Kasper

On 7/22/2023 at 11:32 PM, bugtoaster said:

I remember eating at a late-night, UFO/alien-themed restaurant in 1992, on either Richmond or Westheimer. I guess it could have been described as '50s style as well. I was pretty impressed with the decor, and I remember a lot of blue light. Sorry I can't remember the name. (Even sorrier I can't provide info on Highrise Tower's request about the girls at the Reno Club - they sure are a bunch of lookers who embody all that Houston has to offer!)

It was the only one circa '92 (or ever that I can recall) so was definitely the same one & on Richmond, directly across from 6400 which had already burned, demo'd & rebuilt as Back Alley at that point (I helped opened BA & worked the door there for awhile). The diner was owned/bankrolled/run by a couple of the old Power Tools crew (I worked there as well from time to time). The owner/GM was a female but too many brain cells gone to remember her name...super cool, tatted, short platinum blonde hair. Jeebus that was so long ago....

'the girls at the Reno Club - they sure are a bunch of lookers who embody all that Houston has to offer'

If I recall, that's the University of Texas Longhorns cheerleading squad. (yes, I'm an Aggie)

. "Pressley". Sure this wasn't an impersonator??  😁

Bandwagon, late entry but the Debbie Downer(s) fired me up. Can't say enough good things about all the (mostly) innocent fun we had in the 80's all over Houston & the surrounding towns...every place was THE place to be with the right attitude. As a mid-to-late teen with rose-colored goggles firmly in place, here's my top 10 100 wrapped up in bunches:

• I wasn't bar/club age yet in '84-85ish so a couple of the under age venues like BJ's on Dairy Ashford & Carz on Katy Fwy & even NRG in the early days (anyone else see Rupaul or Dead Or Alive there??). Then a plethora of emerging dance clubs crossing over into the wave & industrial genre right at my peak age & interest on the back half of the decade when I could slide by looking "old enough" or "knowing people" & then actually turning 18:  NRG, Xcess, Numbers, Rich's, Homage/Limelight/Red Square (hung out with Depeche Mode there in '89), Club SOME/EMOS, Power Tools (actually worked there in the early 90's), 6400, road trips to Starck Club & others in Dallas. Not to mention countless hours talking music with Bruce & the guys at Record Rack, buying whatever new bomb track we heard the night before & the latest releases coming thru the best record store in the state. 
• The FOOD! I gather it's still quite the mecca of cuisine because of the insane diversity there but man, you could eat like a king on very little money quite literally 24/7, pick your regional flavor. Most memorable are the after hour places like Mai's downtown, House of Guys, One's A Meal (correct me if I'm wrong but was it Biba's, right??), La Jalicience on Montrose. Or whichever Denny's or JoJo's was closest to the club we just left...seems like no matter which one you ended up at, there were a bunch of people you knew from the scene so there was always an after party getting planned. Hard to believe how small that big ass became so fast in short a short time.
• The Malls! Another place you could kill hours & spend very little money meeting up with friends, cruising chicks & meeting tons of people from other schools. The Galleria was a fave for the ice rink, arcade & general people watching/meeting, but also because we had a way to get to the roof of Galleria III to hang out all night, drink & listen to music without getting hassled (SEE PIC..Z Cavaricci flames absolutely appropriate!). Even found a way INTO the mall to aimlessly wander the halls window shopping after closing (until actual indoor security started walking the mall...which then became a game). Those polished marble & granite floors were the best rollerblading surfaces imaginable. Poor Blart didn't have a chance then!
• Cruising Westheimer, of course. Endless weekend hours some would say wasted but I learned a helluva lot about people, class structure, social awareness & tolerance on that strip. Absolute priceless 4-year degree at Street Smarts University.
• Being close to the coast. Galveston was a second home for so long, always someone's beach house or a group of us cramming into a condo on school days off, holiday weekends, etc. And of course, close enough to South Padre for Spring Break to make the trip worthwhile. A couple of my spring break weeks there actually lasted TWO!
• Astrodome & Astroworld. These places basically became my parents' nanny pre-drivers license days. Mom would drop us off for a $5 Oilers or Astros game & get the next 3 hours free, or at the gate of Astroworld at opening for about 12 hours of no-kid bliss in the summers. Season passes & $20 went a LONG way back in the day.
• Countless concerts (from Kool & The Gang to George Straight to U2) & other shenanigans at The Dome, including many Live Stock Show & Rodeo days. Probably isn't a section of seats I haven't parked my ass in at some point btwn 1980 & '96 when Bud Adams eloped to Tennessee (I moved to Austin a year later). Even played a HS football playoff game there in '85.
• Concerts at Astroworld's Southern Star Amphitheater: Cheap Trick in '84 (the first actual large concert I bought a ticket for) & Billy Idol the same year (no ticket, we peeped/listened through/over the fence & rode Greased Lightening right next to it at least a dozen times to catch a glimpse of the stage for that 2 second hangtime before freefalling backwards around the loop again), OMD & Depeche Mode in '88
• Concerts at The Summit. My mom worked for the property mgmt firm that handled the venue & had a whole primo section of seats just for employees/friends/families so I basically lived there in the 80s & 90s. The most memorable ones of this particular decade were:
  • 1984 - Springsteen Born in the USA & Van Halen's 1984
  • 1985 - Prince's Purple Rain tour, Beastie Boys getting boo'd offstage opening for Madonna's Virgin Tour
  • 1986 - David Lee Roth/Cinderella, Journey, Peter Gabriel
  • 1987 - The Cult, Def Leppard, Bowie, Beastie Boys (again) this time headlining w/Run DMC & also where all 6 of us in my car had our first brush with the law for 'Minor In Possession'...$50 ticket for underage beer drinking in the parking garage before the show: "Here's your ticket, enjoy the show!" The real tragedy was actually forcing us to dump all the beer that was in the trunk. Easily 3 cases. #firstworldprobs
  • 1988 - INXS/PIL, U2, David Lee Roth/Poison, KISS, Michael Jackson & Prince

