June 1994 — The Opening of LSDance

Dj Digger:
«The club was only just starting out back then — there were just bare walls, and we got drawn into the process right away, building things, hauling things. At the same time we were trying to find turntables in Moscow — a virtually impossible mission at the time. So at first Kompas and I played on two converted cassette decks. We took them into a workshop, where they fitted the motors with potentiometers that let you change the speed of the tape. That's how we mixed. It turned out to be doable, though three times harder and slower than on turntables. That said, before LSDance I had only watched how it was all done, but had never stood behind the turntables myself. We learned everything on the fly, mastering the equipment right there in the club.
Records were no simple matter either — we had to order them from Germany, where my sister was living at the time. Through her we ordered blind, just going by the titles. What arrived was a total mixed bag — an absolute nightmare. The stock was replenished very rarely; about ten new records came in a month. Accordingly, the records lived a very long time, half a year for sure. In the end Kompas and I had a shared collection, which, after LSDance closed, we simply split down the middle.
The name LSDance was thought up by Polyakov. To be honest, I was a bit wary of it — it reeked a little too much of provocation. But Polyakov was calm. «Don't sweat it», he said, «it's just Lucky Strike Dance». And the club's logo was designed by Lyokha Kompas.
There was one concept — underground and mayhem. Musically we played what was called techno back then. By its sound today it would be more like progressive house, at a tempo of 130–140, but back then nobody knew that. It was all fairly simple — we played whatever we could get hold of. But of course we were still harder than the Moscow clubs of the day. If back then it was mostly vocal house playing everywhere, we had the «pounding».
Kompas and I played all night ourselves. We started at 11 and finished at six. There were practically no guest DJs; it all fell on us.
The club itself was small, about a hundred and fifty square metres. There was a small dance floor, a bar and a few tables. As often happened back then, some Solntsevo guys were involved in the deal — it was their premises. They acted as the founders and put money into the club. They were peculiar fellows, with their own particular sense of humour. I remember one man, a former boxer, who during a party might come up to me, put his arm around me and say in a friendly way: «So, want me to break your nose now or later?». That's what got him going.
Entry cost five dollars. We worked Friday and Saturday. There wasn't much advertising — just flyers and word of mouth. Two hundred people in the club made for a packed house; fifty was quite enough for a successful party.
A particular crowd gathered at our place. It's hard for me now to analyse what kind of public it was. I didn't really judge it. I was one of them myself.
Back then everyone was trying to stand out from the grey world of «rock'n'roll». The basics were ordinary — jeans, a T-shirt. But everyone had some distinguishing detail — girls with shaved heads, or guys with crazy hairstyles, earrings.
People gathered right at the start; by midnight it was already packed. That was tied to the metro — people almost never came to LSDance by car. Accordingly, they also stayed in the club until 6 in the morning. Gangsters hardly ever looked in on the club. They found it boring there, the music was too heavy for them, and even the ones who did come quickly drifted off. It was a young people's club.
Parties were often held in a marathon format — started on the 31st, finished on the 2nd. We slept in the club, ate in the club — that's how we lived.
The number of people on the dance floor depended on whether people had money at that moment. Sometimes we let them in on credit. I remember a boy who once came in and brought five dollars in three notes — collectors' items, from 1936 and 1949. He had evidently «borrowed» them from his father's collection and brought them to the club. The cashier hesitated a long time over whether to take them. In the end, I put roubles into the till and took those dollars for my own collection. They're still around, by the way.
I worked at the club as a DJ, an ordinary hired hand. They paid me a lot, 30 dollars a night. Serious money for the time, especially for a student. Although other places paid noticeably more. Once Kompas and I played at Manhattan Express. I don't know how much Polyakov sold us there for, but he came up to us and asked: «How much do you want?». Lyosha said very proudly — «Fifty». And that was for playing just an hour each. Polyakov pulled out a hundred and proudly handed it to us. We parted ways happy.