Pyramid Club

In the late 70's and early 80's, when mega-clubs like Studio 54 and Limelight dominated the nightlife scene, the struggling artists, actors, and musicians who lived in the East Village created their own scene. They began taking over some of the local dives, like the Holiday on St. Mark's Place (which is there to this day). They made clubs where there were none, like Club 57 (in the basement of a church), and 8BC , on a block of abandoned tenements. And they took over The Pyramid, an undistinguished club on a desolate block.

The Pyramid became the sort of place where you might catch a live theatre production --- as likely as not, it would star , Phoebe Legere, Klaus Nomi , or John Sex . Cheering them on (if not designing their costumes and sets) were artists like Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf . Pyramid also served as the birthplace for the drag renaissance. Lypsinka premiered her early plays, like "Dial M for Model," here, and drag legends from The Lady Bunny to RuPaul graced the stage periodically. The Fleshtones also regularly played at The Pyramid in the mid-80s, and Fleshtones guitarist Keith Streng booked "The Mod Teepee" there weekly for years.

Many trace the beginning the drag trend to 1981, when a fairly inebriated bunch of queens (and a couple of The Fleshtones ), led by Lady Bunny, partied for hours at the Pyramid and then headed across the street to Tompkins Square Park, where they tossed an impromptu outdoor drag festival --- the first Wigstock .
As the 80's went on, the Pyramid became more famous. Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry dropped in to do a feature on the club for MTV . Madonna appeared at her first AIDS benefit at the club. Both Nirvana and The Red Hot Chili Peppers played their first New York City concerts there.

Another interesting note: the apartment directly over the club belonged to Nico , the chanteuse from the Velvet Underground , throughout the band's heyday in the 1960's. The club today remains open seven nights a week.

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Pyramid Club