By Colin McCandless
Contributing Writer
BOSTON – Located in Kenmore Square at 530 Commonwealth Avenue directly across the street from another iconic night club, The Rat, Narcissus began as a disco/dance club with DJs in the 1970s, fully equipped with a giant, spinning disco ball.
The age of disco dancing
A popular hangout spot for Harvard and Boston University students, the building itself at one point actually contained three nightclubs: Narcissus, Lipstick and Celebration, according to a write-up in 543 Magazine from a former Narcissus employee. As they noted though, Narcissus was the “gleaming, Studio 54 jewel of the crown.” Even the marquee was conspicuous, with a massive, silver, upside-down awning that protruded out into Kenmore Square.
Over its relatively brief existence, Narcissus brought in prominent disco acts such as The Trammps (“Disco Inferno”) and Gloria Gaynor (“I Will Survive”) to its stage.
With floor-to-ceiling mirrors lining the club, the name was fitting as a place where you could admire your own reflection and indulge in watching yourself boogie down and strut your stuff in your bell-bottom pants and platform shoes should you feel so inclined. However, if you preferred to watch others dance, the seats at the bar faced the dance floor and a balcony overlooked it.
Mary Donnellan, who hails from Dorchester, spent weekends frequenting clubs like Narcissus in addition to many other clubs in that area such as K-K-K-Katy’s and King’s Row, and has fond memories of her experiences. “It was the age of disco dancing and flashing lights,” she reflected.
Photo/Wikimedia Commons
One woman reminiscing about Narcissus in a post on the Dirty Old Boston Facebook page recalled how a rivalry developed between patrons of The Rat and Narcissus that resulted in many animated “exchanges” out in Kenmore Square pitting punks against disco fans. For her part, she found the feud rather silly and eventually enjoyed visiting both clubs, which she regarded as equally “nasty” yet fun. “Truly the good ole’ days,” she mused.
A couple of people responding to that same post even remarked that they met their future spouse at the club. Others waxed nostalgic about Narcissus as one of the places that defined their younger partying days and became an integral part of their weekend revelry. One individual quipped: “Many, many, many nights in that place. My liver aches just thinking of it. I miss those clubs, we had so much fun.” Another person recalled: “Many college and fraternity parties there back in the day. Good times.”
A number of former employees from bartenders and cooks to dancers and bouncers also weighed in to talk about how much they loved working there. A dancer who worked at Narcissus shared: “They paid us to partner dance to get people in the club.”
Heavy Metal Wednesdays
Narcissus, which for a time in the 1970s was called Lucifer, later featured heavy metal nights in the ’80s. According to the Boston Herald, Narcissus “hosted the city’s biggest, loudest heavy metal night” every Wednesday. National headlining hair/glam metal bands such as Extreme, White Lion and Poison once played the club. A person commenting on the Dirty Old Boston page recounted, “Anyone who saw Extreme there in the ‘80s saw a great show.” Another individual recollected seeing White Lion on Heavy Metal Wednesday in 1988, adding enthusiastically, “still have Greg D’Angelo’s drumstick!”
But it also gave aspiring local metal bands looking to break into the scene an opportunity to showcase their talents, and it ultimately led to other Boston clubs hosting metal nights. One musician whose band played there a few times during heavy metal nights joked, “We actually had our record release party there during a 1986 Red Sox playoff game. Bad timing.”
Narcissus metal nights attracted a community of like-minded fans and musicians, with attendance sometimes exceeding 1,000 people, according to an article in The Boston Globe. There has even been Narcissus Heavy Metal Wednesday reunions, including one held in 2012 featuring groups like Steel Assassin, Flesh, Jealous Dogs and Mass.
And while some sources mark 1979 as the year disco died, the disco groove was still alive and kicking then at Narcissus. A woman reminiscing on the Historic Boston Facebook page about their experiences at Narcissus in the ‘80s, exclaimed, “I danced my ass off to some great disco, R&B and soul music! Awesome memories!”
The end of an era
Narcissus, along with Lipstick and Celebration, closed in 1993 when Boston University, which had been renting out the space to the venue, took over the building for use by the university.
An opinion piece in The Harvard Crimson written at the time it shuttered its doors asserted that “Narcissus had power over Boston—the real Boston”—and lamented that “it will be sorely missed.”
The article proclaimed, “there wasn’t an ounce of pretense or pretentiousness at Narcissus.” They further mourned that Narcissus’ closure left a prodigious void in the club scene that could not be filled as “there’s no alternative to the alternative anymore.”
The writer even referred to the experience as a rite of passage of sorts: “A night at Narcissus should have been required of all Harvard students, followed maybe by a midnight stroll on Nantasket Beach.”
Whether you were stricken with Saturday Night Fever, and the only prescription was more disco dancing, or you needed to satisfy your mid-week metal fix, Narcissus provided an outlet and an escape for both worlds to vibe with their tribe.
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