The year I graduated from college (1975), Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons came out with their song December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) and it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Since I was nine years old in 1963 I’m not sure there was anything special going on in my life on that date, but the original song, written by Bob Gaudio (Big Girls Don’t Cry, Rag Doll, Walk Like a Man, Bye Bye Baby, Silence Is Golden, and classic Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You) and Judy Parker and was written about the end of Prohibition in December 1933. The label didn’t like that, so they reworked it into a nostalgic story about a memorable first romantic night. We all know the lyrics “What a lady, what a night…And I felt a rush like a rolling bolt of thunder, spinning my head around and takin’ my body under…(Oh, what a night)”. That summarizes my Saturday night with my magnificent Kim, dressed in sparkles and rock n’roll regalia for our night at Chris Shriver’s 70th birthday party at House of Sound on West 17th Street…produced and directed by his fearsome squeeze, Ann Sardini.
House of Sound is McIntosh Group’s high-end audio showroom in New York. It’s a five-story, 11,000-square-foot townhouse that opened in 2023 in Chelsea. It showcases the group’s brands including McIntosh, Sonus Faber, Rotel, Pro-Ject, and Sumiko (none of which I had ever heard of, not really being much of an audiophile). It’s an experience center, not a store. They don’t really sell there, but they do rent the place out for very hip (and probably very expensive…though I was not so rude as to ask) parties. Inside, the rooms are set up as a real working home rather than tuned studios, so visitors can see what they could build in their own house. In fact, we were told that none other than Lady Gaga once resided in the place before McIntosh took the place over. There are two “Reference” listening rooms with the best equipment McIntosh makes. There’s also a home theater room, plus several outdoor spaces with Sonus Faber Aster speakers driven by a McIntosh 8-channel amp.
We arrived at 7:05 since Kim insisted that we not arrive early, as is my habit (the cognoscenti always arrive late, I’m told). We immediately got that private club feel by being let in by a beefy bouncer/doorman with a headset. He had that necessary “not on my watch” look about him. Inside was the foyer with the usual attendants to take coats and direct us to where we were supposed to go. When I spoke to the senior-most looking gumba who looked like Viggo Mortensen as Tony “Lip” Vallelonga for Green Book, he put his finger to his nose and said he was “Po-Po”, which I took to mean he was off-duty NYPD. Ann was there to greet us and direct us to write a creative message on a big chalk board with colored chalk the size of Italian sausages. We were one of three couples representing Chris’s motorcycle gang (the Dilly’s and Larsen’s were the others…well Jeanne & Mark Dilly and Steve and daughter Ginger Larsen, technically). There was lots of leather and punk to go around. Naturally, my message on the chalk message board was about the ride and keeping my pie-hole shut, since that’s Chris’ favorite Oklahomaism. Kim sipped an offered prosecco while a very cool bass player plunked at the strings in the corner. I had a lemonade, which seemed off-theme, but was very good.
We elevatored to the rooftop where a jazz band was playing while people gathered and paid their respects to the slicked-hair Chris, who was in all his “Oklahoma goes to the Big Apple and makes it big” glory. On the way, the elevator wall highlighted the five floors of the townhouse and what we could expect on each floor. The idea was to wander down through the levels, experiencing different sounds and refreshments as we went to make for a sensory overload to the max. It all got off to a good start once I schooled the bartender about those of us who did not want alcohol and he loaded up with Diet Coke for us tea-totalers. While we hob-nobbed with our friends, Chris’s family, Ann’s family (shout-out to Cousin Ann from Beantown) and the coterie of entertainment glitterati that mingle with Chris in his Hollywood-on-the-Hudson career, the hors d’oeuvres were passed with great appeal. There were homemade potato chips with magical lobster salad on them, filet mignon and blue cheese on crostini, and mushroom caps with spinach and goat cheese…all very delicious.
After a welcome from Ann and a explanation of the venue from the manager, we started our way down the floors of the townhouse. First stop was the 4th floor, which was awash in fluorescent blue light and where the renowned violinist, Judy Kang played recent rock hits. Kang was amazing and was the violinist who toured with Lady Gaga for many years. Listening to her rendition of Bad Romance was special even for someone like me not schooled in the Gaga life. We sat there on comfy furry chairs for a while, listening intently and munching on spring rolls and deviled eggs (ya gotta love whoever set this menu, right?…thank you Ann). This was where we saw that while there were plenty of cool-looking people in attendance (we were part of the not-so-cool crowd), there was Deborah Harry of Blondie fame, looking comfortable with the cool crowd in her elevated white sneakers. Eventually, we headed down to the Third Floor where a massive raw bar was being attended by a sushi chef who looked very busy with his sashimi and shrimp and shellfish.
The main event happened on the Second Floor where DJ MissGuy (supposedly the big league DJ in NYC at this time) was set up amidst a wall of vinyl LPs, in between $1.2 million of nasty-big speakers and a grand total of what we were told was $4.5 million of audio equipment of all kinds and sorts. DJ Miss Guy is Guy Furrow, a New York nightlife figure who is also the gender-bending lead singer of the glam-punk band Toilet Boys. He’s known as a genre-hopping DJ and has held residencies at Don Hill’s, where he ran the famous Squeezebox party, and at the Boom Boom Room in the Standard Hotel. He was born and raised in Southern California and came up in New York City’s rock scene. His father had a band that toured with Ike and Tina Turner and the Byrds, so he is sort of Rock Royalty. People think of him mainly as a rock DJ, but he says he loves dance music too. He’s close friends with Debbie Harry, who often hangs out when he DJs…hence her attendance. The one thing I asked him to play was Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody, which he said he liked, but couldn’t play because he had been told that Chris hated Whitney. Hmmm?
We danced the night away (yes, I too cut a rug or two) until it was time to cut the cake and have the fondant fruit-shaped desserts (very classy, Ann). From there we went down to the screening room to watch clips of Chris’s 55+ movie credits, which for a movie buff like me, was like a trip down memory lane with every major star you can name in one movie or another that Chris has worked on as Art Director or Production Designer.
We left at about Midnight, but Oh, what a night!