When I moved to NYC in 2006 I got my apartment a week before I could actually move in. I had to come up early and sign the lease and get the keys. I remember I was so excited to sleep in my new place I just slept on the floor instead of crashing with friends as planned. I was managing a band at the time and I booked them a show at the same time just to have another to be in New York. At the show we met this couple who loved the band and took us to this spot on the Lower East Side called the Annex for a party called Ruff Club. My NYC nightlife era had officially begun.
Ruff Club was a staple for me for the next three years. Ian Cognito was the door guy who I had been introduced to that first weekend. He was the first person I knew in NYC nightlife. He would always let me in even before anyone knew me. The party happened on Friday nights at the same time as my all time favorite NYC party (at least when it was at Rififi), Trash and I would hit both parties nearly every Friday. I would take the J to the LES for Ruff and then walk up to Trash for late night there, or take the L to Trash and walk down to Ruff.
On September 11th, 2009 the Annex shut its doors and Ruff Club closed the place out. I am not sure if I was going to Ruff Club as often near the end, my friends “the Ruff Kids” had stopped DJing there and Trash had moved a few blocks northwest and it was slightly less convenient to hit both. I was still going to the Annex all the time for the Wednesday night party High Voltage, who was at that time on their third location. The Annex was great because it felt like a nightclub upstairs and a dive bar downstairs and it had lockable bathrooms which were great for NSFW photo shoots… and other things. So obviously I had to be there for the last night.
Going through these photos it’s clear I wasn’t the only person who felt the same way. The party had a tight list of regulars, the flyer read “locals only” and I cannot tell you how many people I love are in these photos. It really hits me in the feels looking through these and seeing how many people I have lost contact with, or don’t even remember anymore. There are so many girls in this gallery that I had a crush on at one point and so many friends who I haven’t seen in 15+ years. Even the people I am still in touch with through social media or whatever I haven’t seen in ages. If you are in these photos, just know I miss you and we should catch up one day.
It’s funny I am getting wistful now but even at the time I was feeling the same way. Here’s a little of what I wrote in my original blog post:
I miss the packed sweaty basement when the Ruff Kids were spinning George Harrison and I was getting my mind set on some cute girl talking to Sophia Lamar. I am going to miss Sophia trying to give me drink tickets and telling me some crazy story while I am waiting in line for the bathrooms. I am going to miss running into 24Court who always seemed so unreasonably happy to see me. She will be my friend forever when she defended me when one of the Misshapes got in my face at Bleach. I will miss Danzi’s drunken hugs and 5am rides home on the J train. I miss seeing Brad Walsh trying to make nightlife photography look like the yearbook photo you wish you had in high school. I will miss Felipe making people in line for his photo booth wait while he gets my shot. I am going to miss convincing Spenser and Denny to not hate me after I talked shit about their party on my blog. I am going to miss arguing with Jason about politics and I am going to miss the Annex. I am going to miss the upstairs bathroom where all sorts of shady things have gone down. I am going to miss Roe help me sneak whatever cute 20 year old girl I was with into the club and talking football with me when I couldn’t stand sweating any more and had to come outside. I will miss bringing out of town friends to Ruff to show them what a real NYC party is like and Ian for making them feel cool when he would let them skip the line not pay the cover… Then again did anyone ever pay the cover?
The night technically ended with a chaotic A.R.E Weapons show, but the bar stayed open until 7am with the old regulars hanging out past dawn. I had torn the meniscus in my knee a few days earlier and apparently I left around 5am because I had to get an MRI in the morning. I never did get the surgery I needed and I am absolutely paying for it as a middle aged man. RIP Ruff Club, RIP the Annex and RIP my knee…
This is only my second Vintage DBB post (Although there are plenty more throwback images on the VintageDBB Instagram) but I am really enjoying going back, reading what I wrote at the time and writing about old memories with a new lens. I pulled 200 photos for this gallery and reedited like 65 of those that were a bit underexposed. A lot of stuff didn’t need it because at the time I was blinding people with an external flash. Sorry about that, but at least the photos look cool. But yeah, I hope you dig the look back and I can’t wait to keep uploading classic parties from the “Indiesleaze” era.
Okay, that’s it, enjoy all the photos, and as always, feel free to reach out if you don’t want a random 15 year old photo of you partying back on the internet.
