Saturday, January 24, 2009

3 A.M. Eternal

Back in the day (now I sound like my friend Andre) we used to go out clubbing on a Friday and a Saturday night. In the late eighties/early nineties, there were dance clubs you could dance in, located in Buffalo that aren't the poor excuse that passes for a dance club now. I am talking 'alternative dance' clubs that included the Continental upstairs, Little Harlem (for after hours), the ICON and, my favorite, the JAM Club on Main Street. (with its complimentary downstairs space called Hell). The JAM club space is no longer there, they gutted the building and rehabbed the space just like so many great things of Buffalo's past that are no longer. But in it's heyday it was the space to go. The mix of alternative, house music, early hip hop, industrial and goth was like no other space.

My recent venture into Facebook has brought back a flood of old memories as club kids and DJs from the past post flyers and photos from back in this day I speak of. Old ICON flyers and concert tickets designed way back when I was designing under the guise of Wizard Graphics. I recently unearthed a bunch of old photo albums where the snapshots are supplemented with ticket stubs, ads, newspaper clippings, handbills and a lot of Buffalo club history. I found some Apollo Records monthly Prime Movers flyers listing the hot records that owner Gary Sperazza thought we all needed to know about. And I also found the (above pictured) stolen hand stamp from the front door of the JAM club-- I didn't steal it, but I have it. Talk about a piece of history, eh?

So where are we going tonight, The Continental...? Relax, we have a lot of time, we aren't going to leave the house until probably 11:00 PM tonight. I'll meet you later at the Old Pink, say 3:00 AM or so.... see you there.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mark, I came up with the Prime Mover's list, Bud Redding and I started it while at the Continental, then it somehow was morphed and used at Icon by the two Ken's.

I never held onto those first lists, I regreat that now..

*sob sob*

Dre

mark said...

Aha, I always thought it was Garry at Apollo. You were (are) the man.