Spanning the late 1980s through the . The venue shut down in 2012 and has since been turned into a NY Kids Club. Some so hilarious and experimental, I would laugh out loud while pressing the shutter button. Each night was an out-and-out Bacchanal, with Cab Calloway, Ellington, Louis Armstrong and others soundtracking the vice emporium with songs like "Reefer Blues," "Kicking the Gong Around" (20's slang for using opium), and "Kokey Joe.. Often homemade or assembled from thrift-store items, the outfits were unique and bold expressions of identity. Nowadays, the notion of a DJ running the gamut from dub to hip-hop to disco/house to techno to African sounds, playing to a large crowd that takes it all in, is less norm than its own peculiar lane. Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Bianca Jagger and Brooke Shields and Diane von Furstenberg are only a few of the notable faces that graced the dance floor through the years. The first club I DJed was Mars. It's still called The Palladium, though. Club kid Ernie Glam at an outdoor party in Battery Park thrown by Susanne Bartsch, 1990. As Lawrence writes, the Downtown communitys cross-cultural collaborative spirit was not limited to clubs. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. Steve Eichner was just a starry-eyed kid with big dreams when he packed up his camera gear in his hometown of Long Beach, Long Island, and set up his first NYC photo studio at 27th St. and 11th . The venue closed in 1971, and the building on 105 Second Ave. is currently occupied by Apple Bank for Savings. 5. In 2014, Mr. Lagerfeld unveiled "Bag Boy Karlito," a limited-edition bag charm made in his image from mink, fox and goat. His sets were eight hours and he usually DJed five nights a week. Its clear that there are people who are invested [in the scene], and want this to become even more re-energized., Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. I'm glad he took the pictures because there was a lot of free-flowing alcohol back then, Glam said. The insights of Lawrences book provided a reflection on the state of the party and the purpose it serves. Through the coming years I held on to many of those flyers, snapshots of an amazing era in New York club history. So it makes her happy to look at it, and thats the sweet truth. No Sleep: NYC Nightlife Flyers 1988 to 1999 - Medium 2. Founded by Italian immigrant John Perona as a speakeasy on 52nd street in 1931, El Morocco would become famous for its ostentatious zebra print interior as well as parade of the glamorous people (including Marilyn Monroe) who sought an escape from Prohibition. The stage at The Roxy. Though the '90s might not feel like that long ago, our city's neighborhoods are a world away from the gritty places they used to be, for better and for worse. Koko Da Doll, Star of Film on Transgender Sex Workers - New York Times The event wound down in 2007, when the bar went out of business and the MisShapes started touring, released a book, and were over it. By submitting your email, you agree to our, The freshest news from the local food world, The Great Nightlife Venues That Came And Went in theAughts, 285 West 12th Street, Manhattan, NY 10014, Sign up for the When we moved locations, we were able to tell the people who we REALLY wanted to be there and get it back to the core group. It's been said that New . These were one version the best version of a new New York dancefloor. The venues didnt matter to me. Bungalow 8 After the success of Lot 61, Amy Sacco opened her second venue on a desolate West Chelsea street in 2001 in a dilapidated warehouse and garage on West 27th Street. You didn't dare go unless you were perfectly turned out." New York club music had gravitas, with everyone from Bowie and the Clash to New Order and Herbie Hancock pulled into its orbit. Let's revisit the blissfulness of New York 90's club scene. Paradise Club, The Times Square Edition, 701 7th Ave, New York, NY 10036. The Electric Circus was an experimental psychedelic nightclub that was open from 19671971, and featured performances by bands such as The Velvet Underground, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Grateful Dead, along with shows by jugglers, gymnasts, and performance artists. He took them because he just loved drag queens and club kids, Glam said. Nanette Fabray, a Tony-winning Broadway leading lady of the 40's, recalled in the Times, "Oh, it was a ritual. Rubell always made certain that those interesting people always returned for another party, whether that meant building a corral in the middle of the club for equine-enthusiast Dolly Parton, plying Bianca Jagger with a flock of white doves, or giving Warhol a steel barrel full of cash. Thats how you knew where the party was. Come along for the ride! The venue was shut down in 1996 and is now part of the Foxwoods Theater, home of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Those flyers were so much more than just paper and cardboard. Historic Bars of New York City | NYCgo Revisiting the Hedonistic Bliss of New York's Legendary '90s Nightlife Scene. It was a whole experience, making those early flyers. One of the biggest turning points in my life was getting that job. New York City Nightclub Flyers from the 1980s. 1890: So-called fairies turn tricks at the Slide (157 Bleecker St.), one of the city's earliest gathering spots for gay men. Roxy had a swing high above the dancefloor where couples would relive those playground days of their youth while drinking an adult beverage. Wiggle Room, East Village. New York City nightlife was undergoing a major transition at the dawn of the 21st century. The Limelight was a nightclub that was an epicenter for "club kid" culture in the '90s, and a rock venue that hosted a lot of industrial and post-punk bands like Foetus, Gang of Four, Cop Shoot Cop, and New Model Army. Since opening in May, Wiggle Room is one our favorite nightclubs in terms of aesthetics, cocktails, and clientele. What made Danceteria such a perfect mess was the fact that the club received after-hours runoff from every type of club imaginable, from Studio 54 to CBGB to hip hop clubs to gay bars. Billing itself as part disco, part circus theatre, it features DIY dcor, psychedelic projections, dressed-for-cabaret employees and an audience always ready to let loose. In the city that loves to boast about how little it sleeps, the nightclub has been the center of the universe since Jazz Age hipsters started desperately flocking