I'm guessing my "era" had just a bit better timing for all of this to converge but I can't imagine I'd get anywhere near these life experiences anywhere else. People look at me weird when they ask me my favorite of the many cities I've lived in when I say Houston, but I always caveat that with "in the 80's".

On 8/12/2009 at 7:53 PM, Gary said:

I remember a club called "The Fizz" on Richmond (about a block east of Fondren) that was so hot they had people being bussed in. I also seem to remember that it was before exctasy was made illegal and they would have the pills in glass bowls before you walked in the door. Of course my memory may be a little fuzzy on that one.

Fizz became Hippo's, which then hopped on the new wave/industrial dance craze with a Sunday nights only residence called 'Club 6400'. Which of course went over so well it became the world-famous club full time. 

"The roof! The roof! The roof is on fire!

We don't need no water let the motherf-er burn!"

On 6/10/2019 at 12:02 PM, Sharon said:

I think Cardi's has its own thread. It was past cool-it was legendary!!!

Every few years I wax nostalgic about growing up in TX, early teens thru mid 20's in Houston in particular, so I'll have to look up the Cardi's thread. It was the official first "adult" bar I ever went to with my own ID & was able to drink (albeit not exactly legally) . Saw the Outfield there in '86 which was an all-ages show but the drinking age was still 18 at the time so when the show was over apparently my buddy & I looked 18 & they didn't hassle us to leave with the the other kids. 

And of course followed that by the weekly Westheimer cruise, since we were in the neighborhood & all.

