GrooveBoston takes center stage for a wild dance party in the Mabel Brown Room
Kateland Dittig
Equinox Staff
Pounding music vibrated the student center and students witnessed a technological light show as GrooveBoston unleashed a wild dance party.
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On Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011 hundreds of students filled up the Mabel Brown room from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. GrooveBoston fabricates insane dance parties for the college scene by handling all aspects of the production. They take a regular room, somewhat like a blank canvas, and turn it into a club-like setting. Doors opened at 10 p.m. and the line to get in was backed up all the way to the Lantern Room at a relatively early time. Everyone was ready to have a good time and dance his or her heart out. It cost $2 to get into the show and the first two hundred who entered got a free neon yellow shirt saying, “Lights Out at Keene State.” Before going up the stairs, students had the option to walk a red carpet and take a picture with friends.
Director and owner of GrooveBoston, Bobby Dutton, said, “The atmosphere trying to be created is somewhere between a full-scale rock concert and a private frat dance party. We combine the two and eliminate the negative aspects of each.” The best part is that the party is mobile and comes directly to you. Bobby said that over the course of the night, the music takes the dancers on an epic journey. Every song has a certain purpose and is intended to put the dancers in a specific mood. It’s not like the songs are randomly thrown together, but instead hours upon hours go into creating the perfect set list to which people can groove. Certain beats, pitches, and tones flow so the transition is just right. There are three phases of the show. The first hour is crafted of the latest and hottest hits in the music world. These songs are supposed to make the crowd feel comfortable and begin to get the liveliness up. Phase two is when the opener disc jockey turns it up another notch, but isn’t going all out as his job is to compress the party and build up anticipation. Finally there is the third phase, which is referred to as the “drop.” This is when the headline DJ comes out and works his magic. The music gets intense and next thing you know, everyone starts to go crazy. The lights are choreographed with the music raging and the energy level is at 100%.
The brand manager of GrooveBoston, Chris Dutton, gave some insight as to what the company tries to accomplish when entertaining a school. Chris said, “We want to give the element of surprise. Schools that we work with for the first time honestly have no idea what to expect, and seeing their faces when we blow them away is just a rewarding experience. Our goal is to take it to the next level every chance we get and we are always on top of the game while providing the highest quality lighting, powerful sound, and most engaging experience. We never want to get boring so every show we do is unique and by keeping it custom it is always new and fresh.” Their goal was indeed accomplished. Freshman Sammy Dormio commented on how the music was rocking. Dormio said, “In school dances you don’t really get that quality of music with cheap speakers, but you could tell that they put a lot of effort into it.” Junior Mike Murphy actually works for the business, filming the shows. The company tours around all of New England. Murphy was excited to be back at his stomping grounds of Keene State College and bring happiness to all of his friends. He witnesses these raves every weekend and says, “You don’t need to be drunk or on drugs to have a great time, you can go sober and have so much fun.”
There were sober folks, but many people did come to the event under some sort of influence. Some students were escorted out by Campus Safety for being too much to handle. Freshman Sarah Bruno said, “Students were out of control. It was so crowded, people were falling over and pushing others, people were trying to crowd surf, but since everyone was too wasted to hold anybody up, they would go up for a second, then slam down.” Bruno claimed to see a male hit his head on the ground, which resulted in his friends having to carry him out. Student Government had the proper precautions for a rowdy crowd. The fraternity TKE was helping them with security, along with police officers. They wanted to assure safety and a fun environment. The evening was ultimately a giant theatrical party for students to attend and take a break from studying before the hectic week of finals.
Kateland Dittig can be contacted at kdittig@ksc.mailcruiser.com