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"Club Pow provides a much needed Monday boost" "I strongly dislike Mondays. Every week starts the same way: I regain consciousness to an echoing alarm that shoots in between my eardrums at 7 a.m. My breath, thick and pungent with the trace of last night’s activities, lingers around my room, waking up my dog, Stella, with another foreign and unwelcome smell. I wipe the sleep from my eyes and get ready for another week of 18-hour days spent balancing school, work and my family. After a full day of school and a half-day of work I find myself tired and run down by 10 p.m. The heavy eyelids and slow movement still don’t stop me from gearing up for the only redeeming thing that Monday has to offer: Club Pow. Club Pow is a club that happens every Monday at the Press Club, on the corner of P and 21 streets. Club Pow is a mix of DJs, touring and local bands, coexisting to create a well needed fresh breath of excitement to the downtown area. The night is the perfect mix of recorded and live music, which brings out a diverse but socially connected group of people from all walks of life. Club Pow was started about 18 months ago by Ira Skinner, who does the booking, and Josh Heinze, who does the sound and engineering. I have seen Pow slowly become one of Sacramento’s must-do’s every week. The ambiance of the Press Club adds to the overall appeal of the night. It’s the dark club that glistens, with sporadically placed neon signs promoting various cheap beers, that give Pow warmth. The club is packed with closely pressed bodies trying to catch the bartender’s attention to fulfill their order. Music from resident DJ and City College student Andrew Pettit fills in the first part of the night until the bands get ready to play around 10:30 p.m. When the band is playing most people are smashed, peering over one another’s heads trying to catch a view of the musicians. But for a select few, our eyes are fixed on the flat screen TVs playing a muted Cartoon Networks “Adult Swim.” Some of my fondest memories are my friends and me trying to match up the voices of various bands to pictures of the Boondocks characters, moving their mouths. Some people might call this disrespectful, but I think it’s far more entertaining. By the time the bands are done I’m not quite myself anymore, and dancing seems far easier than it should be. The people who haven’t left assemble on the dance floor to entertain ourselves while the guest DJ tries to finish the night on an up note. Around 1:30 a.m. the doors close and everyone heads home. On the short stumble home up 21 Street with my girlfriend Stacy, we replay the night’s events and make wages on who will feel more embarrassed in the morning and how it’s always worth it. Pow isn’t about hip people watching up-and-coming bands before anyone else has heard of them. Pow is about hanging out with friends. At Pow you can experience new music and bands for yourself, and not have to worry about what Mr. Downtown or the too cool kids think. Go out, give it a try. It’s just a Monday, and nothing else worthwhile is going on." - Ian Kesseler-Sacramento City College Newspaper.

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