So, after 25 buildups and tear-downs, Area closed in early 1987 with "Childhood," a nice symbolic touch suggesting a life lived backward. For years after, I felt a twinge of nostalgia whenever I passed the site, at 157 Hudson Street in TriBeCa. When something like Area comes along, you think, This is a first! But when you think, This is a first, it's often really a last. Area suggested a brilliant future, where night life and art would merge. And they did, for a moment, with reckless abandon.
Clockwise from top left: a wigged-out Michael Musto, left, and Albert Crudo; Bernard Zette; a ˜˜Science Fiction'' night.