NYC as well. I thought that too and then realized it was just who I was surrounded by. You can find some extremely late night shows throughout the city that get packed with young people. Hop from Paragon to H0L0 to Nowadays and be out from 10pm until 10am, grab some pancakes at a diner, and take the train home.
Did that journey recently with a Canadian friend who moved here as his welcome party :) On nothing stronger than booze, too!
For sure, I think this does however line up with even younger folks who aren't going to generic clubs for a late night. They would just start earlier, bars/etc. and then end earlier. The full night bangers are definitely still very viable (and as crowded as you would like them) in NYC
I live in NYC as well, and I find the post COVID Berlin-esque Bushwick only scene to be terrible. It's filled with the most dull repetitive music that AI can replicate with a god awful sound system and no atmospherics whatsoever, and while I do appreciate the lack of dress code / door policy / bouncer aggressiveness, it feels like a brutal slog to endure without drugs, and a miserable long ass train ride on the L train back to the city.
I miss the pre COVID Vegas style nightclubs in the Meatpacking District. Yes, crowded and aggressive bouncers who make up the door policy on the spot, but once you're in there's mesmerizing lighting and visual effects, top notch sound systems, the glitziness of bottle service, and the euphoric albeit predictable drops of EDM.
That all predates COVID... circa 2017 you could catch me in some Ridgewood DIY with no atmospherics most weekends. My favorite nights are the ones where the only light is the exit sign and it's me and 15 other people dancing all night in an uncrowded dance floor until the sun comes up.
I'm not sure if stuff changed or maybe i'm just older. A lot of those parties seemed so mysterious and exciting a couple years back for me. Now it seems like the same old stuff month in and month out. Most DJs kind of have their shtick, and there's also this kind of standard left field rave sound that a lot have seemed to adopt. Kind of like the Resolute roster.
it's also very hard for me to rationalize staying up until the main act comes on at 3-5am, getting home at 6am minimum. You waste most or all of the next day.
The less schtick the better! Take me out to a Club Night Club show at Sugar Hill Supper Club, or a Soul Summit daytime party, or some footwork DJ playing on a folding table in the back of a restaurant, or Randomer firing off banging techno at Nowadays until the wee hours.
Miss me with the DJs wearing masks, the choreographed light shows, the bottle service, the $200 admission. Look at the schtick-lessness of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=608rs5kB9ns
I suppose I take for granted the interest in underground, counter-culture, Berlin-esque experiences. I genuinely cannot imagine someone preferring "Vegas-style" clubs in NYC. Your comment reads as what a Bushwick club kid thinks an uptight tech bro larping as a raver might write.
I actually agree that the grunginess of Bushwick can be obnoxious and frankly gross a lot of the time, but the thought of hanging out with a bunch of cishet normies in an expensive SoHo club is anathema to why I would even go out in the first place.
Did that journey recently with a Canadian friend who moved here as his welcome party :) On nothing stronger than booze, too!