1989

This was the invite for the grand opening of Sound Factory back in 1989 -- the REAL Sound Factory at 27th between 10th and 11th and not the pale simulacrum that catered to the Guido Long Island and North Jersey B&T crowd up on 46th Street that opened in or around 1995.

The BF at the time and I paid our money for memberships (we only really wanted the membership for the laminated member ID cards but the cover charge discount was nice too) and those fucking crooks (Because club owner Phil Smith was basically a fucking crook) took our money and then took two years to give us our cards -- claiming each time we asked that "the machine is broken." And during which time we were forced to pay full admission rather than the reduced admission that the early membership holders got.

Full admission was twenty-five fucking dollars....in 1989! $63 in today dollars. For a club that didn't serve booze!

That shit adds up when a two-person household is going to the club EVERY Saturday for two straight years without ever missing a weekend....as was the case with us.

We'd hit the club one of two ways each weekend -- we'd either take a disco nap Saturday night and set the alarm for 1 AM and be at the club by 2:30 or 3 or, we'd go to the Roxy first and party there until they closed at 4 and then taxi up to 27th Street and hit the Factory at 4ish.

SF at full tilt on a Sunday morning

We'd dance and do drugs until noonish on Sunday (or later if Junior was feeling it and not pissed off and playing banging pots and pans, trying to send everyone home) because those were the days when there was one DJ, not a half dozen in a lineup, and he stayed in that booth and played until the fucking club closed...sometimes for 14 hours or more.

The view from the Sound Factory DJ booth

And then we'd start cruising around the club and dancefloor telling our friends (and pretty much every hot guy we came across -- as well as all our drug dealers) that there was an after-party at 95 Christopher Street Penthouse C.

After that we'd hop in a cab to beat the mob home and the house party at Penthouse C would get rolling to full effect and last well into Sunday night.

Those parties were notorious.