NY Times Article

[Guest sarahcj]

Big, Loud Clubs Seek New Glitter

By JULIA CHAPLIN

A scene that was hobbled by drugs revives in Chelsea, this time with raw-food bars.

I DIDN'T invite her," said Eve Salvail, a model with a dragon tattoo on the side of her head, who gets $500 to linger a few hours and look cool at Avalon, the latest incarnation of the Episcopal church in Chelsea once known as Limelight.

It was 3 a.m. on a recent Sunday, and Ms. Salvail, a part-time employee known as a tastemaker — a k a eye candy — watched helplessly from her free V.I.P. table in the hip-hop room while the uninvited woman, who looked like the Colombian pop star Shakira with streaked hair and a mini-kilt, wrapped herself around a stripper pole. When the woman began a deafening tap dance in her knee-high boots, two male models in Ms. Salvail's entourage gathered their free glasses of vodka and cranberry juice, slid out of the banquette and left.

"She's scaring people away," Ms. Salvail said. "I wish she'd just sit down."

So it goes on the front lines of New York's latest attempt to revive the glittery era of huge dance clubs — that halcyon 80's moment of celebrities, downtown artists and well-dressed nobodies mixing under strobe lights at Danceteria and the Palladium.

A new batch of entrepreneurs is betting that chic New Yorkers, after years of holing up in low-key lounges, are ready to hit the dance floor with the masses again. Over the next four months, no fewer than five clubs — each with room for hundreds or even thousands of dancers and featuring new-generation diversions like bungee-jumping cocktail waiters and raw-food kitchens — will open in two square blocks of West Chelsea. The area — bounded by 10th and 11th Avenues and 26th and 28th Streets — is already thick with art galleries. Now it bids to become the center of New York clubland.

"Tenth Avenue is great, because it's wide enough for limos and Escalades to pull up outside," said Noah Tepperberg, who is opening one of the clubs, so far unnamed, on 10th Avenue near 27th next month.

Among the others to come are Spirit, which is to open this month in the old Twilo space on 27th Street; Crobar, a branch of a club with sites in Miami and Chicago, which plans to open next month; and Quo, due in February, whose name, in a very loose translation from the Latin, means "where it's at," its owners say.

Applications to add more clubs are pouring in, according to Community Board 4, which oversees West Chelsea. They would include an Indian-theme nightclub and a dance club on 16th Street. Add the Avalon and Club Deep, both of which opened between Avenue of the Americas and Fifth Avenue in September, along with lounges that were already in the neighborhood (Lot 61, Glass, Bungalow 8, the Coral Room), and the Studio 54 question is, Who is going to fill all these places?

[Guest pod]

While I applaud the fact that the NYC scene is experiencing a revitalization of sorts after the recent steps back it has taken, I don't know if I'd necessarily approve of it going to the halcyon (ooh big word!) days of Studio 54.

Some people do go for the glitter though...an ideal balance is what is needed...glittery clubs with "tastemakers" (wanna talk overpaid jobs?!?!) for those who are so inclined, and "serious" clubs for those who are going out to have a good time and hear good music.

I've been doing my homework recently and it seeems that back in the day this is what the deal was...you had the glitter capital of 54, then you had the "serious" clubs like Paradise Garage, Funhouse, The Gallery, and so on....you'd walk into 54, and no one would probably know who was on the decks (sidebar: a lot of house DJs got their start there...54 paid their DJs for shit, so there was a high turnover...), however you could go to the Garage (Larry Levan), Funhouse ( Jellybean Benitez, who dated Madonna for a time...), or The Gallery (Nicky Siano), and ask anyone, and they'd name the guy on the decks in about ten seconds.

It's like down here...you go to Mynt, could the average Mynt-ite name the DJ? Doubt it..they're out for the glitter...maybe when there is a specific guest DJ, but on a normal night, no...go to Nerve, Blue, or Space, and a lot of the crowd will be at least able to name the guy on the decks.

