So I went to see how the Verdi Club dance was last night, as it has been a while since I checked it out. It was a pleasure to see Stompy Jones playing as I know they play each week nowadays. I got there at 9:45 PM, and the dance had started at 9:30 PM. My first impression was that it was not very crowded. Within the next 30 minutes, more people arrived. The dance was quite lead heavy in my opinion, meaning when the dance floor had most follows dancing, there were 5-10 follows sitting on the sidelines with 15-20 leads sitting on the sidelines. I believe the intense heat from earlier in the day, which made the venue quite warm, was probably a large factor.
The crowd dresses up for this venue a bit more than some other venues such as the 9:20 Special. The music is generally faster at this event than the 9:20 so more instances of east coast swing, city swing, shag, and balboa happen overall. This leads to a great workout for a dancer, but for those dancers who like to converse at times when they dance it is not to be as easy.