Swing City Update
Photo of the week:
"Compaq Big Band"
returned to Swing City
last Friday for another great show!
Swing City Photos in the Photo
gallery
Save the Date!
Fri. June 19: "Swingin' at the Courtyard"
with "Eight to the Bar"!
Formerly known as "Swingin' at the Hyatt",
we're at the Courtyard Marriott on Memorial Drive for
this date, and possibly some others in June/July. Mark
you calendars!
This Week at Swing City:
Mike Wyatt Quartet is back this week, a very dancable
band with superb musicians, headed up by Mike Wyatt.
Tony & Aurelie of "Hop to the Beat" will
be teaching the intro lesson and keeping the dance lively.
We've also got West Coast Swing with Missy Harvey
and Mike Jonas hosting in the Annex, though no West
Coast lesson this week. Dancing only.
This Weekend is BIX, and since we're not a BIX official
event, we're inviting anyone who's a BIX registrant
to come by for half off the usual cover.
Please join us for lessons, a night of rich live music,
dancing, affordable cocktails (yes, $4!), lots of cool
fun people of all ages, and some great exercise. Bottom
line, two parties for $15 ($10 with college ID), the
cheapest cocktails in town, and a great vibe! Read,
"Boston's official Cheap Date."
ALSO! This Saturday Night:
BIX Late Night Dance
Swing City and "Hop to The Beat" (Tony &
Aurelie) are hosting the offical BIX late night dance,
from midnight to 4am. We will have band there called
"The Sweet & Low Down":
This new band brings together two of the
best vocalists in Boston: Miss Tess and Rachael Price,
backed by a band of stellar young musicians from NEC
$15 Cover. All ages, Midnight Sat. to 4am Sun.
Details on the BIX Late Night Dance here
»
We hope you'll join us this Friday and/or Saturday!
This week's Raffle Winnner:
Linda Houston
Congrats! You've won a pair of tickets. To claim simply
contact me at olaf@swingcityboston.com
More items:
- Please join our Facebook Group
- A look at some of the responses about Swing City
- Advice on getting to Swing City (it's EASY!)
Facebook: Are you familiar with Facebook?
It's the modern phenomenon in internet social networking.
Please join our group and literally keep up with the
Joneses! You need to create a free account if you don't
have one, and "become a friend" of Swing City.
Go
Here »
Comments on our recent requests for feedback:
We got a lot of great comments and suggestions from
people in regard to improving Swing City. One thing
was somewhat common: a lot of people simply haven't
come out to Swing City recently, some folks even dating
back to the move to Newton (!).
Thus, a brief Swing City FAQ or sorts:
- MYTH: Swing City
is far away and hard to get to.
It's not! On the map it looks far for the people coming
from the 'burbs, but if you made it to Newton, the Somerville
location takes literally only 5 minutes longer to reach
from Newton Corner/Mass Pike than the MacKenzie Center.
It's easy highway driving all the way, and just three
blocks from the highway exit. Getting to Swing City
probably even takes less time than going through traffic
lights to the various past and present Watertown/Cambridge
spots. Coming from Rt. 2 via Alewife is obviously local
roads, but its not bad once you have it down.
- Call to action:
Swing City Needs You! Many people
haven't made it out to the new place yet. Now is the
time! Given the economy and all the competition, it
is YOU, the grass-roots past and present Swing City
patrons, who are going to determine the future success.
The old Huron Ave venue has been demolished, and the
West Cambridge Youth Center is likely not going to host
the old dances again at this point. Some people just
don't know why they haven't made it yet. Come join the
party! Swing City is a great community and a lot
of people would really like to have you there! Also,
Swing City is definitely a great, yet inexpensive night
out.
- What's up with
the smokiness? Mostly
Resolved! we have pretty much
succeeded upstairs in sealing out the smoke from the
basement members' lounge, and made good progress in
the Annex too. It is much better and will continue
to seal off the few remaining "leaks".
We know the City Club is not the "perfect"
venue, but what place is...? The bottom line in this
day and age is that this place likes us, we like them,
and to that end they are willing to let us fix it up
incrementally as we need. But, we need everyone's support
in terms of attending the dances to make that all work.
So please don't stay away until you "hear that
it's good", which I hear through the grapevine
from many people.
If you have your own comments to share, we'd love to
hear them. Please email us at olaf@swingcityboston.com
See you this Friday!
-Olaf
on behalf of all of our entertainers and staff
---------------
Getting to Swing City: Quite a few
people have griped about finding the City Club. I ask
them how they got there, and they all say, "I used
my GPS". AH! NO WONDER! Trust me, it's REALLY EASY
if you just follow our
directions. We're just off the higway. GPS will
take you on the scenic "shortcut"
through Cambridge and Somerville if you're coming from
the Pike for example, because it thinks its shorter
distance. It is, as the crow flies (by a 2-3 miles),
but you have to go though Cambridge traffic light hell.
Take my word--take the highway route!
Thus, for those people coming from south and western
'burbs, just take Mass Pike to I-93 North, take exit
28, make a left, left again at the second light, and
park in the huge lot. From the Newton Corner exit it's
maybe 10-15 minutes max.
The new place is the Somerville City Club, at 20 Innerbelt
Road, Somerville (map).
It's adjacent to the Holiday Inn near Sullivan Square,
directly off I-93 and 3 blocks from the Orange Line. There
are also a bunch of convenient buses that come through,
ample parking, our "Annex", and of course...
a FULL BAR. For those that drove to the Greek Church from
I-93, you probably went right past it on Washington St.
In fact it's only a little over a mile away from the Greek
Church location and a few miles down the highway from
Springstep.
