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Three To Watch Out For
Tango Blues Puts A New Spin on Club Promotion
Mark Baker
Jeffrey Sanker
Chris Harris
San Fran’s Magnitude Man
Sandy Sachs & Robin Gans
Tom Whitman
Alexander Catala
Hilton Wolman
Adam Gill
Rich Campbell

Three To Watch Out For

Written by Montgomery Buchanan

Omar Gonzalez: Miami Heat

First of all we descend on the home of the Winter Party. At 31, Omar Gonzalez is already a nightlife veteran, having promoted parties for over seven years. He’s best known as the founder and driving force behind OAG Productions and its “Sunday Skool” party at South Beach venue Click. Celebrating its first anniversary this past summer, Sunday Skool has become church for Miami’s fabulous denizens. This is where fashionistas meet muscle, businessman rub shoulders with artists. And then there are the celebrities, like Oscar-nominated actor and notorious partyboy Mickey Rourke.

Like the other promoters interviewed for this article, Gonzalez points to a generational difference in musical tastes—and how it’s presented. “We started out spinning a lot of House music,” Gonzalez says. “But we found that the younger crowd was more enthusiastic about the Pop sets.” He never knows what to expect from week to week, but he does know that the party has become more mixed since its beginnings. “Diversity is quickly taking place in South Beach nightlife,” the young promoter says. This year, he would not be at all surprised to see his crowd consisting of “mature, young, gay, straight, men, women, drag queens and a guy in a chicken suit.” 

Unfortunately, the legacy of some party drugs had changed the South Beach party scene—and not for the better. With a sense of sadness, he speaks of the disappearance of many familiar faces: “A lot of the crystal and GHB set has gone to staying in at night on the Internet and not socializing in public. A younger group who has marked an increase in alcohol sales has replaced them,” he adds. “Don’t get me wrong, I welcome the new, but miss some of the familiar faces.”

Whatever the future, he seems poised to take whatever comes and roll with the punches. http://www.oagproductions.com

Chris Ryan: New York City Cool

Traveling up the East Coast, we find Chris Ryan, an even younger promoter with a full weekly plate. Only 28, Ryan finds himself a semester away from a master’s degree in clinical psychology while becoming one of the mainstays on New York’s continually challenging and ever-changing nightlife scene. Ryan can already boast the longest-running gay Thursday night event at Splash with “Campus.”
“It’s hard to believe it has been so long,” he says, in a tone of slight bewilderment. “Every week feels like the first time. Then I look out and see so many familiar faces and I love that!” When asked about the reason for the longevity of the event, he quickly responds, “Cheap drinks, fun music and hot boys. How can you go wrong?” How, indeed?

From Central Chelsea, jump on the C subway train two stops north to the “other” gayborhood, Hell’s Kitchen, where Ryan has established a little slice of booty-shaking heaven two nights a week at the Ritz. Ryan’s ‘80s retro extravaganza “Rewind” on Wednesdays and “Flex” on Fridays has helped make this Restaurant Row boîte a “must” for Generation Y’ers. Initially, he had expected a more mature crowd for the retro tunes that give Rewind its name. So he was hardly prepared for the twentysomethings who turn it out and dance in the backroom space to music that were on the Billboard charts when they were in utero.

“I don’t think anyone expected to refer to the ‘80s as a simpler time,” he notes. “But in retrospect …” Two nights later, the Ritz gets a sexier vibe with “Flex Fridays,” which is billed as a “Flirtatious and Fun NO Attitude” party. Ryan posts a hunk de la semaine each week on his website ChrisRyanNYC.com. Any partygoer willing to flex his muscle for the door earns a free drink. The best “flexer” wins tickets, dinners or other prizes. Ryan enjoys hosting at the Ritz because of the mix of people: “You get a nice combination of neighborhood guys who come every week and tourists who are in for one night and one night only. It all makes for a very unpredictable dynamic—never a dull moment.”

