New York’s Hottest Club is the Friends You Meet Along The Way

My problem with so-called exclusive clubs in Manhattan right now, and probably throughout the last ten years, is the constipated look on the faces of at least half the people at any given place. Though New Yorkers get a bad rep for being generally unfriendly, I’ve found that in the right places, you can walk through a club and make a million one-night-best-friends and maybe even keep some for longer. You can leave with some type of hope in your heart— community isn't dead! This was the hope for me going to Club Silencio, which just opened this past February. 

The space is a sister club to the Silencio in Paris, which was designed by David Lynch. It’s the home of Cannes Film Festival afters, artsy burlesque shows, and surprise Cher performances. I wouldn’t necessarily call it underground. But the David Lynch moniker holds in New York, and traveling up to the much less frequented Hell’s Kitchen creates an air of intentionality with the crowd. I spoke to a group of friends who had met at the Silencio Paris at a fashion week party. They held each other's shoulders and reveled in the circularity of their reunion at the New York location. 

The club is small; its one room is lined with dim red lights. I heard one person compare it to a frat basement, only excused from this criticism because of the red velvet walls and floor. The space looks Lynchian enough, so it gets to be on the cover of the most recent “Them” Issue with Tilda Swinton and Jolio Torres. My favorite part of the club’s design is the hallway leading to the coat check. It is just large enough to have a row of people leaning against each wall, squishing everyone looking for a smoke break into each other, prompting good conversation. It’s open but still mostly inside, so much less cold than standing fully outside the venue. I met musicians and filmmakers, and jewelry makers, and people who did photography on the side. My least favorite part is the curtains, which separate the elevated space for the tables from the main space. Even though this first-class curtain is built into a lot of clubs, because of how small the space is, it's extra noticeable and causes a lot of people to try to push up to that area, leaving the actual dancefloor comically spacious. I’m only nitpicking because I care. 

I was there for Freakquencies, run by Harrison Smith, aka The Dare, who was down in the pit with the plebes before his DJ set. Good to know he’s a man of the people. He has been running these DJ sets along with other guest DJs, that night accompanied by Jackson Walker Lewis and Thoom, since the release of his super popular EP, Sex. Music became the great equalizer, and each set brought out the best in everyone like an exorcism. About this iteration of the New York Frequencies, he said it went about as good as any of his other international versions of the party. About the design of Silencio itself he said, “What more can you ask for? It’s red. It's sexy.” 

Because the drinks are 30 dollars, the space felt palpably sober in the last hour I was there. The people I found who were having the most fun, were the group of girls who clearly had been friends for the majority of this formative part of their early 20s. They had come to see The Dare, and they were going to enjoy every last second of his set. As the floor emptied, they danced across the venue, embracing each other periodically. The eternal truth of it is that you have to make your own fun anywhere you go, but doing it under the red lights of Silencio is as good a place as any to do it. New York’s Hottest Club is the friends you make along the way.