One day in 2018, Kerri Chandler was in New York City trying to track down some of his old haunts: famous clubs where he had DJ’d with mentors such as David Mancuso, Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan. He stopped on one street in front of a familiar building, scaffolded and covered in netting, and peeked through. “They just happened to be gutting the Paradise Garage,” he says with a shudder. “I put my hands over my face. I couldn’t believe they did that. I’m glad I have it as a memory, but if you haven’t seen pictures of it, you would never know it existed.”
Chandler knows the bittersweet aftertaste that club closures can leave. The deep house pioneer was 13 when he began warming up for his DJ father in New Jersey nightclubs, balancing on milk crates to reach the turntables. The first time he took a flight was to play London’s Ministry of Sound at 19. He spun at the Paradise Garage, one of New York’s greatest clubs, just before it shut in 1987. He’s seen too many beloved dancefloors come and go. “It’s like watching your friend die.”
