Tahoe had nightlife and dancing once, when musicians like Huey Lewis, Janis Joplin, Paul McCartney, and Jerry Garcia played concerts here and people stayed out for lakeside DJs.
Nightlife scenes have traditionally been defined by music: 70s disco, 80s synth-pop, 90s grunge rock, and 2000s hip-hop and pop, but it feels like there’s been a culture shift with a predominance of standing around bars with only the occasional oontz of head nods and frat flicks. While every generation had its era of dance, Gen Z has missed the disco days of our parents and the club bops of the aughts.
We’ve lost dancing and it leaves me longing for something I’ve barely gotten a taste of, like a word forgotten on the tip of my tongue.
I yearn for the discos my parents had in their youth. I yearn for nights that are alive and full of promise and possibilities with no end to the revelry in sight. No early close times that feel like a curfew, the hours counting down like a standardized test you can feel creeping to a close.
The most fun I’ve had out in Tahoe was when RMU hosted DJs that drew people to the dancefloor. However, the once-in-a-blue-moon DJ sets at RMU simply aren’t enough, and I wish Shadyside stayed open longer with its patio, too.
What I recently learned is that California liquor laws mandate bars stop serving alcohol by 2 a.m., so naturally, they don’t stay open, if they even make it to last call. Then there are the noise ordinances and public transit complications that inhibit employees.
I love that you’re bound to run into everyone you possibly could when you go out in Tahoe/Truckee, and I know a lot of people enjoy it. They’ve got their designated Monday through Sunday watering holes, but there are limits.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with the nightlife in Tahoe/Truckee, but I’ve always felt there’s something lacking, especially when bars close early or are found empty. It’s no fault of the region because I know it used to be hopping at night, which means we should be able to revive the scene.
Hearing about its heyday, I always wonder what happened to Tahoe.
The issue is not isolated. In places I would expect dancing in New York City and San Francisco, I discovered nothing but a few shoulder bounces when someone started feeling the music a little too much.
I wonder if there are too many phones, too much proof, and people are too scared to let loose in a digital age where we all fear being perceived. Being cool might just stunt you. I see and feel this passive enjoyment instead of active participation, active abandon.
There’s a reason people crave nostalgia and go crazy for throwback songs from a time before we were hyperconnected online, but the issue is multifaceted and deeper than solely technology.
Culturally, we’re missing out. As Kelse Parker writes about in Dating in Truckee Could Be Awesome, we are in need of spaces for people to gather — and preferably not like sardines with no room to dance. Spaces with good music. I mean, I’m willing to break in a dancefloor, but I’ve gotta have the space and the tunes.
I personally am drawn to wherever the dancing is, and I say bring back dancing. Make bars discos. If you’re going to close early, you could at least let us groove. Put on some music we can actually dance to and push the tables to the walls.
Is Tahoe just no longer this groovy place and does music no longer speak to the soul in the same way?
Look at musicians like local Chuck Dunn, who inspires dancing and keeps a taste of the heyday alive.
A cultural revival is needed, and despite the hindrance of liquor laws and noise ordinances, we could all try dancing a little. Maybe our lawmakers have their hands tied with regulations, or maybe they can think on a solution (and the economic benefit). I call on my readers to uwind, put the phones down, embrace the potential embarrassment, and boogie. While you’re at it, play matchmaker for your friends and talk to someone new, or old. And dance with the oldies because they know how to get down.
Dancing can’t die, so don’t let it.
