Birthplace Of The "Club Kid"

Completing the dismal hat trick of three consecutive posts about the demise of NYC landmarks, here's a shot I took yesterday of the Church Of The Holy Communion, Chelsea's grim bit of gothic revival more famously known as The Limelight, the nightclub that brought us the legendary Disco 2000 parties, Michael Alig, DJ Keoki and a dismembered drug dealer here and there.

Limelight is also the only nightclub I've ever been thrown out of, back in '91, when my stupid friend would not stop shining his gawdam laser pointer at the DJ. Security said "Give us the laser or get out." And since my friend had paid something like $300 for it (now they come free with gum), he wouldn't surrender it and out on our asses we went, a mere 20 minutes after getting inside, having waited outside in the line, in the snow, for over an hour. Yeah, still mad about that, actually. Stupid friend.

I was going to say something about the Limelight's shady former owner, Peter Gatien, and his racketeering and tax evasion conviction losing him the right to hold a liquor license, but I got sidetracked by Wikipedia's hilariously whitewashed entry on him. Kudos to Gatien's PR team on that, sincerely. (I did love Gatien's weirdly fantastic futuristic Times Square disco, Club USA.) After Limelight closed, the club changed hands and was completely gutted out, returning as the dreary Avalon. During the renovations, my buddy and I stopped by and we each bought one of the metallic starburst light fixtures that hung over the DJ booth. Nearly killed ourselves cutting them down.

Today the Church Of The Holy Communion only faintly reverberates with the techno echo of ten million K-bumps. It's been seized by the state and I suppose it will be sold at auction. I think it would make a fantastic apartment, however I have the feeling it will end up a "funky" outlet for Crunch Gyms or something similarly uninspired. Hey! We're working our abs! In a church! Cuh-ray-zee!