Atlantic City Weekly

Depending on what you’re measuring, a decade can be a blip in the grand time scheme or an eternity. Where nightclubs apply it’s more the latter, as new clubs spring up or spruce up or forge their formats around the latest trends constantly, all to keep the ever-restless young revelers happy with new and exciting nightlife alternatives.

The Casbah nightclub at the Taj Mahal — the venue that sort of set the standard for in-casino nightclubs a decade ago — may be an exception to the rule. Sure, it’s made some changes over the years to keep the fire burning and will continue to do so, but so exceptional was the original product that it hasn’t had to tweak much to stay among the hottest destinations in the city — and one of only 35 nightclubs in the entire nation to have twice been named a premier destination by Nightclub & Bar magazine.

The Taj’s two-level club is open every Friday and Saturday from 10:30pm until dawn. It’s fairly common to come across big- and small-screen celebrities or sports figures partying there, getting down to the beats beneath the catwalks of the exotic dancers, the multiple giant video screens, and the lighting-and-sound system that was, and remains, second to none.

What really adds panache to the club is its outdoor component called the Star Bar overlooking the Atlantic. After a two-summer hiatus, the Star Bar has reignited a past favorite with DJ music outdoors.

“We’ve done a full renovation to the Star Bar with cabanas, cushioned furniture, and we have DJs outside now which we haven’t had in the last couple of years,” says Casbah nightlife manager Steve Sagan. “We have some headline entertainment that we’re putting outside even though it’s a smaller area, and we’re bringing in a lot of the bigger-name DJs in the electronic music industry and putting them outside. Eddie Edge is the resident Saturday night DJ and Skam Artists are going to start performing there. [Skam Artists] have several world-renowned DJs that just finished a tour of Las Vegas, and are now going to be performing with us.”

Along with the Star Bar, several other Casbah components have received major cosmetic enhancements.

“We’ve done a full facelift on the club — nothing structural is changed but everything is freshened up; new carpets, new paint, just the minor necessities to make it look clean again and freshen up the look,” says Sagan. “We’ve added two promotional partners and have gone in a different direction with the entertainment.”

Singer/songwriter Chris Willis performed to a capacity crowd over July 4 weekend along with DJ Danny Teneglia — two names that stand out in the dance-electronic-house music industry. This weekend two events are scheduled back-to-back. On Friday night, July 16, the Casbah will host the Miss Red Hot Lingerie Show, and on Saturday, July 17, the five-person pop/hip-hop group DaCav5 performs.

“[DaCav5] won the Breakout Artist Award of 2009, and they’re in a new movie that’s coming out next week called Standing Ovation,” says Sagan. “When [current management] took over in May we were doing a little over 600 people, and now we are up to an average of 1,300 people per night. Our bottle service is sold out every Saturday [dubbed “Definition Saturdays”] and we generally see a capacity crowd Saturdays. We do a guest list and generally have a turnout of over 600 people before midnight.”

“There’s a lot of great places in A.C., but the room itself for nightclubbing I think is one of the best,” says Paulie Day, a local DJ who does private bookings and is a former Casbah house DJ. “When you add that outside area on the second floor overlooking the ocean, where you can hear the waves crashing and watch the sunrise come up at 5 in the morning — it’s the total package.

“There’s a lot of great places in Atlantic City that are beautiful ... but if you’re looking for a strictly pure, large nightclub, there’s no better room, there’s no better sound-and-lighting system, and there’s no better place to be in the city than the Casbah,” adds Day. “It’s the club that got it all started. All the others just stoked the flames.”

And here's the Clash video for "Rock the Casbah":

Casbah Nightclub
Where: Trump Taj Mahal, 1000 Boardwalk at Virginia Ave., A.C.
Hours: 10:30pm-6am
Phone: 449-1000
On the Web: casbahclub.com