If I'm not mistaken, nothing. Pretty sure it was built on an empty lot from the ground up in '88

On 8/31/2015 at 6:45 PM, djrage said:

Since Railhead the building at 6400 Richmond at Unity became

Fizz (1984-1986)

Hippo (1986-1988)

6400 (1988-1/8/1989) burned down 

 

New building (1991)

Back Alley

Fitzgeralds West

Texas Live

Peter's Wildlife

6400 Sports Bar

T-Town 2000

Club Bar Rio

Stereo Live

Hey Rage, I follow you on Mixcloud, coincidentally found you here looking for some old Richmond venue info! Knew & had been to most of the incarnations of the 6400 location & actually was part of the crew that opened Back Alley in 91-92 (Blake Davidson spun there in the beginning). Do you (or anyone) remember the retro 50's style diner that was right across the street from Back Alley around 92/93? It lived almost exactly as long as BA then disappeared. I recall that the female owner was also part of an ownership group of other clubs around Houston in the 80s, possibly Power Tools. Could be way off base tho. Also, I recall the diner having a UFO/alien theme to it & it was referenced in the name but can't for the life of me remember what it was called. It was open late & I think 24 hrs over the weekend so we'd always end up there after club-hopping. Was heavy into Power Tools at the time, where I had also moonlighted for a bit in '94 when their door guy left them stranded.

Oh I got stories about the Galleria!  I pretty much grew up in the Galleria from 1983 until I moved to Austin in 1997. Parents frequently took me there & the general Galleria/Memorial area for shopping, dinners, Farrell's, ice skating, Christmas festivities, etc. until I was old enough to drive, then I practically lived there. When I wasn't working in one of the many clothing shops (almost exclusively for the discounts), we were hanging out there during the days, & sneaking back in at night to party, show off to our girlfriends, rollerblade the smooth floors. Remember vividly working at DJ's/Dejaiz & Cignal (the "high end" stores under the Merry-Go-Round umbrella), Tannery West (before Wilsons bought all the leather places out), Barney's of NY. Had many close friends that worked all over the mall:  Tiffany, Chanel,  Saks, Lord & Taylor, North Beach Leather, Charles Jourdan shoes, Wild Pair.  Seems like we'd see someone we knew really well every 5 minutes there. 

Also plenty of celebrity sightings. Had some local celebs (political types & news personalities) that were regular customers at some of the places I worked but we'd also run into all the local ball players & other athletes that trained there for Olympics, etc. Met Michelle Kwan at the ice rink (sooo tiny!! I was at least a foot taller than her). Used to see bigger celebs roaming the halls in between work. Saw an entourage of flashy folks headed my way & in the middle was Morris Day from The Time.  I normally say something to famous people if they make eye contact & it doesn't look like I'm chasing them down but he was so f-ing suave & in his own bubble that I just let him float by. He did notice that I recognized him so he flashed a huge smile, nodded a "what's up" and winked. That whole group looked they were in a music video.

Also spied another one of my musical idols Alex Van Halen walking the 2nd floor above where I was working and realized & was coming down the escalator in front of my store so I strolled out to meet him when he hit the bottom. We had already nodded a what's up at each other & he knew I was coming out so I guess already planned on having that fan chat. SUPER gracious dude, walked right up to me with his hand out, asked me how I was doing, etc. Told him I'd always been a huge fan, named a few of my fave songs ("Dude. Hot For Teacher. Are you KIDDING ME with that intro???"). My female coworker knew I wouldn't ask for an autograph but would treasure it so she ran out with a blank card & asked him to sign it TO ME! Lol Glad she did that now. It's been stored away for several years but remember exactly what it says. Addressed it to me by name & said "Keep rockin'!" & drew a stick figure of I assume himself but looks more like Ed, holding up his drumsticks, big hair & all.

Mentioned a few other nefarious events around the mall on other posts here: the "Mall High Club" in the glass elevators, crashing the hotel roof pool at night & watching what were most likely extramarital affairs and/or porn shoots going on live, lights-on thru open curtains, sneaking in from the roof really late at night into what used to be called Galleria III (not sure about the naming for the different sections now) into the smoothie place & either eating the ingredients or actually making smoothies. This is the area that had the newest, smoothest floors to rollerblade on, it was like an ice rink. It was also a relatively small square around the area so we'd have obstacle course/roller derby races. They eventually started rotating a security guard to roam the hallways of the whole mall but it was easy to time his loops by peeping thru the skylights in multiple parts of the mall from the roof. We knew once he left area III we had a good 30 minutes for shenanigans in that part of the mall. Rinse & repeat.

