Gateway

It was the faint and fleeting memory of my conversation with an off-centered German-based music journalist by the name of Torsten Schmidt that came to mind one afternoon when I received two simultaneous phone calls about an article I had written. The article they were referring to was that of various club reviews that appeared in the Aug. 8, 2006, edition of the Gateway. Apart from the many slams and simmering critiques I had made on various nightlife establishments in Omaha, their phone calls only pertained to the king of the hill: Club Nico.

I'm not going to name who those callers were to divert the vengeance of the all-seeing eye of Nico's staff, but their response had an aire of joy, a loftiness of laughter and an undertone of "I can't believe you wrote that..."

I don't think their dismay came through my statement that said Nico was "the less 'souped-up' and more heterosexual version of the Max." It wasn't the fact that I pointed out they notoriously have slow Thursday nights, nor was it that I wrote that I distinctly disagreed with their hip-hip/pop, top-40 tunes and dance remixes.

No, I think the biggest blow-out came with this: "When you walk up, watch yourself at the door. The bouncers are notoriously homophobic, racist and sexist steroid-pumping gym-sters. But, as long as you don't mouth off, ditch the baseball caps and stray from any slightly gang-related attire (and this even includes Tommy Hilfiger on their bad days), you'll get in."

Yep, now that I re-read that, I'm pretty sure that's what struck the Achille's tendon. That's the reason many were left marinating in anger after the whole staff of Nico had read the article, including all the bouncers (the aforementioned, much to my regret). It was, in fact, that statement which hit the prefrontal cortex lobe in my brain when I recalled that off-centered German telling me in a conversation never to be afraid to piss people off with my journalism. He went on to point out the tell-tale sign off an non-credible journalist in review articles was one who always seemed to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, even when it was a light stream of nuclear sludge that brought them there. In other words, if it sucks, tell the people like it is.

But, in the primary colored light of this, I didn't find myself apologizing when the main event coordinator of Nico, Deanne Janecek, called me on the eve of her birthday celebration. That's because I wasn't asked to.

I picked up the phone, "Hello...," only to hear her voice on the other end. I responded with an appropriate and professional "Oh, sh#@" with which she said, "Oh no, don't you 'Oh, sh#@' me!"

Then she immediately went on to not scold me like a panhandler for having stolen a piece of bread in a hand-cut-off-for-an-offense third-world nation, but in fact complimented me for my writing abilities. In addition, she mentioned that she was going to use my review as an example and for leverage as to why Nico needed to implement a public relations and interior makeover. It turns out Nico's staff was already in the middle of talks as to how they could change their fleeting credibility and re-establish themselves as the main townhall assemblage for all things under the stars at night.

That was back in August. Flash forward three months to November, and for quite some time now, we've seen billboards, banners and beefed-up rhetoric on how Nico has gone through a transformation. With their "Reenergized: New Look, New Atmosphere, New Attitude" campaign, Nico is evidently changing some things.

Well, it's early Friday night, and Nico is currently gearing up for another sugary-infused-cocktail night. I'm wondering if I have any attire that will fit their "Club Med" theme of sexy doctors and nurses, and the international house-don who is set to perform, Charles Feelgood, is finding his hotel room after having a delayed flight in Chicago. All is as it should be, and in the marketing and public relations created light of all of this, my mission is to find out tonight if Nico has gone through any of the changes they claim they have.

With interviews from Nico's main light guy, a few random patrons and hopefully a top employee at Nico, be sure to check out part two of this article, set to come out in a future issue of the Gateway. Check back in two weeks.

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