"Degeneracy without conseq
uences." That's how music icon Moby describes the scene at one of the most
legendary nightlife venues to ever grace the scene in New York City. There's only been one nightclub that has taken over a church in the city, and it's
Limelight.
After the demise of Studio 54, everyone waited for the next great club to take the scene by storm and once again reinvent the nightlife experience known at the time. Once Limelight opened up, the parties quickly snowballed, creating an atmosphere of sheer entertainment with a salt and peppering of debauchery. Owner Peter Gatien soon became the man behind the phenomenon that was an immense success, and a business that grew into more than just the face of the
New York City nightlife scene, but an important part of the culture as well.
The massive gatherings every weekend symbolized what the city as a culture wanted and fed off of in entertainment, bringing in numbers any weekend that easily outgrew what any church in the Bible Belt could haul in on a Sunday morning, let alone Manhattan. While it started off as a disco and rock club, it morphed into an amalgamated nightlife scene and THE place to hear techno, goth, and industrial music, spawning the newest stars in clubland.
The story of how the club came about and how the scene grew organically has recently been documented by Billy Corben, the famed filmmaker behind
Cocaine Cowboys,
Square Grouper and ESPN 30 for 30 film,
The U. Titled,
Limelight, the documentary is released on September 23, and is set to bring back memories for thousands that frequented what's considered one of the greatest nightclubs of all time.