Bash Compactor: Revenge of the Glam Nerds

New Yorkers still know how to party.

After months of meticulous research and numerous on-site field trips, I can prove there are plenty of party monsters left, despite skyrocketing prices, prohibitive rents, unemployment and noxious gay bashers. First evidence: the funky freaks who came out to play this past weekend at Click Drag 3.2/Age of Aquarius at Santos Party House.

“I haven’t been out in ages, but this is so much fun!” one of the girls I dragged out with me exclaimed. “I love the music!” Before you could say “gin and tonic,” this thirty-something born-andbred Manhattanite marketing consultant was lying on her back on the dance floor shaking it. The electro house music of DJs Johnny Dynell, Sean B, Johanna Constantine, Angel and Texas Sage, working with the psychedelic colors from the Joshua Light crew filling the room, kept things hopping. Long-time party producers Rob Roth and Chi Chi Valenti, founders of the Mother and Jackie 60 parties, are the infernal masterminds responsible for this annual pansexual festival of the apocalypse, arrayed with gender-hacking fetish tribal pagans and glitter Goth queens.

Ethereal performances were put on throughout the night by singers Amber Martin and Lady Rizo, The Pixie Harlots, who are always disguised in some outlandish getup, and quintessential 1960s hippie Rumi Missabu, one of the original Cockettes.

Darrell Thorne, resplendent in neon, turquoise and a sparkling tree branch headdress, presided over the downstairs dance floor, not moving an eyelash for hours until he took flight into the air and began to do the fandango. As for me, I was totally burnt out after an all-day film shoot, and spending the night before at the Semi Precious Weapons concert at Irving Plaza. “I’m leaving soon,” I kept telling everyone. But then someone else in one more incredible outfit wandered in and started dancing with me. It was an interesting mix of characters ranging from the new club kids on the block and the old-timers, hard-core partiers who used to go to the original Click Drag Saturday nights at Mother and later at FUN from 1995 through 2001.

Finally at 3 a.m., I was on my way. A girl has to sleep sometimes! Nightlife in New York City hasn’t died, not by a long shot. I don’t know about the Age of Aquarius, but you can still find some stardust in New York at parties like Click Drag.