Quite possibly the coolest club of the 1980's! "Footage from a California new wave synthpop club is mesmerizing and awesome" - Dangerous Minds.
00:00 - She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult.
04:14 - I need a Freak - Sexual Harrassment.
07:24 - Summertime Summertime - Nocera.
11:31 - Shake it Up - Divine.
14:35 - Jolene - Strawberry Switchblade.
Isabella Ibarra at the Southeast Career Technical Academy deserves full credit for an excellent compilation she put together featuring the patrons of the Stratus Dance Club in the San Diego area (actually Spring Valley) in 1986 and 1987. The clips were quite chopped and muddled so I set them to the music playing in the club, updating the video and replacing the audio in the process.
This was East County, and Stratus was a club that catered heavily to the new romantic and goth crowds—these videos are all labeled “The Metro Beat and Club Sanctuary Nights” which was an 18-21 event and a regular rendezvous for the new wavers in the area. Jane’s Addiction actually played Stratus right during this period, in the spring of 1987.
The clips start us off with the Cult’s “She Sells Sanctuary,” there’s a good deal of Divine (both “Shake It Up” and “Native Love (Step by Step)”) and Sexual Harassment (”I Need a Freak”) and Strawberry Switchblade’s version of “Jolene” and Trans-X (”Living on Video”) alongside more enduring faves.
