Kate Zambreno

At Triple D's on Irving Park Road, men in flannel shirts and hunting caps guzzle Miller High Lifes and play darts while their girlfriends pick out AC/DC from the jukebox and watch "Suddenly Susan." In the adjoining room, decked out with black lights like some bar mitzvah circa 1987, the boys are wearing eyeliner and bobbing to a female DJ making intense ambient sounds out of her laptop, while videogame graphics play on a projector. It'd all be very punk if it weren't only 10pm.

Actually, it's more like electropunk, kids with jagged ambiguous haircuts and expensive machinery going all glam and crazy. "Back at CBGBs, Blondie was totally punk," says Emil Hyde, drawing a historical connection between electro and punk rock.

Wearing a blazer funked up with militaristic buttons, with a brown lock purposefully in his face, Hyde, the promoter behind this Mainframe club night, looks straight out of a John Hughes movie or like the kid in high school who spent all of his time in the AV room. All of the lighting and equipment was already in the room, now decorated with Day-Glo posters of everyone from Madonna to Sid Vicious, when he wandered into Triple's D some time back looking for a place to hold his wedding reception.

Eighty people packed into the room for Mainframe's last go-round, but tonight it's a little slow and mellow, as is the music, and Hyde's hopping around looking anxious. Sylvie, the elderly proprietress watching cautiously through the partition on the other side of the bar, waves away a bottle of raspberry Schnapps to pass around free shots and get the mood going.

A tall shaved blond boy with a similar lock in his face standing around and looking all goth checks his eyeliner in the mirrored bar. At the end of Quantazelle's set the DJ strips off her baggy clothes to reveal her miniskirt and platform boots. Things start to heat up. A boy in Bowie drag dances around with another boy in a wig for an impromptu performance piece. Another DJ comes on and screams into a microphone a punk-skewered electro-generated rant. He's all over the place, and the energy's infectious. People start to dance.

Occasionally a curiosity-seeker from the other side of the bar peeks his head in, mentally shaking it. What are these kids doing? You can almost hear the amusement of the older folks sitting, watching, on the other side of the bar. Is this what the kids are listening to nowadays?

Mainframe features DJs and live bands and takes place every other Friday at Triple D's, 1902 West Irving Park Road, (773) 871-6239, starting at 9pm. The next Mainframe, April 25, features the Countdown, La Makita Soma and the Flashbulb.

(2003-04-15)

Also by Kate Zambreno

Tip of the Week
In "The Blue Moon Circus," local author Michael Raleigh travels back through the tumbleweeds of the pioneering Old West, to just past the heyday of the railroad circus, when Barnum & Bailey and the Ringling Brothers were living gods to those who aspired to be more than dog-and-pony shows.
(2003-04-09)

Pulp nonfiction
I admit it. I have a problem. I'm completely addicted to addiction memoirs.
(2003-04-09)

Dr. Sex
"Jesus, I spent twenty-one years becoming an urban homosexual. Really, it's a full-time job," jokes one, when introducing himself to the Human Sexuality class.
(2003-04-02)

Button it up
Here in the city, the navy blue "No War" button with the white star is fighting with patriotic flair in an accessory street theater of sorts.
(2003-03-26)

Sew fine
(2003-03-12)

24 Hour Party People
(2003-03-12)

Tip of the Week
(2003-02-19)

The Mourning After
(2003-02-19)

Freezing mad
(2003-02-19)

The wait is over
(2003-02-11)

Looking for a Buddy
(2003-02-05)

Veteran's luck
(2003-02-05)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment