CHANGE CITY :
Rhino Room 10th Birthday Party @ Rhino Room, Adelaide (30/08/08)
Created On September 5th, 2008 by molnaro
This is going to sound strange but Saturday felt like being at a funeral perhaps more like a wake. Not that I’m not saying it was sad, dark or depressing. Quite the opposite. It was a lot of old acquaintances reuniting to celebrate a beautiful life. 10 years of amazing memories passing away. Old friends, new friends, friends you’ve never met before and maybe friends you’ll never see again, all getting together to share a drink and a shared feeling of, “So you loved it too”. But death is not something new to the Rhino Room; every week the space died and every week it was reborn again. New look, a new feel but the same soul and spirit. And it still is. Just like an old friend, things change, time passes but what you share keeps you close.
Whatever the reason – alcoholic or transcendental or whatever – everyone was in happy, bouncy mood, grooving to beats old and new. When the Jackson 5 asked, “Can you feel it?” over the stereo speakers, the arms raised in the air said more than words ever could. When we first arrive on the dancefloor we are met by a whole cross-section of breakdancers, booty shakers, disco jigglers and drunken wobblers. Costumed folk include witch doctors, big game hunters, cat women and African royalty. The music was just as varied, from James Brown and Stevie Wonder all the way to the phattest beats and drum ‘n bass.
To give you the best description of what the party was like; my girlfriend and I rocked up that night in a rather foul mood. Often she has assured me that she most definitely does not dance, but there we were, carving up the dancefloor within a matter of minutes of arriving and didn’t leave ‘til it was very late. Her legs are sore from all the dancing. Now that’s some powerful mojo.
The Rhino Room still stands out as a rare gem of a space. So many artists in so many media have been nurtured there, developing styles outside of corrupting mainstream bullshit. The Artmother of Adelaide, the Rhino Sanctuary. I doubt that anyone celebrating there that Saturday night could ever comprehend the enormity of what that place has done for arts in Adelaide. I’m just glad I was there to be a part of it.
