Metropolis’ Alien Dance Spa: Peep Show in Spirit

So you like a little heat with your clubbing. Skirts cut way up here and shirts unbuttoned down to there don’t quite do it. Nor do pastel-colored libations named after lurid fantasies.

Promoter Joe Mozdzen thinks he knows what you and select other club denizens are hankering for. The host of the sweltering Magazine Club at Metropolis on Sundays presents Alien Dance Spa at the Irvine nightclub on Saturday nights.

The month-old club is enjoying steady success with its brand of “sophisticated sensuality” and “erotic visual theater.”

Before you start to scoff--and those heady phrases repeated over and over in the invites do deserve a snicker--keep an open mind. Mozdzen and Metropolis owners John and Gregg Hanour are trying something new, which is a lot more than most other promoters in these parts can say.

So, for all the hype and an $8 cover, what do they give their guests? Female and male dancers up on the platforms, scantily clad and gyrating into a sweaty frenzy to monotonous, hypnotic electronic sequences; live percussionists keeping the pulse with their bongos, and vocalists layering their sweet song over recorded house music tracks. Other artists rotating weekly: a wandering trombonist and stand-up bassist; dancers in freakish headdresses and togs, shadow dancers and performance artists.

One patron told Mozdzen it was like Cirque du Soleil meets Caligula. Mozdzen seemed to like that.

It’s the cut torsos of the performers--who include students of the UC Irvine dance department--that the crowd eats up (that is, between nibbles of wings, quesadillas and veggies offered gratis). The spectacle is peep show in spirit, as it tries to shock and titillate.

That can make some uncomfortable. One recent night, a guy near the bar felt the need to repeatedly and loudly question the sexual orientation of a male dancer clad in a G-string. Although some of the entertainment necessitates an ice-cold cocktail to cool off spectators, it’s not to be confused with the flesh club variety. The concept for the club evolved from the desire to leave our mental stress at coat check and take our emotional and physical impulses out to flow, Mozdzen says.

Set among dozens of flickering candles, the mood among the hired artists definitely flows to the patrons, as many take the stage on the dance floor and in the back room for their own little show.

Hence, the name.

Alien is not trying to imply something spacey, says Mozdzen, but “otherworldly.” It’s in the mood. A spa is not only a sanctuary for relief and getting back into oneself, it’s a fashionable term and concept in these times.

And if all that’s not out there enough, try the psychic consultant for hire at the sushi bar.

Although Alien Dance Spa is still not experiencing maximum crowds, its draw is comfortable enough to make patrons feel like the party in town is here. The side room sees less, a few dozen through the night, and the club would be better off shutting it down until attendance warrants the extra room.

As the club cultivates its following it’ll be interesting to see whether patrons get into the spirit and start dressing the part too. That could take Alien Dance Spa into a whole other realm.

* ALIEN DANCE SPA AT METROPOLIS

* 4255 Campus Drive, Irvine.

* (714) 725-0300.

* Saturdays, 8:30 p.m. to 3 a.m.

* Cover: $8.