feb 2005 - 5 years ago

feb 2005 - 5 years ago
nyc nightlife february 2005

january 28, 2005
I attended a great Unknown People hosted party [thanks Jules!] at Duke & Duchess on 4th avenue. what is duke & duchess you may ask? well for about 3 weeks, it was the super cool lounge/disco owned by Butter's scott & richie. and this friday night, with the temperature hovering about 10 degrees, the amazing nyc inderground funky house legend JOESKI laid down a super deep retro disco R&B set & I swear it was like hearing frankie crocker on WBLS or shep pettibone & francois K on KISS FM in 1980 all over again. AMAZING disco funk from joeski [like metro area but way WAY better!!] and the party carried on until 5 am. within a week or so Duke & Duchess was closed never to reopen, and I still wonder what happened to chrissie miller's sophomore uniforms that the busboys and coaT CHECK GIRLS WORE AT d&d. So MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS...I guess you had to be there... 3 STARS OUT OF 5.
* i STARTED THE NIGHT at denizen in soho, talking art, music & scandinavia culture with the dynamic fiona sand.
** then over to luke & leroy for Mr. X's friday night party & thanks for playing my request, the pet shop boys' 'its a sin' *1/2 stars of 5.

feb. 4, 2005. I attended a fashion week opening night party at AER hosted by IMG's 7th on 6th, the daily, & tony theodore. it was free drinks & free admission all night. shapeshifter's 'lola's theme.' was the tune of the night. **1/4 of 5 stars.
* then up to spirit for junior vasquez' "RED" party. top tunes were pete heller's 'good love,' narcotic thrust 'safe from harm,' and deborah cox's 'things just aint the same.'
imo junior and spirit were not a good match. by contrast, last friday night junior took it back tio BassLine in tribeca where he started out 20+ years ago, and it was some of the best music & warmest vibe Ive felt at a club in 2006, when he's on few DJs can touch junior. RED party: ** of 5 stars.

feb. 11, 2005 I went to jeremy scott's fashion show after-party at tribeca grand. guests incl. lisa cant, caroline winberg, carmen kass, and anouck lepere [photo by jenny in my pictures]. top song was gwen's 'what you waiting for' [it was new & not played out yet] and it was 1 of the very best parties of 2005. **** of 5.
* then over to crobar for erick morillo. it had some of the best energy of any crobar night Ive been to, morillo's house music was superb. but it was just too crowded.
*** of 5 stars.

feb 18, 2005. I went to sin e on lower east for the pierces, a very talented country folk sister duo. chatted with albert hammond jr, kat pierce's fiancee, about cat stevens, salman rushdie & the byrds. opening band was au revoir simone, 3 gorgeous brooklyn brunettes who play keyboard driven modal french pop songs, a la stereolab but even more oblique and a lot prettier. au revoir simone remain one of my favourite NYC bands & they are still relatively unknown despite havinf tremendous appeal & being in japan. I bet you say that to all the girls. pierces: **3/4 of 5 stars. au revoir simone: ***1/2 of 5 stars.
* then over to crobar for holland's sander kleinenberg. sander plays a world class mix of progressive house, hard trance, pop and tech-house, but he seems to have ADD and you never know if hes going to be just pretty good or stunningly awesome. this night he was in between. ***3/4 of 5 stars.

feb. 20, 2005 junior sanchez played a special presidents day set at marquee. justine & michel T's MFer sleazefest was at the roxy.

feb. 22, 2005 ARE weapons were at LIT.

feb. 23, 2005 kings of leon were at irving plaza.

feb. 24, 2005 sean lennon & vincent gallo were at tonic.

feb. 25, 2005 animal collective were at bowery ballroom. nic fanciulli was at spirit. and MY TV's were at luna lounge.

* my favourite LPs in feb. 2005 incl. rockethouse's weapons of mass deception, sugar minott's 'at studio one,' bloc party 'silent alarm,' the bravery's debut LP, and st. etienne's stunning sub pop greatest hits 'travel edition' 1990-2005.


* my favourite art shows in feb 2005 incl milton avery's 'onrushing waves' at knoedler, truly virtuosic seascapes of eastern long island & cape cod. robert morris at leo castelli's 77th st gallery [YES castelli is still open, run by his widow, barbara bertozzi].

** other popular nightspots in feb 2005 incl. salon, [where manda hearst had her birthday, EKC in attendance], table 50, discoteque, flow, n/a, & coral room. to my knowledge most of these are closed or have changed names just over 1 year later.