It's all about the dancing

I wasn't quite sure what to expect of the silent disco. It's a remnant of the Fringe Festival that has been extended a few weeks. The concept is simple. You get a pair of headphones, there are 3 different channels to switch between (red, blue, green), with 3 Djs, and you DANCE. And you dance, dance, dance. Turns out it is a LOTof fun. And I have no idea why. Though I'm guessing it had something to do with the dancing.

 Kenny and Bea bustin a move

I'm not one who's afraid to dance. I'll dance anywhere, anytime, any music. I blame my work with preschoolers as taking away all my self-consciousness and giving me way too much confidence to dance "The Nordic Track" to I Like to Move It, Move It. I realize that some people are quite as "confident" with their dancing skills. Which makes the Silent Disco all the more bizarre.

The placement of this disco made it even more interesting. It was outdoors, next to the main walkway connecting Northbridge and the train station.

 Yup, those are random people walking by, having no real idea what we are doing.

While we were bopping away in what appeared to be "silence" hundreds of confused and bemused people walked by: stopping, pointing, staring, taking pictures, and yes, even laughing. One cute old lady and man stopped by and even started dancing. Notice: Apparently you get in trouble if you let a passerby wear the headphones.

My dance group was right on the fence in prime viewing for all on-lookers. And yet it didn't seem to phase us. It didn't infringe on our dancing at all. I still don't know why. Maybe it's because the headphones make you feel like you're in a cocoon, despite at least 30% of the people around you listening and dancing to the same thing. And it's just like a normal club/dance party where you're still dancing with other people, as opposed to dancing by yourself at home in front of the mirror. Or maybe just everyone who goes already has a high dance confidence (not that the majority were "good" dancers at all). And there were all types of people in age range and music tastes (as evidenced by the red, green, and blue selections of music).

 This little kid and his mom were some of my favorites :)

One of the best parts was the music they played. One of the few things I don't like about Perth is that all the bars and places to dance play doof doof music aka dance/techno. Some places start off teasing you with hiphop, pop, R&B, some good rock anthems, but come 10 o'clock, they bass is beating and the lights are flashing. While sometimes one of the stations was playing some doof doof, the others were playing tunes that almost made me feel like I was back in Red Hot Tomatoes, the Thirsty Turtle or Liberty Taproom on a Friday night. To sum it up:

With all the mining money in Perth, there are plenty of Golddiggers (Kayne West) hoping to Get Lucky (Daft Punk). Sometimes the doof doof here is too much and Y'all gonna make me lose my mind up in here (DMX-Party Up). Truth be told, I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Whitney Houston), but definitely No Scrubs (Destiny's Child). The 90's and 2000's r&b hits put me in a Empire State of Mind (Alicia Keys) like I was back at the YMCA (Village People). But if I'm on a boat (THe Lonely Island), to get home, it would be a long trip and easy to Lose Yourself (Eminem). It was like a Fantasy (Mariah Carey) on that dance floor, all lit up with Mr. Brightside (The Killers). All the Jump Around (House of Pain) sure did Wake me Up (Avicii) and make me Happy (Pharrell). We took our turns on the catwalk (Right Said Fred I'm too Sexy) with everyone watching. And really, I don't care, because I Love It (Icona Pop)! 

 PS. It's REALLY hard to remember the songs you danced to and I know I'm missing all the best ones!


But even with 3 channels to switch between, come 10 o'clock, all 3 were fading into doof doof. They started with some cool mixes to ease us into it. Fresh Prince of Belair mixed with....doof doof. Wonderwall mixed with... doof doof.

Luckily by that time, we were exhausted. Jumping around for almost 2 hours is quite the workout and we were ready to pass our headphone sets to the next people in the queue.

And one other reason it might have been awesome, we were outside, with that ever persistent Perth wind to cool us down as we danced away under the lights of the city.