to the Cotton Club in the 1920s. And if that wasnt enough of a draw, every Wednesday night, the club hosted a contest, from pie-eating and singing challenges, to best legs competitions between its famous dancers and attractive clubgoers. After a few weeks at the same location (if we stayed at the same location) we picked up more and more people who would hear about it, and then the parties would get out of control. Ive put my brain through some wear and tear over the years and honestly have a hard time remembering names of places I played last week, but I will never forget the name and address of that party: Nut n Honey at Tilt, 179 Varick Street (corner of King Street, for extra credit). Those flyers went everywhere. And although set in the '90s, the decade saw the 2003 release of Macaulay Culkin's "Party . He is also a chameleon who moved seamlessly through the multiverse of colliding worlds that was New York City nightlife in the 1990s. The last 30 years have seen the citys meaningful party scene on the brink of extinction during one of the panels, Krivit put the number of cabaret licenses issued during the early 80s at 4,000; in 2016 it is around 120. The store integrated a lot of the site's original graffiti and posters, so it hasn't completely wiped out the space's history. He also credits the citys house music scene for his initial focus on the meaning of the dancefloor. Im a pragmatist, however, and I armed myself with a strong supply of my own DJ demo tapes, on the off chance I was out and met a club owner who could potentially be a future employer. Rubell's maxim: "The key to a good party is filling a room with guests more interesting than you -- which meant Rick James, David Bowie, Andy Warhol, and hundreds of people youve never heard of, but who were living very weird lives in the late 1970s. The Great Nightlife Venues That Came And Went in the Aughts Flash, meanwhile, is riding his third wind. The venue shut down in 2001, and is now a showroom for Duxiana, a company that makes luxury beds. Full of California style decor and Hollywood Glamour this nightclub soon became the NYC playground for the A-List including Kate Moss, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie and more. I was a waitress in the day or worked in the clubs as a bathroom attendant or coat checker. Owned by Peter Gatien, the church turned nightclub was at the center of the punk and disco scene in the '80s. Learn More. With the club opening hosted by Andy Warhol, this nightlife attraction was destined for greatness. Steve Eichner was the photo king of NYC mega-clubs. Purchase No Sleep at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other fine retailers. The Tunnel had a ball pit where people could jump into thousands of yellow plastic balls and throw them around like an out of control kindergarten playroom. During those eight years, Gregoire Alessandrini was able to witness a unique atmosphere, which he share now with us: "The city had obviously tremendously changed since the 70's and 80's but you just had to walk around the corner, enter any downtown dive bar to find the signs and remains of this legendary NY. On one such night while at Soul Kitchen, my high school pal Courtney introduced me to her new friend Carlos, who, along with his partner-in-nightlife Bill Spector threw the best hip-hop parties in all of downtown Manhattan, hands down! It's been said that New York City nightlife died with this club, which felt more like a living room where Chloe Sevigny, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Kirsten Dunst and more came to dance. The club moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2009, and the old space is currently vacant. Owner Madden opened the club in the heart of Harlem, establishing a boozy destination for downtown white folks who wanted to hear the new Jazz craze sweeping the streets above 100th. Paradise Garage, Keith Haring, Birthday Party for DJ Larry Levan. Thats how we made sure that the people we wanted to be there were there, and the people we didnt want to be there wouldnt be. Rather than seeing one performance, one group of attractive people, or one bartender doing flip-tricks from Cocktail, they could see four at once. A killer flyer didnt guarantee a good party but you look at any flyer in this book and you can picture the great time being had. It also had some serious DJs and parties complete with a state of the art sound system and light show. THE WELCOME BLOG | Tour of New York Back in the 1990s Club kid Ernie Glam at an outdoor party in Battery Park thrown by Susanne Bartsch, 1990. Many participants of the Life and Death tour came to that weeks installment of the Loft, at 46, the planets longest-running classic club night. A new book looks back at the iconic 1990s nightclub scene when sex, drugs, and dance music created the perfect cocktail for iconic parties that catered to revelers every imaginable whim. / copacabana. On my nights off, I went to parties like Giant Step & Soul Kitchen. The space is now occupied by Hi-Fi Bar, which happens to have one of the best and most elaborate custom jukebox systems in the world. It may be why real-time critical context for club music has always been rare. Yet what Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor makes acutely obvious, as both volume and prism, is not just the cultural value of the citys party scene, but how it also serves as a moral compass and how it still can. These were not pick-up clubs or bottle bars. The venue was the epicenter of the no wave and new wave scenes, and was frequented by Nico, The B-52's, Black Flag, Jean-Michel Basquait, Keith Haring, Madonna, and David Byrne, who immortalized the club in the Talking Heads hit "Life During Wartime." So we had to have flyers, and you had to call the number to get the address. The Tunnel might well have started the trend of making the most popular clubs in New York a) in Chelsea, b) in historic buildings ironically co-opted for neon graffiti 1990s-type purposes and c . (The party took place the night of the second presidential debate, which made Shermans selection of Sympathy For the Devil beyond pointed.). Search, watch, and cook every single Tasty recipe and video ever - all in one place! The epitome of old-school New York Latin class, Palladium Dance Hall hosted everyone from Celia Cruz, the most famous Cuban songstress of all time, to Desi Arnaz to a parade of jazz greats so long it would have put a New Orleans funeral to shame.