So long, black panther

Every summer has its beloved, flashy, flash-in-the-pan underground club, replete with fashionable fags, freaks and footloose, sweaty revellers, lost in the throes of hot weather, in heat and away from the prying eyes of the well-adjusted. Once, some summers ago now, we had the 254 Queen St. loft with its legendary balcony, or equally the billboard rooftop parties at a heretofore unmentioned domicile. Or there was the summer Sean Kosa moved out of the space above FB. There were the Halbro parties and the heyday of L Corridor. There was even that place off Ontario. Parthenais, was it? Good Loft, Bad Loft, the Lab, you name it. This summer, however, what with the unseemly lull in populist electro loft locales, we’ve had the unusual, and admittedly excellent, experience of having the unofficial Spot Jam Rock manifest itself in a legitimate club. Of course, I refer to Panthère Noire. Now, sadly, but not unforeseeably, it is going to go to rest. Happily, you, I, and perhaps even a few students who missed out will have the pleasure of one last dance-off at 3519 St-Laurent, this time to the classic techno and acid house record collection of none other than DFA genius Juan MacLean. That’s tonight, Thursday, Sept. 17. Panthère Noire, we salute you! UPDATE: Panthère Noire has in fact NOT closed, it has just changed its name, to 3519, its address on St-Laurent.

In other news, the U.K.’s two most sought-after surf-town dubstep DJs, Croyden’s Skream and Benga, will appear at a very deep, dark, droning and dubby edition of Piknic Électronik on

Sunday. Last time I heard Skream DJ it was for around 35 people at the old Blue Dog, back when it smelled like mothballs all the time. As I recall, he was about 18 years old and the new hot thing, though not so much on this end of the pond. He ruled the room then as I’m sure he does now. Dig it.

REGINA SPECTATOR…jack.oatmon@gmail.com