Needless to say, this article is a bit of a turn-off in a way...interestingly enough, some of the parties responsible got their training right down here. Noah Teppenberg threw parties at Liquid 1.0 frequented by the A-List, and crobar is no stranger to the glitter either...

[Guest endymion]

....you'd walk into 54, and no one would probably know who was on the decks

Decks at 54?

Hahahahahaha! Damn, Pod, that was hilarious. People listened to music there? Huh?

I was born too late to experience 54, but I have had stories about the place babbled to me by former regulars for years. Party in South Beach for long enough and you're bound to run into rich older airline crawlers from NYC who just won't shut up about the place. 54 was about many things, music was the least of them.

[Guest web_norah]

i have one comment about this though..

i was a child -as Studio 54 was in its glory days........but clearly, when i hear about this place, i think of disco music, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, etc ..........so why cant Studio 54 be considered a place that equals music to some of us ??

and sure, people went for it to do many other "things" but they were dancing to "something", right? :

[Kamikaze1414779018]

so why cant Studio 54 be considered a place that equals music to some of us ??

and sure, people went for it to do many other "things" but they were dancing to "something", right?  :

I think most were dancing to the music in thier heads from all the drugs.

[Guest web_norah]

yeah and you can say the same about Space, Crobar & many other clubs........... :

PS i am just tired of this *drug* rant about music and clubbing, that's not what it is ALL about...............some people do it totally sober and if some choose to do the drugs, it is their prerrogative as well..........

[Artemis1414777738]

...snip snip... you'd walk into 54, and no one would probably know who was on the decks .

You mean to tell me you've never heard of Richie Kaczor or Nick Siano?!? Egad! You poser!

[Guest pod]

You mean to tell me you've never heard of Richie Kaczor or Nick Siano?!? Egad! You poser!  

Heheh ... check my first post. I list Siano, Benitez, and Levan in the last few sentences...I know Siano was at 54, but he got fired a year or so into it for too much drug use.

[Guest endymion]

I wasn't even talking about drugs!

[Guest djdimaggio]

Well, being as I kinda live in NYC, and I'm venturing into the world of message boards, let me correct that, one message board, the only message board for me, cooljunkie!, I obviously had to get in on this one.

From a NYC pov, it seems to me that Ms. Svengali is a bit upset that she is being upstaged. Clearly, the men of NYC would much rather prefer a swanky swinger slipping and sliding up and down a stripper pole for the love of God than to preview some wanna be, b-rate model fronting for a few measle greenbacks 'cause she can't make a real livin' as a MODEL!

Just ask Saleen 'bout all the stripper chicks that do it for free afterhours @ SF. Peters!

[Guest djdimaggio]

And as far as the drug thing goes, it's a pathetic shame that all the hard work that so many do, to produce and promote this industry and the music and make it a part of our daily lives, is ridiculed due to the simple meanderings of those that chose to use friviously.

These sounds are a brand new form of music; it's my music. I live it, I love it, I make it, I mix it...and for the masses to slough it off because of the connotations from a few "druggies" disgusts me.

I say, get rid of those that need to use and then abuse our industry...it's for the music, not the musings of the simpleminded.

They have a saying at the Sound Factory...buy or sell, we all go to hell!

Try listening to the music once with a clear head. If you say it sucks, then demand better quality music, not better quality quiznos or qberts! Or are they Mitsubishi's this week?

[Guest endymion]

Clearly, the men of NYC would much rather prefer a swanky swinger slipping and sliding up and down a stripper pole for the love of God than to preview some wanna be, b-rate model fronting for a few measle greenbacks 'cause she can't make a real livin' as a MODEL!

In Miami, we're big fans of both swanky swingers on stripper poles and B-rate models. As long as the B-rate models are also swanky swingers on stripper poles in their spare time. I mean, really, what fun is it to be a swanky swinger if you don't keep B-rate models hanging around?

I guess we're more of an equal-opportunity party town.

(Sorry, couldn't resist...)

[NewFoundLive]

For some reason this Time Mag cover came to mind when reading this post...