Ryan has just given birth to New York’s latest party night, “Tight” at Amnesia, a space in far northwest Chelsea. The new night premiered February 7, with DJ Nita Aviance and Shiny Toy Guns. Valentine’s Day features one of the biggest names in nightlife, Junior Vasquez. “This is a long time in the making and I hope will mark an upward swing in NYC nightlife,” Ryan says. “It has a little bit of everything for a lot of everyone.” At Tight, Ryan hopes to mix up music, performance art and socializing in an ultra-hip environment. The preview party proved to be a great success and drew raves from the media as well as from those attending, a veritable Who’s Who of NY gay boys and nightlife.

Ryan intends for that mix to hearken back to the city’s glory days as the world’s nightlife capital. “I always look to the legends of NY party promoters like John Blair and Jeffrey Sanker when building an event or making choices that will affect a party night,” he says. Someday, we’ll be including him on such a select list.

As someone who seriously studied the human psyche, Ryan tries to keep it real. He has been a strong supporter of the New York Anti-Violence Project, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and gay marriage. But his pet cause is animal rights. “I will fight for that until my final breath,” he says. Ryan seems to be a well-rounded man beyond his years, a refreshing combination of the serious and playful. http://www.chrisryannyc.com

Ray Rhodes: L.A. Warmth

On the Left Coast, Ryan’s good buddy Ray Rhodes is a former DJ who has become a player in the white-hot West Hollywood club scene. A former Palm Spring White Party and Gay Disney DJ, his “TigerHeat” has been heating up Avalon for nine years in Hollywood. How does he account for the resilience of this party among fickle Angelinos? “We started at a time when the world as we knew it was about to change, 2001,” he notes.

Up to this time, video dance parties were considered taboo—and lyric-driven party music was marked as “not acceptable” by clubbers. Rhodes originally played as a radio DJ on 104.3-FM, so he was comfortable with Pop and Top 40. “So I figured, why can’t we play it and dance to it?” Rhodes explains. The format of TigerHeat has become a brand of sorts, with satellite parties in Long Beach, Las Vegas and even hopes for a future night in the Big Apple.

“Chris Ryan always puts me up when I go to New York, and we are trying to work together in the future,” Rhodes says. “We’ll see what happens.” If his past success with TigerHeat is any indication, New York may be seeing a Rhodes/Ryan event in the coming year: “I want to try and expand on the TigerHeat brand, but I can never lose what I truly love. I couldn’t sit behind a desk and make decisions about something for which I am so passionate. I will always have to be spinning; that’s my love.”

Aside from his role as impresario and DJ, Rhodes is working on a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of California-Los Angeles. It’s enough to keep most 105-year-old men very busy. At least that is how old he claims to be on his MySpace page. (Judging from his spiky blond hair and very fit, California-buffed physique, mid-twenties seems about right.)

As a DJ, Rhodes has learned how to spot up-and-coming talent. Last year, Lady Gaga did a few numbers at the Las Vegas TigerHeat in front of 300 people. A few months later, just after “Just Dance” hit the U.S., almost 2,000 people showed up when she returned. Lady Gaga is typical of Rhodes’ knack for scouting the Next Big Thing from the other side of the pond or the other side of the world. “Since before The Beatles, a large number of the latest big stars have hit first in England,” he notes.

Closer to home, he never underestimates what the latest generation of clubgoers want to hear: “This world is changing so fast whether you are a businessman, doctor, politician or entertainer. You cant sit back for a minute and just enjoy what you have. You have to constantly work, and evolve, or you will get left behind in the dust. I never want that to happen to something that I love and have worked so hard to create.”

Rhodes hosts some other events in WeHo, such as “Super Cherry Pop” and “Boy’s Room”, check out http://www.rayrhodes.com.

The next generation of club promoters mirrors their constituency. Savvy and plugged in, they’re looking for new events, while enjoying older music. If these three are any indication, the future looks bright.

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