As one Yelp reviewer astutely wrote: “You don’t go to Dance Cave, you end up there.” The owners of this well-known, student-filled dance venue may be trying to change this reputation, as they’ve just introduced a new concert series. Turquoise Jeep brought energy, interaction, and dancing to the aptly re-named “The Cave” last Monday night. Of course, The Cave is the Dance Cave, but apparently “The Cave” is meant to be more appealing. Though the room was not at capacity, it was by no means a boring show. The stage was very low, so the trio of Turquoise Jeep could get up close and personal with their audience — which seemed to be exactly what both parties wanted.
Never have I seen that large a group of people dancing in sync and with that much enthusiasm. True to Dance Cave tradition, the floor started to bounce up and down with the crowd. Another surprising factor was the small but intense following the band had. Several people were wearing personalized homemade t-shirts with faces from the band on them. Almost everyone in the room knew the words to every song, to the point where the band could point their microphones at the crowd and the lyrics were easily shouted back to them. I’ve seen this sort of maneuver fail with presumable far better known bands, so I was fairly impressed with the move.
A cursory Google search suggests Turquoise Jeep didn’t feel they had their own genre, so they created their own: EMB (Existing Musical Beings). They showed a weird affinity for “getting the ladies up here,” and encouraged the crowd repeatedly to fist bump. Though their music wasn’t exactly what I would usually listen to, it was catchy and the enthusiasm of the crowd was infectious. Some of the dance moves were pretty out there, but what I loved was that they didn’t seem to care — they were having a great time and so was everyone else. With song names like “Treat Me Like A Pirate” — which is the chorus, followed by “and give me dat booty!” — Turquoise Jeep may not sound as if they fit the typical Dance Cave vibe, but in reality the show was exactly what could be expected from my past experiences there: bizarre, a little scary, but overwhelmingly hilarious and fun.
