ESG of Allentown, PA (I’m the nerd of the group; I notice these things).  It’s too bad the club doesn’t use their power for good (trance and DnB) instead of evil (anything else), but that seems to be the trend pretty much everywhere these days.

Unlike some of the past nights I had been there, the place had a decent crowd and was growing quickly.  We lost Missy to The District early on, but that just means she wouldn’t be mooching drinks off me all night   Dragonfly has always taken a while to fill up, probably because it’s ridiculously huge.  Their capacity has got to be around 1500, making it the biggest club in the city by both number of patrons and square footage.

I think it’s interesting that when Dragonfly first opened and played nothing but dance music, they were easily the most popular club around.  When they started to go into a more mainstream format, their crowds really thinned out.  Now that they’re going back to serve niche markets (they have a wildly popular Latino night on Fridays and feature live bands in the basement on Thursdays), they’re really gaining ground.  What does that tell you?