90’s New York to make London Epic

QX chats to new promoter on the block, Michael Theriault who brings Epic back into town next Friday…

Fifteen years after the strobe lights went black at Limelight, Palladium and Twilo, New York City’s underground clubs are mounting a comeback – in London. One Friday every month at London’s Club Pulse fabulous characters from all walks of gay glitterati – from painted trannies to gym card-carrying muscle studs to bearded fetishists – converge on Epic, the spectacular event produced by Manhattan promoter Michael Theriault.

DJ/Producer Serving Ovahness showcases the Epic sound, a musical journey of past, present, and future best described as bottom-heavy throbbing bass-lines, powerful drums and Latin percussion, beautiful house melodies, and anthem vocals. He plays tracks like Byron Stingily’s ‘You Turn Me’, Vivian Green’s ‘Emotional Rollercoaster’ and, of course, Funky Green Dogs’ ‘Fired Up’ (the song that defines the most legendary of all nineties party spaces, Arena).

The party offers a true sensory overload (yes, that is a half-naked Statue of Liberty you see parading around the dance floor) meant to whisk clubbers back to turn-of-the-millennium New York City when queens ruled the world, problems were solved by the night’s DJ and every night on the dance floor was designed to be Epic.

“It’s all about big vocal anthems and strong drums that shake up the soul,” says Theriault on the success of his New York City themed party in the heart of London. He describes Epic as a journey into the light and dark of progressive house. “The build ups and break downs can be sinister or feel good, but regardless, the DJ starts at one place and delivers us to another. It’s an all night adventure right into the morning.”

“NYC in the nineties was simply amazing,” he says, recalling a diversified metropolis where black trannies mixed with white gay men, the rich mingled with poor, and the community ate, breathed and let loose in the bars, clubs, and local gay coffee shops. Theriault, like most of the city’s party children, was a transplant to New York, by way of New Hampshire.

“There was a such a sense of community back then,” he continues. “Sure, we didn’t have gay marriage rights, we couldn’t serve openly in the military and much of the world opposed our lifestyle, but we had each other and we bound together like family.”

He feels that sense of community is missing in today’s gay generation, many of whom rely on smartphones for all their social and personal interactions. “People don’t interact face-to-face any more. We’re so busy trying to assimilate into mainstream that we’re losing the connection to our community.”

The rise of hook-up websites like were the first cracks in the proverbial ceiling for many brick and mortar establishments catering to gay socialising. Then came the apps, resulting in the ‘collapse of the roof’ as he refers to it. In NYC, club goers spent much of the next decade in the shadows. With a few exceptions, dance clubs were relegated to one-off raves, party boats and illegal spaces. Whilst London didn’t quite suffer the same fate as its sister city in the USA, there’s no hiding from the fact that our capital is a different, more fragmented scene than what it used to be.

Theriault admits he doesn’t know if there’s any going back to the glory days of nightlife but the Epic parties are his attempt at preserving the community’s music. “Kids coming up have no idea about house music or the fact that it was house that gave birth to EDM,” he says. “I want them to experience real fierceness.”

For that reason, club goers will never hear commercial pop music on Theriault’s dance floor. He is adamant that, “Unless a song lends itself to a proper interpretation that is suitable for clubs, pop belongs on the radio.”

In addition to Serving Ovahness, he brings in celebrated NYC talent like DJ Abel, DJ Morabito, DJ Pagano and DJ Paulo – all DJs he knows will deliver the Epic sound.

“It’s a big deal to come over to London and throw down against the incredible party scene we have here,” he says. “London has got the new EDM sound down. Epic is about bringing back old-school beats.”

At some point, Theriault plans to take his Epic party home to NYC. But right now, his sites are set on expanding into Rome and Amsterdam – and making his London party even more Epic.

 

• Epic is at Club Pulse (No 1 Invicta Plaza, Southbank, SE1 9UF) on Friday 26th September, 11pm-late.

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