Salt Lake City Clubs

Salt Lake City Clubs
Vortex / Wild Planet

Working with Lee Williams at the Vortex @ 52 Exchange Pl. in Salt Lake City was when no one ever said no. . Just examining the copy on this flier alone makes one wonder at the level of surrealism this club really took hold of. Jesse and I would sit around and write the copy over the phone, then hand off the pictures and copy to the amazing layout artist at the University of Utah newspaper department. We would then endeavor to print them in the most insane protracted way possible. This flier was printed on a very early three color Xerox machine. You had to run the copies through the machine 4 times to get this color. every time one went through we would bump the machine to screw up the registration. The effect had a 3D effect and each one was unique. Each flier was hand delivered. When Friday rolled around we would try to figure out how to deliver on our insane claims on this weeks fliers. The pace was rediculous. A close friend worked late-night kinkos...alone. We took advantage.

Raspberries rumpus room was this gorgeous occulus in a very ornate boroque ceiling. There was a circular frieze of adorned buffalo heads circling the dome. The club was GORGEOUS. Raspberry a friend of mine, would "host" the entrance area. Choosing people to comp, making them do humiliating things to get in. Having photos shows of sores. Serving hostess yuckmouth cupcake horror show. Jumping on trampoline. you know, the door scene. Once inside it was usually much, much, more over the top...

Earth to Elvis 3/1994

This was my first party at the Vortex. The concept was Lee Williams, but I was in charge of rendering the event with him. The flier was amazing. You can clearly hear the bleed-over from the rave flier verbiage. This evenign was completely off the wall. Giant stilted elvises. a real wishing well that looked like it was on fire. Bizarre fashion show, and all of this with half alcohol serving in SLC hard core alcohol feardom. However...Dr. Martini REALLY delivered. HE did this whole comedy routine where he would play horrible records, scratch the hell out of them, smashh them , play WAY too loud, scream at people, smoked like a chimney, gay as christmas. in SUPER tight white pants. Brian Whitmill is a geniuse. He once picked up a fellow at a bar by simply repeating the word "Pocatello" in his ear for about an hour.

This event did have an amazing DJ set by Shawn Phillips. A radio DJ that played the raves once in a while. He was really cool and actually synched his track with the on stage LIVE marching band and delivered one of the most skull crushing bass drops I have ever heard. I always felt this party was slightly cheezy, but she went there.

Zillionaire

One of the more infamous parties. Everything on the flier was delivered. Bunnies arrived in an armored car, and we dumped 1000.00 in cash on the crowd mixed with confetti and rubles. totaly mobbed. This flier was individually spray painted, we would spread them out in the basement and spray for hours by the old swimming pool n the basement of the victorian gentlemen's club.

Wild Planet

This four color "process" flier for Wild Planet in Salt Lake City... produced in the middle of the night at an all but abandoned kinkos. Each time we ran the fliers through the Canon copier, we would have to change the toner drum for another color. The process was painstaking and registration was non-existant...but the effect was eye raping and free. Flier manufacture, design and distribution is the basis for everything amazing if you send the proper message. At times, police were called, just because of the fliers. You know it's a party when an armored car shows up filled with Playboy bunnies throwing cash, or when a cake absolutely must be frosted on stage with a chainsaw. You know, casual.

Wild Planet Opening Night with Doc Marten

I had done a few parties with Lee Williams and the Vortex and they wanted to see how I would work one of my own. We were already off to an insane start with this flier. We had a dinner before hand with all of the local djs and we let them Q & A with him over a steak dinner. We were really trying to draw off a crowd from the raves. Local djs played the night regularly as they realied the energy was much closer to a rave than a night club. Well, more like an Idaho rave.

Cute as a Stomach Pump

This flier was the first time I realized people were collecting the fliers. I went to see a friend at work, and one of his co-workers had a selection of the fliers up in his cubicle. It was a good feeling, and it really pushed me to make the print materials even more far out. This flier was also produced using the "4-color" kinkos process that was really starting to get good. I love the 50,00 fifty hundred type-o. Classic.

Friday the at 13th Wild Planet

I think this was the party when I started realizing we were a bit out of control. The crowd was very agressive. I was wearing a head to toe look of medical apparatus including braces, splints, casts and an IV. Someone dumped 3 pitchers of beer on me from the balcony. Party.

