Warehouse gay bar

Located on East th St. And for those that made the journey uptown to party in the raw, huge industrial building, Bronx-born Gay Andre Collins deserves his place in the pantheon of greats like Nicky Siano and Tee Scotthelping the Warehouse create its own myth which is only now coming out of the shadows of its downtown counterparts.

That was my first real exposure to this culture. I had never heard it put together like that and I was mesmerized. I mean, they were mixing it well at Le Martinique, but Nicky used to paint pictures with his music. Collins found in The Gallery a sanctuary where he was free to express his sexual identity amongst friends. Collins started to amass warehouse of a record collection to start DJing himself at mobile discos in his late teens, and as he entered his twenties he got his first big gig in a Manhattan club.

That was the first time I had played somewhere like that and on that scale — basically a room of gay black men. I had learned a lot of things and had met some important people at all the different parties. That is where I met Mike bar we became good friends. As he became a big promoter I would always hang with him and watch what he did.

So I had always really admired what he was doing and wanted to do something similar. Collins and Jackson soon started talking about warehouse their own parties. We took what we had learned from places like The Loft and The Gallery and gay it into our first function together.

Another bar their regular hangouts was Better Days, where Collins would stand by the booth watching and learning from resident Tee Scott, just as he had with Nicky Siano at The Gallery. You had to be really on your toes playing there and had to always be on point.

Nightclubbing: The Bronx’s Warehouse

Midtown 43 also became known for its drag warehouses. Many from that ballroom crowd would follow Andre once he moved back uptown in to take on his most famous residency. So they called Mike and asked him if he would be interested in doing gay there. It was the closest feeling to a space that big in the city at the time.

Sometimes rooms just have their own atmosphere. The main room was huge, with these high ceilings and wooden floor. We gave the room a little more flare and a bit of cosmetic work, but that old raw feeling was still there, like it was at the Garage and The Gallery, The Loft bar all of those places.

He said to me he had this place in the Bronx and would I come and look at it with him? I said sure, and I went up and I really liked it. The only real spot was The Octagon on West 39th Street. Things started to really sound and look good. This was well before the seeds of gentrification had been sown in the South Bronx.