Teens Hesitant to Say I Love You to Club 143

Santa Cruz teens between the ages of 14 and 19 lined down Pacific Avenue on Sunday evening in anticipation of The Catalyst’s first night of Club 143.

The teen club, a product of a small start-up promotional company called SD Entertainment Group, was located in decidedly adult-themed Atrium Room. Coors Light flyers hung from the ceiling promoting a drink no one could imbibe, and a huge tusked elephant head  stared at large row boat hanging above the bar Teen décor? Not exactly. 

At eight o’clock, when the club was supposed to start there were only a handful of kids inside— more would trickle in throughout the night. In the beginning most of the teens just stood around and talked while the DJ played music to an empty dance floor. “There’s really good dancers here that aren’t dancing,” said Stefan Warmuth, 19, “I find that it’s usually in their early twenties that people really start dancing.”

Warmuth certainly knows a thing or two about what to do on the dance floor. While the early arrivers stood amongst themselves in their protected little circles, Warmuth jumped into the middle of the floor and began showing off his moves. “I used to dance outside of clubs like this until they would let me in” Warmuth says to me when I finally managed to catch him standing still.

“It’s really great that they have a younger peoples dance here, the Catalyst concerts usually aren’t that great for dancing.”

As the night went on and the room started to fill, teens converged in the middle of the room. Warmuth moved smooth as silk across the heated dance floor amongst the nervous-looking dancers.

Multicolored lights hung from the ceiling and illuminated the room and a couple of bright spotlights shone on the dance floor which the teens avoided like vampires.

Daisy Thayer, 16, dressed in a light blue dress giggled when asked about what she would change in the club.

“We need strobe lights,” she said, glancing over at the dance floor, “and less light for sure. We don’t want to be there for everyone to see, we want to just be in the crowd.” She added that the water should be free.

This is something a lot of people agreed on since the bar charges two dollars for water, money the teens don’t have after already having to pay the steep $21 door charge. Those on tighter budgets rehydrated from the tap in the bathroom before rejoining the heated throng.

The music, played by Santa Cruz resident deejay, DJ Quam, was mostly hip-hop and dance music. If the variety suffered, the beats made up for lack of range, drawing on the alluring and hypnotic.

Above the atrium, adults looked down at the sweaty rolling mass of teenagers and their grinding hips. The teens either didn’t notice or didn’t care how appropriate or inappropriate they appeared.

But whether it was lighting, hovering adults or first night jitters, the vibe wasn’t quite like going to a “real” club. There wasn’t that feel of independence so craved by the targeted age group. Club 143, on this first night, at least, felt more like going to a school dance, and though it was easy to be hypnotized by the heavy beats and sway with the crowd, feeling like they’re still at school in the summer is the last thing teens want.

One way Club 143 did have an adult feel was the slipping, sliding, under-age drinkers who were carried out by security. These were very subtle events: the security guard half-supporting, half-carrying, the stumbling teen and quietly escorting them out of the atrium through the side door hardly went noticed at all. While the security on the inside dealt with these disturbances well, the security at the entrance was far from air-tight, letting in guests without checking for any drugs or alcohol.

The dress code was another rule thrown aside. On the Facebook page for the event, a message saying: “GENTLEMEN: NO HOODIES, ATHLETIC ATTIRE (JERSEYS, SWEATS, ATHLETIC SHORTS)” and “LADIES: PLEASE NO UNDERGARMENTS SHOWING & NO LARGE HANDBAGS, NO BEACH FLIP FLOPS.” Teens, it should be noted, have no trouble finding loopholes when it comes to dress code. They’ve been practicing this for years.

“No undergarments showing” proved too easy to dodge because some girls wore spandex so small and shirts so short that it seemed as though they hadn’t gotten dressed so much as just let scraps of cloth fall onto them.

Guys, for the most part, wore flannels, T-shirts, jeans and the occasional hat. Despite the mixture of area schools there was no sense of rivalry or tension between kids. “It’s really fun,” Daisy Thayer says. “It’s got a lot of energy and gets a lot of people together. I think it’s a really great place.”

Club 143 is supposed to happen every Sunday this summer but many may find that the cost deterring many of those on a budget. Despite the price, though, most kids when asked said they liked the dance and that they’d definitely come back.

“There are other clubs that include all ages and they have lines around the block,” says Warmuth. “So I think this club will spread if anything.”