Halo: Heaven for Hipsters
It was my birthday last Friday, and in addition to visiting Padmanadi (one of my new favourite restaurants), my friends and I went to Halo.
Halo is a nightclub in downtown Edmonton (10538 Jasper Avenue). From what I’ve been told, they play house music 6 nights of the week. I’ve never been on any day other than Friday, so I don’t know for sure.
On Friday nights, however, Halo becomes The Mod Club. This means that the music ranges from 60s soul and R&B to Brit Pop to New Wave to Punk to Mod(ern) Indie Rock. Basically, the DJs play anything that would have been played in a club during the height of the original mod movement, with a modern twist.
For years, Halo was my favourite place to be on a Friday night. The music was great, the people were cool, and the vibe was fun and friendly.
Maybe it’s because I’m a little bit older now, or maybe it’s just because I’m not as interested in that particular scene as I once was, but I didn’t find myself enjoying Halo or the Mod Club as much as I used to.
Don’t get me wrong, I still had a blast, and you’ll still find me kicking it old school on the occasional Friday night, but it’s just not my regular scene anymore.
The music is still great. That much, I will not deny.
The vibe in the club is great, too. The faux wood paneling and the forest wallpaper give the place a 70s rumpus room feel, which totally fits the Mod Club scene.
The people, though, are not quite the same.
The crowd who was at Halo during my days as a regular seems to have mostly moved on. I saw a few familiar faces on Friday, but not many.
At 24, I was probably one of the oldest people in the entire club. The vast majority of the kids on the dance floor were 18 and 19.
It was clear, by the awkwardness that was being expressed in their body language, that most of these kids were experiencing Edmonton’s nightlife for the first time.
I avoided the dance floor.
Halo used to be one of the few places were I’d let lose and actually dance like no one was watching. Now, it felt too awkward.
Even in a bar, where people are expected to get much closer and more intimate with one another than they would in most other settings, there are certain rules about personal space.
Those rules were frequently violated on Friday night.
Admittedly, Halo is a very small club. But, I’ve been there on nights that were much busier—when people have been squeezed together like sardines—and felt less violated than I did on Friday night.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about the way the kids on the dance floor moved was, well, awkward and uncomfortable. If I had to guess, I’d say that most of them were not comfortable in their own bodies, and their movements were incredibly awkward as a result.
Despite the general awkwardness of the patrons, Halo is still one of my favourite clubs in the city. It’s a little bit different than the typical Top 40 club—the music, the people, and the overall vibe are much nicer—and it’s still unknown enough that there’s rarely a long line to get in.
But, it’s definitely become a place for a younger crowd (probably, it always was; I was only 21 during the height of my Halo years, so I might just feel older than I did then). If you’re over 21, you’ll probably feel a bit out of place among the barely legal youths prancing awkwardly around the dance floor.
If you can get over any sense of awkwardness—have a couple of drinks, you’ll feel fine—you’ll be in for a night of great music and one of the coolest atmospheres in Edmonton’s nightclub scene.
For more nightlife reviews and information, check out my Edmonton Nightlife Guide.