From (2241) Coast to (2901) Coast in Newport Beach

Newport Beach has uncorked two new dance spots only yards apart, but it’s loads easier than parking on Pacific Coast Highway to tell one from the other.

Put it this way: When Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” came over the speakers at the swank Aysia 101, breast-implant incisions came instantly to mind. At the more casual Windows, on the other hand, one giddy reveler shook a single maraca like a carnival parader as another tried to dance with a booming speaker.

To be sure, the clubs have lots in common. Both operate every Friday night out of successful, upscale restaurants on PCH with stunning waterfront views and patios. Both try hard to lure a well-shopped and -coiffed upscale crowd of about age 25 to 45. Aysia 101 just tries harder.

Aysia owner John Sharpe--who also owns the nearby Bistro 201, Costa Mesa’s Diva and Santa Ana’s Topaz--has hired promoter James Raven, who owned Newport’s defunct Atlantis in the mid-’90s, to conduct his weekly Tsunami promotion.

The ride can begin with the Express Access Line, where $20 eliminates those pesky waits and buys access to a VIP lounge. (Non-VIP cover is $10.) It’s one corner of Sharpe’s huge, two-story, glass-and-steel establishment, which stylishly showcases cuisines and exotic objets d’art from China, Japan and Southeast Asia.

Back at the Express Access Line, guests meet a concierge swathed in the same crushed velvet on the swank cushions in the VIP lounge. Mr. Concierge also wears a headphone contraption like the ones strapped to ubiquitous, dark-suited security guards who swarm like Secret Service men.

Lighten up, people! We’re dancing here.

In Tsunami’s core, there’s a modest dance floor (beneath an oppressively low ceiling), a bar, a humidor and a small dance platform where women in snug, cleavage-promoting sheaths generate lots more dazzle than a disco ball.

Drinks in the VIP lounge dazzle too. One smooching couple shared a chiller of Perrier Jouet champagne, the one with flowers enameled on the bottle, for $175. With $5 well drinks--although they all contain premium liquors--the moral of the story is: Come with lots of cash or plastic.

Ample funds also are useful at Windows, which also has a $10 cover charge and pricey champagnes. But the $2 valet-parking fee is $1 less than at Aysia, as are the club’s well drinks. Yet the biggest difference is that Windows has a vibe that doesn’t take itself so seriously.

It starts from soaring arched white ceilings and bright white walls that give the place a “Casablanca” aura, potted palms and all, and continues to the dance floor. There, the goal seems less to see and be seen than to party down.

The dance floor is even smaller than Aysia’s, but the deficit’s made up by seasoned deejay Roly, who hosts the night with local promoters Rob Frias and Priest. The two clubs offer the same mix of house, disco and rare groove, but Roly has the volume cranked and spins such dancemeisters as Michael Jackson, as well as very recent house.

Maybe most refreshing are the security guards, who hulk around in the usual ugly white jerseys. Now that’s more my style.

BE THERE

Tsunami, at Aysia 101, 2901 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. (949) 631-3242. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday. Cover: $10; or $20 for the VIP lounge. 21 and older.

Windows, at Windows on the Bay, 2241 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. (949) 223-3800. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday. Cover: $10. 21 and older.