I couldn't have been the only one wondering how the hell a CIAA party was gonna go down in a movie theater.
Well, The Sol Kitchen managed to make it work ... kind of.
While the atmosphere was cool to begin with at Mez on Friday night, it didn't take long for things to get out of hand when people decided to park it in the hallway. Those who couldn't go up another level to VIP were essentially stuck by the bar and the stairs. Some people made the best of it and partied right where they were causing further traffic with people trying to navigate around grinding chicks and hollerin' guys to get to the other side of a very narrow space.
You literally had to get in where you fit in, whether that was a corner, the couch, the roof, or back to the bar.
I've never felt more in touch with my feminine side than waiting in line for the bathroom and checking myself out in the mirror ... but it also created one of the highlights of the evening, when a woman in her early 30s let out an "Aaaaaaye!" and made a light jog from the bathroom to the dance floor in heels when "Big Booty Hoes" dropped. Classic.
Also classic was people really trying to go old school side door into Mez, something security shut down easily. Please believe a couple made it through in the shuffle though, including a guy I hadn't seen since high school. (Hey, that's the West Charlotte way.)
The Grammy-award winning producer 9th Wonder and his True School crew stayed busy throughout the weekend and were surprisingly current in their music selection. Anybody familiar with 9th knows his love for hip-hop doesn't really go past 1997 but at all their parties, they kept it new and they rocked.
Other than ruining a new pair of shoes (seriously, they are almost grasscutting shoes now), it was a good time, if you didn't mind having your personal space violated and a few, kinda hot and obnoxious chicks in the mix.