Saturday January 23rd 2016 marks “Sneak Peak Opening” of #Afterlife being held at the Annex Night Club. The following weekend (Jan 29-30) will mark the inaugural night of the club’s resurgence into the Chicago scene. The Annex is located at 1958 W North Ave, on the edge of Wicker Park & Bucktown. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Bobby De Maria (Managing Partner/ Creator of #Afterlife) to get to scoop on everything and anything you’d like to know about this new event and hot spot. But first a little background on Annex:
Most notably the space was home to the locally famous Red Dog Nightclub in the early 90’s. Red Dog was one of the premier spots for true House Music during its existence. The club was often competing for acts with Crobar at the time. For several years the club also played host to the World Famous Boom Boom Room, which went on to become the longest running House party in the United States – roughly 24 years. Following Red Dog, the space had a stint where it was known as Ohm, which saw its better days as a Hip Hop Club.
WSC: How did #Afterlife get into talks to resurrect the club?
Bobby: Honestly, a lot of it was good timing. The owners were thinking about remodeling the club, but wanted to be sure they had some solid brands and parties involved before they made the call. They had just hired our boy Joey Swanson ( Radio host of 101.1fm’s Electric Playground & Creator of Boom Boom Room) to coordinate the remodel/ re-brand. In turn Joey gave me a call and asked if I wanted to be involved with the space. I said of course and I went in for a meeting and pitched #Afterlife. The owner and the GM, Mike Cho, loved the concept of the night. They thought the branding behind the party was great and the “Come as you are, be who you are” vibe was perfect for the spot. A lot of the shows they did at Red Dog were similar to what we do, so I could only imagine that’s why we all vibed so well.