> About / History

Before The Bunker was *The Bunker* it was The Polar Bear Club with residents Timeblind and Mike Wolf. In three years they brought in hundreds of guests ... worldwide superstars, local heros, and plenty of new faces. Some of their guests you may have heard of are: Errorsmith, Kit Clayton, Sutekh, i-Sound, Goodiepal, Kevin Blechdom, Safety Scissors, Matmos, Neil Landstrumm, and Francesco Lopez. Visualists Giles Hendrix and Chris Jordan were an important part of the Polar Bear Club and carried this tradition over to the Bunker.

In January 2003, after Mike decided he might like to go somewhere besides subTonic on Friday nights (three years is a long time), the Polar Bear went to sleep, yielding The Bunker with Timeblind and DJ Spinoza. At this time, subTonic only had two speakers (no subwoofers), and no video projector. Soon after the inception of The Bunker, Timeblind, like so many frustrated New Yorkers, decided he needed to move to Berlin for a while, and left the Bunker in the care of Spinoza, Movement, and kleverVice. At this point, it was still very eclectic, sometimes experimental, sometimes four to the floor wild dance party.

kleverVice moved to City Island in the Bronx in early 2006 to enjoy real community and a view of the ocean, and pursue other non-music projects. She still stops by from time to time to tell us great stories (and occasionally play amazing records). We miss her.

Movement left us to study Plant Biology at UC Berkley in July 2006. His opening set for Bruno Pronsato at his going away party tore the goddamn roof off of subTonic and will be remembered by everyone in attendance for a very long time. He is currently focused on music production under the Konrad Schierling alias. He has released a remix on the Wolf + Lamb net label and will be putting out a proper 12” on Goosehound soon.

After nearly six years (!!!) of service, resident visualists Chris Jordan and Giles Hendrix left The Bunker in the summer of 2006. The massive amount of time and energy these guys put into the party over the years is greatly appreciated, and we will miss having them around.

Now, the Bunker is in the hands of longtime ringleader Spinoza and new resident DJ Derek Plaslaiko, with Seze handling the photography and hostess duties. We are more or less entirely focused on quality techno and house, keeping people dancing all night until the staff turns the lights on (sometimes even longer). We have some of our favorite producers and DJs from around the world dropping by for sets almost every week now. The vibe just keeps getting darker, dancier, and more debaucherous every week … we like it that way.