In the
mid to late 80s, FL Morris photographed the club scene at the edge of
Waikiki. This scene considered itself to be an alternative to the mainstream.
The borders between the two were marked by clothing and music modeled
after the Mod scene in London and Berlin. The Mods also blurred the
boundary between genders and sexual orientations.
This scene
took place primarily around three clubs The Phase, Pink
Cadillac, and after 2AM, The Wave, the only alternative club
that stayed open until 4. The kids were in their late teens and early
twenties, almost exclusively local. Music was Mod and Industrial. The
drugs of choice were mostly XTC, acid, a little cocaine, and a whole
lot of booze.
The
Phase was open from 1985 to 1986. The dance floor was connected
through a hallway to Masquerade a much more mainstream club primarily
frequented by former 'popular' kids from high school who still liked
to hang out with each other. Once you got inside one club or the other,
you would be able to go back and forth freely. This freedom was mostly used by the Mod kids.
Anyone
who had been inside Masquerade or The Phase knew they
were connected through a corridor. Unlike the line at The Phase,
the one to get into Masquerade was always packed. But few of
the kids in the Masquerade line would enter through the Mod club
side.
Underaged
kids hung out at the 711 parking lot at the corner, ever hopeful that
the bouncers would slacken the ID check momentarily.
This alternative
scene died out in Waikiki after 1989 partially caused by the drinking
age in Hawaii changing from 18 to 21 around that time. Morris'
theory is that it also had something to do with the fall of the Berlin
Wall.
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