Best Radio Morning Show The Morning Infidelity on KWSS 93.9 FM. ![]() Best Cocktail Stories Arizona Cocktail Hour.Best Bar in a Bookstore First Draft Book Bar.Best Local Music Label Rubber Brother Records.Best Tribute Band One More Time - A Tribute to Daft Punk.Best Bartender Geoffrey Wilson at Barrelhouse.Best Place to Drink and Work Lux Central.Best Cocktail Program Last Drop Bar at the Hermosa Inn.Best Place for Drinks After a Show AZ88.Best New School Cocktails The Clever Koi.Best Old School Cocktails Second Story Liquor Bar.Best Cocktail by the Pitcher Pitcha of Pimm's at Windsor.Best Barrel-Aged Cocktail Citizen R+D's Sea Salt Negroni.Best Brewery Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.Best Seasonal Beer Four Peaks' Pumpkin Porter.Best Place for a Twilight Drink Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale.Whatever the event, the Monarch Theatre is just classy enough to make you want to dress up, while mysterious and exciting enough to make you want to get down. Occasionally, it'll open its spooky basement and put on events down there, like the infamous Fight Club Sadisco*, which saw the already eerie underground adorned with stark, spray-painted cardboard bearing intimidating phrases from the movie. The dance floor is central to the experience here, and the warehouse-like feel to the room invokes a rave-type dance mania, making you feel so anonymous that you have no fear cutting loose to whatever music happens to be playing that night. Rather, it's downtown Phoenix's best and most happening dance floor on any given weekend, featuring everything from touring electronic dance music producers to fashion shows. While Monarch Theatre has history, a stiff, traditional theater it is not. Okay, so maybe when you hear the name "Monarch Theatre," spelled with the very regal-looking "-re" instead of the pedestrian "-er," you think of a grand, historic venue. ![]() Well, that, and a dude in an electric pink bodysuit thrusting his crotch at you. "Tongue Tied's more about having fun than being cool, which I think is lacking at a lot of hipster parties," Chinichian says. It all adds up to one of the most memorable club nights around, one that's more dippy fun than hipster irony. Plus, writhing alongside the DJ booth is the neon spandex-clad spazzoid and resident interpretive dancer The Dave Driscoll Dance Machine. There's a different theme each month (one party lampooned the Olympics while another was inspired by the Technicolor world of Lisa Frank) and free Otter Pops, to boot. To wit: Playthings like lightsabers, a stuffed unicorn, and superhero masks are the norm, cinematic cheese like Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo is on every TV, and Ace of Base and Montell Jordan pepper the indie-heavy playlist. And that's readily apparent at the monthly "crazy fun" dance parties she throws every first Saturday at Apollo's with DJ Funkfinger. Tongue Tied promoter Michele Roya Chinichian says she is a "big goofball at heart" with a soft spot for anything corny. "Something good might happen when you walk through the door," Watson says. Both creatives attract the weekend party crowd and entice Crescent concertgoers to stick around after a show with promises of a great time. Just him having a blast slinging whatever sort of nu-disco, electro, and '80s remixes that suit the moment while visual artist Matt Castleberry conjures up an ever-evolving mural of video art projections. ![]() His substantial music knowledge and talents at building an epic set probably helped, too, as does the fact there's no DJ-style posturing, no attitude, and no cover involved. It's entirely possible that Watson's late-night Saturday dance party, Kismet, has become as popular as it has over the past two years due to, well, kismet. Chance encounters with certain movers and shakers at The Vig shortly after his debut in 2007, for instance, led to a breakthrough residency at the trendy Arcadia spot that launched him into local prominence. Sean Watson owes his DJ career to having a whole lotta talent and a little bit of luck.
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