LAWRENCE — Every weekend, thousands of young revelers pour into the city, lured by the prospect of pretty girls, hot guys and pulsating music offered up in lavish, cavernous nightclubs.
The events are fueled by an ample supply of liquor served by enthusiastic hosts. Buying full bottles of Hennessy, sold for $135, earns you the nickname of "baller," or big-spender.
But by night's end, what started out as a fun night on the town sometimes turns nasty, resulting in fights and multiple arrests.
Two weeks ago, police arrested 14 people who were allegedly involved in a brawl inside Club Rio on Appleton Street. Every person arrested was from out of town.
Rick Fielding, chairman of the city's Licensing Board, said recently that 10 or 15 clubs in the city are "out of control" and need to be reined in with temporary liquor license suspensions and other harsh measures.
But club owners say the problems are being blown out of proportion and they are being punished for the antics of a few greedy promoters who are using Facebook and other social media outlets to bring unruly, out-of-town residents to local establishments.
Lawrence police Sgt. Jay Cerullo, who patrols the nightclubs on weekends and watches their websites during the week, said since last month, police have made more than two dozen arrests at local clubs.
"In the last 2 weeks, there have been more than 25 arrests, and every arrest has been from out of town," he said. "It's really flared up in the last couple of weeks."
The reason, Cerullo and others say, is that there is a new breed of promoter out there, talking up the city's clubs on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, as well as through text-messaging and e-mail.
Because they get paid based on "the door" — either a percentage of the cover charge or the entire cover — the more people they bring into a club, the more money they make.
"It's big money," Cerullo said. "The clubs hire a promoter and the promoter puts that stuff out there on Facebook and texting. And kids show up, sometimes paying $50 to $80 for tickets. That's how the promoters make money."
Centro, Rio and Roxy all have capacities of more than 1,000 people. Even at $5 or $10 per person, the typical cover charge, promoters are making big paydays.
Some promoters even entice visitors with limo or bus rides, selling tickets to "party buses" that pick people up at their homes and deliver them to the front doors of area clubs.
Outrageous ads
Scouring the Internet for information about local clubs reveals why people may think Lawrence's hot spots offer a modern-day, Wild West saloon-style experience.
One colorful flyer for the Centro Nightclub, 60 Common St., advertises "Ladies 18+" on "Latin Saturdays" with a mini-skirted young woman baring much of her backside.
An ad for the Vivid Nightclub, now known as the Roxy, at 391 Essex St., touts "fantasy oil wrestling" one night, and "body painting" the next.
The Jowa Lounge and Restaurant at 336 Common St. once promoted "Bottles and Models" night, with a poster depicting a raven-haired beauty with plunging neckline standing next to bottles of Moet Champagne and Hennessy Paradis Extra.
The Mambo Nightclub at 42 Amesbury St. also got into the act, with a flyer touting its "first-ever Kiss party." The text below reads "$200 for the longest kiss of the night."
Cerullo said he's seen the ads on MySpace and Facebook while looking for potential infractions of local liquor ordinances. He said he calls the clubs as soon as he sees something amiss.
"They know they can't do that," he said, referring to the 18-plus night and oil wrestling. "We spoke to them about that."
He said clubs aren't allowed to advertise to anyone under the age of 21 because the city's Licensing Board prohibits anyone under the drinking age from being in the nightclubs after 11 p.m.
Other cities, including Lowell, Fitchburg and Providence, R.I., allow people under the age of 21 into nightclubs using a bracelet system in an attempt to thwart underage drinking.
'Greedy' promoters
Police, club owners and even some promoters agree that the problem is in how the clubs are being marketed.
Frank Hollywood, 41, a Boston-based promoter who formerly worked for the Roxy in Lawrence, said young, inexperienced promoters are "messing up the game for the rest of us. Everybody thinks they can be a promoter. But they are just greedy. All they want is the money."
A careful promoter, he said, knows who to invite and who not to invite to parties, while also carefully monitoring the door to keep out people who are likely to cause trouble.
Hollywood said nightclub owners want to get as many people in as possible, but need to think more about the long-term consequences. Out-of-town guests are not the problem, he said. It's quality control.