Wild Planet...hurt so good.

Weekly fliers

Each week presented a challenge to out-do the previous week's flier with something funnier, more ridiculous, troubling or dangerous. Trying to get people out to your event in a very conservative city especially during the snow months required a stream of endless ideas. We would hand out fliers as people were leaving, I started realizing that the collectors would just come to the door to collect that week's edition. Below are the fronts and backs of some of my favorites...

Tizzyland

I wrote this copy with Lee Williams of the Vortex. We laughed so HARD about lovely oreos. WE were both raised mormon and both still slightly devout. You can see Dr. Martinin made it back on the bill! I so clearly remember this party getting completely out of control, as Wild Planet would do. The futurplex had already been opened. It was incredible. A sculptor friened of mine had made these two children's mannequin's into the most horrifying alien looking children ever....dripping with rainbow snot and everything. The entire room was sprayed high glitter silver and had sculpted stalagmites. It also had these intense fabric treatment that looked like sails from Alderan. The mainfloor of this party featured one of my favorite stunts ever, instant runway show. Messy dresses, duct tape, and tons of make-up applied in a hurry. It was entertaining, and the crowd was stunned, as usual.

Permanent Wave

We had really taken on the air of Nick Hammer's residence at this point. The rave kids were not coming, they did not want to hear house. The people at the Vortex were starting to not really get it eaither. It was around this time everything seemed like a good idea to move to Bricks.

Thunderball

This party was embroiled with political and legal issues from the start. We ended up hosting Marilyn Manson after they had been ejected from the state for tearing up a Book of Mormon on stage. The printers refused to print the flier stating religious beliefs! I had to retrieve Manson from X96 and I picked him up in my 1954 Mercury and drove through a crown of baby goth's trying to crush us while he was saying, "Kill them.". The evening started VERY strong with a few opening acts I had arrange to possibly scare or worry the Marilyn Manson people. We started with a drag queen in a Cinderella costume whipping someone until bloody, and followed that with two 50's housewives icing a cake amid boos and screams from the audience -- Only to whip out a completely crystal encrusted chainsaw, fire it up, and slam down through the cake, exploding it all over Manson's guitars. The show got VERY rowdy. The club was destroyed, security ended up in the hospital. Party.

Candids of a Salt Lake events and parties

Tilt! at the Sun

A few weeks at the Sun club with a completely black light powered dance party. The wording on these got CA-RAZY.

DJ Dr. Martini was a friend of mine that would scratch and destroy records in this amazing comedy routine as this ultra-sleazy oversexed homosexual. He would smoke and play really loud dinner music, swearing and scratching. amazing. Tilt was really fun, and we got to hear Nick Hammer on the big sound system all night.

All this for $3. Werk. Hand sprayed fliers.

Spin Cycle
First Party at Bricks leading up to Kitchen. A much more drag-centric event with lots of lip-synced performances. Bricks was really trying to get their foothold in the Salt Lake City club scene. They were so large, a,nd really had no large nights.

Kitchen*

I started Kitchen at Bricks which would later become the first super club in Salt LAke City. Then Bricks stole it. No big deal, I got nothing from it except to see how happy it was making everyone and really helping everyone put the fashion on. We had a 1954 swimming pool blue Chrysler Windsor on the dance floor opening night. Frank Armstrong was taking pictures for the fliers and they were killer. First started with Nick Hammer and moved on to other Djs and Kitchen really did become a destination for international dJs far ahead of the current EDM resurgence. Kitchen was a very club kid heavy, gender blur.

Lookin' for Trouble.
Uh.

The infamous Lookin' for Trouble. We held it in a gentlemen's club on a Sunday when it was usually closed. The only reason I post these fliers here is the sheer audacity of holding a gay, male, strip club on a Sunday night in Salt Lake City, Utah.. Who's theme was super trashy. We were flying very low under a powerful radar. The club was intense. a 4' 11" female dj playing bubblegum pop while the dancers worked the poles. I would come up with costumes and themes for them each week. We would polaroid them and leave the photos up front so the customers could see who was around that evening... It was crazy, so many fights breaking out... One night a brawl went on the parking lot between a few warring strippers...for almost an hour. No one ever came to stop it...