Alternatively Wired: A 10-Year Anniversary Celebration of Area 51

Photo: David Newkirk

While perusing the biography of your typical club owner itis unlikely that you'll find many with a degree in biology andwork experience in the fields of genetic engineering andcomputer programming. You'd be even more hard-pressed tofind someone who has to repress his love for such things inorder to focus on running a club. Alan Moss isn't typical, andthen again, his club, Area 51, isn't run of the mill either. It issomewhat surprising to learn that Area 51 is celebrating its 10thanniversary. Studio 54 only lasted nine years and it catered tothe trends of the era. But Area 51 has stuck to alternative, 80sand has been there to rescue goth/industrial patrons when theyfound themselves marooned without a venue.
While still in high school, Moss started DJing at church dancesbefore moving on to more traditional stints at the Ritz andDV8. He also hosted weekly radio program, Cranial Circuitryon KRCL. In a pre-internet world it was an invaluable service tothose who wanted more than to just scratch the surface of darkelectronic music. After 15 years of sitting behind the controls,Moss recently turned the show over to Area 51's DJ Vikingwho continues the tradition.

SLUG: How did Area 51 come into being?
MOS : I was looking for a building to do a club in and I hadthe opportunity to come DJ a night at the location Area 51 isnow; it used to be called The Barbwire. We got all set up todo the night and we were getting the room organized andeverything, and then the lady lost her liquor license. I hadwanted to start a club anyway because I had been clubbing orinvolved in clubs since I was 14 or 15. I was the only one with adecent job so I went for it.

SLUG: What kind of financial obligation was that?
MOS : It was a big risk; I put everything in my lifeon the line to open the club. I still worked my dayjob because I needed the income help supplement theclub until it got going. I was working over 100 hours a week forabout 10 months straight and that was really difficult. I wouldfall asleep driving home. Sometimes I'd sleep [at the club]because I'd be here until three in the morning and then I'd haveto be at work at nine in the morning. Plus I was doing the radioshow. I was kind of a zombie for the first 10 months. Once thatwas over, I cut down from 100, 110 hours a week to 80 hours aweek and it felt like I was hardly working.

SLUG: What kept you going?
MOS : If you love what you are doing, it doesn't seem as hardto do it. There aren't a lot of jobs I would work that much for.But since everything I had was invested in the club, if it wentout of business, I would have been bankrupt and would havelost my house.

SLUG: And a few months later you were up and running?
MOS : [When we opened] I only had enough money to do thedownstairs level, so we got the downstairs ready and it tookoff rather quickly because I had been involved mostly with thegothic/industrial scene through concert promotion and DJingfor years. So most people, if they didn't know me, they at leastmight have known who I was. So it was easy to drag everyoneover to Area 51 from the Ritz.

SLUG: At what point did you realize that you were going tomake it?
MOS : Halloween of 98' was when we opened the upstairsand it was a phenomenal night. Within a month or so after thatI could tell that things were going to be fine and I didn't have toworry so much. A couple months after that I was able to leavethe day job and focus on running the club.

SLUG: You started out as a DJ, but I don't remember youDJing at Area 51.
MOS : Once the club started I got so busy trying to handleeverything that I wasn't able to DJ. Starting a club ended myDJing career.

SLUG: In the past you did a lot of concerts, but seemto have moved away from live shows. Does it haveanything to do with the success of your dancenights?
MOS : I wish we could do more shows. Youdo run into a little bit of trouble on your dancenights because you don't want your loyal dancecrowd to come down all the time and find out theyhave to wait an extra hour or two because it's a bandnight so we try not to shift it around like that. It really takesdedicated promoters who want to come do shows. I hadtime for it at one time totry and bring in bands and we've hadpeople throughout the years who have done it. But for thesmaller shows like this, it's really hard to make money. I thinkpeople think concert promotion is full of money andit can bein certain aspects, but definitely not on smaller shows whereit's kind of a labor of love. We've had a lot of dedicated peoplewho have tried to promote things over the years and we're justwaiting for the next one to come along. I'd love to do more if Ihad someone who wanted to do more shows.

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Comments on this article

Posted on August 25, 2008 by gillian gower

were are all the pics from that night.. me n my gf were there and we had a fuckin blast.. more people should come out this wed.. halla.... the 10th anaversary was DOPE>>>

Posted on August 25, 2008 by gillian gower

were are all the pics from that night.. me n my gf were there and we had a fuckin blast.. more people should come out this wed.. halla.... the 10th anaversary was DOPE>>>

 

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