Too bad there were no cell phone cameras back then, would've had several movies worth of material! I do have some random disposable camera pics somewhere though but nothing too incriminating. Here's one of me & a couple of besties hanging out on the roof of Saks at like 2 or 3 am after some random night out in 1988, either at NRG or Xcess on a Saturday night. I'm on the far left. These are some of my best memories really, just a few chill friends with a boombox of good music, drinking beers under the stars & looking out at the Houston skyline, talking til sunrise.

On 12/18/2021 at 1:14 PM, BEES?! said:

 

I’m always curious to learn more about the Galleria. I spent a fair amount of time there growing up (we went on “vacations” there a lot and always had a good time. We usually stayed at one of the attached hotels- but I can’t remember if it was the Oaks or the Galleria. One of them was less expensive, if I remember right- that was the one we stayed at.

I remember we got a cat from the SPCA outpost that was there in 2001- it was over in the really low traffic part of the mall (I think this was III), that ended up getting torn down and replaced. 

There was also a weird- I think it was a freight or service elevator- that my brothers and I would go into. I don’t remember that it was actually supposed to be public, but that didn’t stop us if it wasn’t. I also don’t remember where it actually went, but we ventured in there a couple of times as kids. 
 

The offices were always a bit strange, with the little balconies they had. We used to ride the elevators to the top floor and back for fun. We were very easily entertained kids, for sure. I recently went back (after covid), and was a bit sad that they don’t let you take the elevators to the top without a card key, it seems. (It was also super hot, like they didn’t have the A/C on. We were able to get up to the 5th or 6th floor, and we were dying. Are the higher floors not leased out, I wonder?)

Truth be told, I don’t venture much there anymore, even though I have a soft spot for it. Generally these days if I want to go to a mall, it’s Memorial City- they have done an excellent job making it a very comfortable place to eat, shop, and just hang out. 

So those glass elevators exposed to that whole part of the mall & offices....one of the big 'bucket list' challenges we had back in high school (in the 80's) was to have sex in one from the time it took the doors to close, get to the top floor then back down again. Pretty easy feat at 17. Matter of fact, a buddy of mine has the record for twice in one trip. Good times.  

On 5/21/2008 at 2:33 PM, rsb320 said:

We used to look at swimming pool-goers with binoculars, at the Oaks, from the Galleria II Towers

Every try binocs to watch the "swimming pool-goers" a block over at The Men's Club?? Yeah, there's an open-air VIP pool back there, shaped like a giant grand piano iirc

On 5/21/2008 at 1:51 PM, Vertigo58 said:

Thats hilarious!

There hasn't beem much comments on the adjoining hotels, they deserve some of the notoriety of the Galleria ambiance.

We had our Stephen F Austin HS PROM at the Westin Oaks Hotel 1979 and then the reunion 20 years later 1999. Have mostly interior pics. Just the fact that we had our prom at The world famous Galleria made us think we were super special grads that great year!

We used to watch people walk around naked & have sex with the curtains open there back in the day. Lights on at night...guessing on purpose. There was a spot you could get onto the roof near the pool that gave you a view you couldn't get elsewhere. We used to climb to there then hop the fence to swim late at night in the summer & in the winter they usually drained it so we'd skateboard, make out "and stuff".

On 5/21/2008 at 10:20 AM, rsb320 said:

Banana Repub was at (say) the southwest corner of the ice rink, on the second or third level of the Galleria I. I think it was more like the late 80's. I worked in the Galleria Towers during the mid 80's and think it came later.

I believe you're thinking of Yaga Ragz. Really small Jamaican-inspired store decorated just like this & carried mostly their own brand of t-shirts (remember the 'Mo Bettah' & 'Da Rootz Vibe' catchphrases they used on stuff) but a handful of OP, Hobie, Stussy, & Mossimo shirts & shorts back in the very beginnings of those surf fashion companies. That family started on the streets of Galveston in the 80's & moved their way up to the big leagues in the Galleria by the early 90's. Had LOTS of stuff from that store.

On 5/21/2008 at 9:28 AM, rsb320 said:

Does anybody remember the Yogurt Culture on the second level of the Galleria II? They made a killer quiche. Oh, nevermind, guys don't eat quiche.

