Feature

Nightlife '99: Wild, Wild Week

6:30amTHE SHELTER
@ Vinyl

With its multiculti cast of dreadlocked break-dancers in Adidas sweat suits, Japanese club kids in designer street clothes, and Puerto Ricans wearing their flag as headgear, the "Shelter" party at Vinyl is as close as New York City gets to "One Nation Under a Groove." And it's not just the crowd that's diverse: "Shelter" has hosted such performers as Femi Kuti and Mary J. Blige, and resident D.J. Timmy Regisford provides an eclectic mix of music that ranges from house to Afro-beat. "We've got a mosaic crowd here," says Regisford, "but what unites us is that we love music and we love to dance." A recent night drew everyone from dedicated dancers in Lycra to partyers who brought overnight bags to stay until morning, when the club served cake and fruit. "Sometimes people need a break from all this dancing," Regisford said with a wry smile. "And we've got sustenance for them when they're ready." 6 Hubert Street (212-439-4141)
E.B.

SUNDAY

6:00pmBODY & SOUL
@ Vinyl

It may not look like much -- a throng of especially hardy weekend warriors packed wall-to-wall in what looks like a high-school gym -- but Vinyl's "Body & Soul" party was named best club in the world by the British youth culture magazine The Face. Why? Whether they're hard-core revelers still working off a Saturday-night buzz or early risers who just love disco-flavored house music, clubgoers at "Body & Soul" concentrate on one thing: dancing. The media attention the party has received has led to overcrowding on the dance floor, but it's still one of the most uninhibited games in town. On a recent Sunday afternoon, break-dancers in eighties track suits and Brits in Stüssy gear grooved to D.J.'s François K and Joe Clausell as other partyers kept the beat with wooden blocks. The audience participation doesn't end there: One regular often waves a pair of toy Star Wars light sabers onstage as though he's conducting the action. Other weeks, he just holds aloft two "stone" tablets -- the Ten Commandments of "Body & Soul." Everyone obeys at least one: "Thou shalt jack thou body." 6 Hubert Street (212-330-9169)
D.S.

12:00amSTICKY MIKE'S
@ 2i's

Outside 2i's "Sticky Mike's" party, you can smell the reggae before you hear it. On a recent Sunday, smoke obscured the visibility on the second floor, but it didn't seem to bother the dreadlocked raggas listening, swaying, and singing to "cultural music" -- traditional message-oriented reggae and dub -- spun by D.J. DX. When he played Bob Marley standards and new hits from Tony Rebel, he cut the volume to reveal the mostly black, mostly male audience singing along with reverence as well as enthusiasm. Downstairs, you could hear the sappiness before you could see it -- a few scattered Polo-clad couples made out on cheap black couches as R&B slow jams by R. Kelly and TLC played in the background. Still, the vibes were all good. "Love is universal," said a reggae musician leaning against the wall upstairs. "I've partied in the Tunnel, in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Ohio -- everywhere. I'm from Belize, but originally I'm from the universe." 248 West 14th Street (212-807-1775)
L.H.

12:00Am
THE TOWNHOUSE

The Townhouse may be the only bar in Manhattan with wall-to-wall carpeting -- and it has the Dewar's-and-disco atmosphere to match. "Nice cigarette case," a goateed young guy remarked to a distinctly pear-shaped older man on a recent Sunday night. "That's nothing," he replied, "Take a look at this watch." In the spacious back lounge, a gregarious maestro tinkled Noël Coward's "I Went to a Marvelous Party" on the grand piano to misty-eyed male onlookers of every age. "This is surely one of Coward's best," proclaimed one devotee. His snarky companion wrinkled his nose. But they both noticed a blond-haired boy across the room. "He's a new one," said the Coward enthusiast. "No, he's not," his friend proclaimed, and they burst into laughter. Beside them hung a painting of a fox scampering away from a pack of snarling hounds. 236 East 58th Street (212-754-4649)
D. de K.

1:00amTESTPRESS
@ Drinkland

"Testpress" is where techno-club flyers go to die. Stacks of Day-Glo postcards are piled on the faux-modernist tables, on the bar -- even on the floor of the bathroom. The party is home away from home for East Village drum-'n'-bass devotees, but most just use the cards as coasters. On a recent Sunday, drum-'n'-bass D.J.'s Cassien and Seoul mixed sputtering beats as three European expats debated whether "two turntables and a microphone" included one more microphone than was strictly necessary. "Why do you need a mike?" one demanded. His drinking companion averred, "The mike is my fookin' tool -- I hold it like a weapon." As the rest of the drinkers nodded to the beats thumping in the background, a thrift-store-chic bartender explained to a newcomer that "this really isn't a drinking crowd. Most people don't dance, either. They just wanna listen." 339 East 10th Street (212-774-7468)
L.H.