Review of Crobar Nightclub Chicago- Wednesday Latin Night a Dud

Crobar Nightclub in Chicago is widely known for being the party palace of the city. So why would a weeknight with a Latin twist dull the popular nightclub's image?

Well, for several reasons actually, but mostly because the music selection was not up to par. The nightclub's website describes a Latin night of music that includes Salsa, Merengue and Reggaeton. Perfect, if you love Latin beats, start the night out slow and end with a bang. But Wednesday night at Crobar started out really slow and never switched gears. A puzzling thing really when you think about it, a population known for it's fiestas and dancing in one of Chicago's best places for an energized dance party, should not spell out dull.

The night started out at the entrance to the club, before my entourage and I were allowed to pass through the tiled tunnel we had to do a little work. By signing up on the nightclub's guestlist via Crobar's official website you are given complimentary entry, but it's a two step process. After registering, a confirmation is supposed to be printed out and brought along to the club for verification, we can only speculate that our computer's pop up blocker kept this from us.

Once inside sounds of brass and Salsa filled the two story nightclub, it was all recorded, but hey, you can't expect everything. The recorded Salsa music lasted a little over an hour, but about halfway through that time frame we heard the recording start over again. I find it hard to believe that forty minutes of Salsa was all they were able to dig up when Celia Cruz alone gave us more than an hours worth of good Salsa music.

More than two hours after arriving at Crobar, the club and the music had failed to get my party to hit the dance floor. Immediately after the Salsa music a few tracks of Merengue played followed by every Bachata song recorded in the last year. Even on a Wednesday night out I generally only look at my watch to lament the fact that it is time to go, not so in this case. I, along with everyone else in the club, kept checking the time hoping it would give me an idea as to when the music was going to pick up.

The music never did pick up, and the crowd never did get going. At it's peak the nightclub saw eight couples on the dance floor at the same time. Very unimpressive for both the location and the crowd, but with a few tweaks to the music the night can be so much better.

Crobar is a large nightclub, with a lot of dance space and seating that works great when the weekend crowd packs the place. On Wednesday night though, when the crowd is guaranteed to be smaller this actually works against the club, the choice of music compounds this problem more. A quick scan of the crowd reveals that about eighty percent of the patrons are single, or at least came single, and the majority of them are female. Right off the bat you know you are going to have a large gap in the female to male ratio, which translates into a huge lack of dance partners. Two and a half hours of Salsa, Merengue, and Bachata music later, without men, gets you seats filled with ladies still nursing the same drink.

The solution is simple. Crobar needs to pick up the pace with the music and the rest will follow. Starting with Salsa is a great idea, it works, I've been to several Latin nights at clubs that start the night out with Salsa. Tailor the music selections to the crowd, the majority of which are single, and choose Salsa tunes that are quick and loud versus the more mellow selections. Once you have the crowd pumped up and expecting a good time, slowly ease into the Merengue and Bachata selections that will pull more people to the dance floor. Start throwing the Reggaeton out there and Crobar will look the way it was meant to be, the best dance party in Chicago.

If you are going to have a Latin night, do it right, ditch the boring recording set on repeat. Latino's go out to have a good time, so give it to us Crobar!