Tokyo Tales: Maniac Love, Aoyama, to close in December

November 21, 2005

Maniac Love, Aoyama, to close in December

No! Please no! I just dropped by the Maniac Love homepage only to find that they're closing in a couple of weeks' time. Say it ain't so!

Maniac Love is one of the oldest and best loved clubs in Tokyo. It's tiny, but has consistently been one of the best places in town for a night of full-on techno. Opened in 1993, it occupies the basement of an unassuming building tucked down a semi-residential sidestreet off Kotto-dori in Aoyama, and has always had a problem with noisy revellers coming and going. It's the only club I've ever been to where they have door staff prowling the surrounding streets, intercepting approaching clubbers and asking them to keep it down on their way in. Plus a NASA-grade airlock policy on the (heavily soundproofed) front doors. I don't know if noise considerations were a factor in the decision to close, maybe affecting their licensing, but will see what I can dig up.

The place is also justifiably famous for its after-hours parties, which continue through until late morning. The entry price is reduced after 5am, and there was always a bottomless pot of free coffee on the bar. Ah, the memories. I haven't been for a while, but I'm going to bust a gut to get to one of the last nights. If you've never been, then this appears to be your last chance to catch a Tokyo institution. See you on the floor, you Maniac Lovers.

Monday Nov. 28th - Thursday Dec. 1st, free entry each night, 7pm -12am.

Friday Dec. 2nd, from 9pm, ¥3,500 / ¥2,000 after 5am

Saturday Dec. 3rd, from 9pm, ¥4,000 / ¥2,000 after 5am

Posted by chris at November 21, 2005 09:06 PM | Permalink

Comments

Greatly saddened to hear this. I had many wonderful nights out at Maniac Love during the mid 90's. I generally went there to round off an evening out, back in the days when I a) had the energy (and the drugs) to spend all night dancing and b) couldn't afford the taxi fare back to Chiba. The place didn't really get going until six or seven in the morning, filling up with punters from other clubs that had closed and western hostesses from bars when they had finished their shifts.

Japanese people seem to have an affinity for the harder end of the techno spectrum and Maniac Love's music policy took no prisoners. It was also in the only building in Tokyo without ice cold air conditioning, so on a busy morning the ceiling would drip and the air was thick with heat and sweat and the gargantuan quantities of dry ice that they always used.

I have a fifth(?) birthday mix CD that they gave out on the door that I'll dig out this evening and listen to whilest toasting the passing of the best techno club in Tokyo.