The best NYC parties to go to right now

Sharing a name with a ’90s neo-noir lesbian film by the Wachowski sisters, the seven-month-old Bound is a dance party filled to the brim with leather-clad doms and subs, BDSM lovers and general fetishists of all stripes. (In fact, “fetish attire and queerness are strictly enforced at the door,” according to organizers.) Thrown by Katie Rex and assorted other underground Brooklyn techno DJs, the bash at Tilt BK (from the owners of the dearly departed East Village hot spot Lit) also boasts sets by experimental-leaning electro acts like Light Asylum to round out the freak-fest action.

248 McKibbin St, Brooklyn (tiltbk.com). Third Thu of the month 10pm–4am; $10, before 11pm free.
Next up: July 20

Late-night Greenpoint go-to Good Room embraces the sunshine with its new house-and-disco summer series atop nearby Dobbin St. The rooftop at the renovated factory has some pretty stellar views of the Manhattan skyline, a full bar and some seriously body-shaking talent. Past guests include LCD Soundsystem labelmates Holy Ghost! and U.K. tripsters Psychemagik, and upcoming stars like disco don Tornado Wallace, electro vet the Juan MacLean and techno figureheads such as Marcellus Pittman and Galcher Lustwerk should ensure that the crowds come back for seconds and thirds all season.

64 Dobbin St, Brooklyn (718-302-0400, goodroombk.com). Every other Sun 3–9pm; $20.
Next up: Sun 16

This party moves a lot, having popped up at Lower East Side dive Leftfield, a light-bulb–filled Bushwick warehouse and line-out-the-door Brooklyn hot spots like Output and Black Flamingo. But despite all the borough hopping, the one constant has always been founders and fellow music scribes David Garber and Harrison Williams’s shared love of timeless vinyl records, from blissful Brazilian boogie and hypnotic minimal house to funky soul and smooth Italodisco.

Various locations, dates, time and prices
(facebook.com/goonrooom)
Next up: The Paper Box, 17 Meadow St, Brooklyn (718-383-3815, thepaperbox.nyc). Sun 9 3pm–midnight; $10–$20.

What started as simple weekend dance parties (Mister Saturday Night, Mister Sunday) has slowly become an expertly curated, seven-days-a-week, multimedia good-time empire, thanks to masterminds Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin. The guys partnered with restaurateurs Mark Connell (Botanica) and Henry Rich (Fitzcarraldo) and come August or September, according to Harkin, the space will expand into a new 5,000-square-foot indoor-outdoor party palace complete with a multiple bars, BBQ, Ping-Pong and event franchises like film screenings, book-club meet-ups and album-listening parties. And—after a recent, massively successful Kickstarter campaign—the venue will also have a mind-blowing hi-fi sound system, courtesy of designers who’ve had a hand in creating and engineering systems at famed now-defunct clubs such as Zanzibar, Twilo and the legendary Paradise Garage.

56-06 Cooper Ave, Queens (718-386-0111, nowadays.nyc).
Various dates, times and prices.
Next up: Sun 9 3–9pm; $10–$20.

For years, clubbing in Bushwick has been synonymous with high-volume techno played in pitch-black rooms, but the popularity of House of Yes’s Studio 54–style maximalism is signaling a shift in mood. Resident DJ Ryan Clover exemplifies the club’s brand of happy hedonism with a party and a record label he cofounded, both named HOMAGE. They center around glossily decadent disco filtered through the lens of vintage house music—or maybe it’s the other way around—and live up to their name by potently evoking quasi-mythical clubs like Paradise Garage. The two-year-old party hits the intimate BYOB basement of Starvue and the plush interior of Output’s Panther Room, among other spots. But in our opinion, the takeover at the glitzy House of Yes is the best environs for first-timers to pop their cherries.

Various locations, dates, times and prices
(soundcloud.com/homagenewyork)
Next up: 2 Wyckoff Ave, Brooklyn (347-469-9882,
houseofyes.org). Aug 25 at TBA time; $TBA.

Mexico City has recently emerged as an epicenter of dance-music innovation—among other things—with the record label slash revolutionary multimedia collective NAAFI increasingly setting the agenda for the leading edge of club culture. The up-and-coming, roving party Mega City is just five bashes into its run and showcases a range of modern Latin American sounds, including deconstructed reggaetón and giddily weird experimental house music, with appearances by local avant-club royalty like Juliana Huxtable at DIY venues such as Trans-Pecos in Ridgewood, Queens.

Various locations, dates, time and prices (facebook.com/megacityslang)
Next up: TBA

Before West Coast gangsta rap became a multimillion-dollar industry in the ’90s, it was just a modern offshoot of the L.A. electrofunk scene that mixed George Clinton and Kraftwerk into a sunnier version of Detroit techno. Over the past two years, the DJ/promoters at Get Summered have used this monthly residency at Crown Heights favorite Friends and Lovers to indulge their taste for G-house, a relatively new term for reconnecting one vintage style to its even older roots that somehow sounds perfectly of the moment.

641 Classon Ave, Brooklyn (fnlbk.com).
Second Sat of the month 10pm–4am; free.
Next up: Sat 8

No one works quite as hard as the indefatigable promoter Ladyfag to keep queer nightlife alive in New York. This epic party, inspired by the bonkers 1973 cult film by Alejandro Jodorowsky, takes over Slake in midtown once a month for six hours of nonstop dancing. The two-story club houses eight DJs in four different rooms for the soiree (the Jade Room, the Ruby Room, the Sapphire Room and the Obsidian Room), attracting a crowd of fashion gays, genderqueer artists, drag queens and a few muscle daddies thrown in for good measure. Attendees pay a discounted cover if they arrive in a “serious” look corresponding to the night’s theme, which in the past has been “Mythical Mad Max Desert” and “Superhero.”

251 W 30th St (holymountain.club).
Various dates and times; $10–$25.
Next up: Sat 15

Last fall, New York native Federico Rojas-Lavado opened Bushwick vinyl boutique Second Hand Records (1345 DeKalb Ave; secondhandrecordsnyc.com) with an emphasis on funky vintage disco and house music, as well as on newer artists who look to those classics for inspiration. The store’s regular Thursday-night residency at Black Flamingo brings together the kind of DJs the store’s aimed at: obsessive funk addicts who’ll not only drop three figures on a rare-groove LP but actually play it in the club—in this case, a megapopular Williamsburg watering hole with dark, sweaty basement vibes.

168 Borinquen Pl, Brooklyn (718-387-3337, blackflamingonyc.com). Thu 10pm–4am; free.
Next up: Thu 6