The Sound of a Transcendent Future

The city’s dance scene continued to reinvent itself when John “Jellybean” Benitez left midtown discotheque Xenon to take up residency at the Funhouse, a struggling venue that attracted a suburban crowd. With Jellybean combining disco and funk classics with newer releases, the venue started to attract a crowd of 1,800 on Fridays and 2,800 on Saturdays, with Italian and Latin dancers entering into rivalrous yet friendly competition. Elsewhere, Bruce Forest took over from Tee Scott at Better Days, while the Paradise Garage and the Loft fine-tuned their setups. Garage sound engineer Richard Long began to receive plaudits for his work, which placed greater emphasis on power than the system developed by Mancuso.