There was an always-broken fire exit door to/from the roof that would dump you right behind this place in the food court up there. We used to roam the halls all hours of the night back in the late 80s

Reviving an old thread because such good memories! Here's a good resource for TX music venues, including these:

http://rockinhouston.com/venues/sam-houston-coliseum/54?groupBy=Years

http://rockinhouston.com/venues/houston-music-hall/55?groupBy=Years

It's obviously not a complete list since I saw bands at the very end of these venues' runs that aren't listed at all like the Beastie Boys/Cypress Hill/Rollins Band in Nov 1992, Ministry in Dec of the same year, & the Black Crowes' High as the Moon show in '93. It was a really rough hall by that point, seriously felt like it would cave in on us at any moment. At one point in the Crowes show the monitor/speaker stack on one side of the stage fell into the first few rows of the audience prompting a huge apology from the band because it cut the show short (luckily by only a couple of songs) & a promise from Chris Robinson that they would be back ASAP & play for free to those of us that hung on to tickets stubs. That next free show ended up being the one that was broadcast live around the world &  ended up as the "High In Houston" bootleg CD from the radio recordings and now legally available as "Texan Tornado".  It was the very last show to be held at the Coliseum. There are a couple of videos on YouTube of the whole show, albeit shaky audience handheld ones, but historic nonetheless.

Several friends & I worked at various stores in the Galleria between 1988 & 1992, haven't seen its layout in years but can remember many store locations from that era if this project ever materializes. 

15 hours ago, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

 

 

My ex wife was at that party (Elsik '87). She said the band they hired was booed off the stage within 5 minutes of starting, which I thought was funny because the party organizers chose that band over the one I worked for at the time. We also would have been booed off the stage- the band formed before those kids were born... LOL

Ha! There was an actual band there?? I didn't hear about that, assumed it would be the regular DJs that spun there, which honestly weren't that bad at all. My group opted for a non-quarantined evening of house party hopping then straight to Galveston for the weekend. Pretty typical summer agenda.

On 11/4/2007 at 4:34 AM, stormko said:

I used to go to Fame City every weekend around 1987 thru 1989 or so. The teen club upstairs was called Studio Circus, and the DJ's name was Alex C. That was a cool place because teenagers actually had a place where they could go dance and hear cool music. Alex would break songs there that hadn't even hit the radio yet. You can't find places like that for that age group anymore. Kids used to actually practice dance routines and do them at the club. Alex would even play a few slow songs--something you never get at clubs these days. And everyone knew each other there. The guy at the door's name was Marcus and the refreshment girl was Margarita.

There was also a club downstairs that catered to an older crowd. I don't remember the original name, but at some point, Alex C took it over and they called it I.C.Q. There was art painted on the walls by a guy named Dez.

I'd assume that a lot of the people who went to Fame City regularly were kids from Elsik and Hastings high schools.

I've since moved from Houston, and it's a shame if that place went downhill or if it doesn't exist anymore. All good things, they say, never last.

: /

Yup, can confirm it was mostly an Elsik & Hastings hangout. It was actually pretty great for approximately 2 years but that's what happens when you build a place specifically for an age group & that age group is notoriously fickle about what's cool & what's not. And yeah the demographic changed just as quickly, by 89-90 it got pretty ghetto but it was pretty cool in the early days.  Lots of games, the couple of clubs actually did play good music, the water park was  legit & we played beach volleyball religiously almost every day for at least one of those summers. My senior year in 87 they hosted a joint Elsik/Hastings graduation party but no alcohol & it was a lock-in. Great idea if that was your thing & the parents loved it. Have to applaud the concept.

Nice Prince quote, btw.

Link is dead. Any chance you have this vid elsewhere? What is it exactly?? I worked in the Galleria in 89 & 90.

Watch Robocop 2, it was pretty much all filmed on location around HTown. I watched a couple of scenes being filmed at that end of Main & they didn't have to do much to make it look like "future dystopian metropolitan Detroit'. 

Hey @georgetowngal Any chance you still have this sign??