"If you own a nightclub, you need to think about longevity," he said. "I'd rather have quality than quantity. I always had a friend work the door. They said he was tough, but he knew what he was doing. He knew who to let in and who not to let in."
Hollywood said party buses aren't necessarily a problem, but better controls need to be put in place about who is allowed on them and what they do during the ride.
"There should be some rules," he said.
Ricky Vazquez, 21, an outreach worker for the Lawrence-Methuen Community Coalition, said the buses not only contribute to excessive drinking, but underage drinking as well.
"Party buses are a huge part of the problem," he said.
Vazquez said one local promoter, who is just 20 years old, sells $30 tickets to a party bus that runs between Lawrence and Fitchburg on most Saturday nights.
"They leave at 9 p.m., and during the 1-1/2 to 2 hour ride, they are partying the whole way," he said. "It's a club on wheels. You just buy a ticket and you can drink on the bus. They don't card you on the bus since you've already got a ticket."
Making matters worse, Vazquez said, is that once they are inside the clubs, teens try to be cool by ordering full bottles of liquor so they can be known as "ballers," or big shots with lots of money.
"All these young kids in the street, they go into the clubs and want to be like rappers and basketball players," he said. "The clubs give free admission if you buy a bottle and a table. You get VIP treatment. Nowadays, what's $135 to a kid? They say, 'I'm only 18, and I'm a big shot.'"
Serious concerns
Cerullo said underage drinking and overserving remain serious public safety concerns.
On March 26, investigators visited Club Rio after Cerullo received a tip that a birthday party was being held there for an 18-year-old girl.
"As we walked into the club, we observed several patrons drinking out of whole bottles they had bought from the bar," he said in his report, noting that patrons were drinking from bottles of Hennessy, Grey Goose vodka, and champagne. He spoke with the bartender and told him he was breaking the law by selling full bottles to individual customers. "He said 'OK,' but continued to sell bottles while I was standing there."
Cerullo and other investigators walking around the club found underage patrons with fake IDs or IDs that are not acceptable for entry into a bar, such as a Puerto Rico election card or high school ID.
He shut the bar down, saying it was unsafe for so many underage people to be in the bar and for full bottles to be sold over the counter.
"The owner asked me why I was closing him down when he was only doing what every other club in the city was doing," Cerullo wrote, noting that while no minors were found to be drinking, it is a violation for them to even be on the premises after 11 p.m.
The owners of Rio — Angel and Eriam Villalona — could not be reached for comment last week.
In another case, on March 11, local police and agents for the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, or ABCC, visited the Centro around 11 p.m. and found 17 minors either drinking or on the premises, according to a police report. Those detained were all 19 or 20 years old.
But Centro owner John Tarshi, who was recently hauled before the Licensing Board for allowing a minor into his club in another, unrelated incident, said he runs a "clean place."
Centro does not advertise under-21 nights, but he admitted that sometimes promoters go a little too far in trying to attract customers.
"We want everyone to be safe and happy," Tarshi said. "This place is never without my brother or myself. And we usually have a detail cop."
Club owners respond
Paul Franklin, co-owner of the Roxy with partner Chuck Delpidio, defended himself against accusations of serving underage drinkers, and said club managers and employees "go way above what's required for the safety and security of our customers."
He said the club usually has two detail patrolmen, a detail firefighter, and 16 security guards.
The security guards are responsible for keeping the front calm and in order, and for doing ID checks, pat downs and looking in pocketbooks.
Plus, they are stationed throughout the club at strategic vantage points to keep an eye out for any trouble.
"If anything starts up, they radio each other and they all go to the problem," Franklin said.
Late last month, the Roxy was handed a suspension by the Licensing Board for allowing an underage girl into the club. Franklin said she was part of a family party that got out of control due to a domestic dispute. Police said an officer who tried to break up the fight wound up getting injured as a result.
When police intervened to break up the fight, they arrested everyone, Franklin said, including the underage girl.
"She was not drinking," he said, adding that it was the first such infraction at the club.
Other clubs receive written warnings for their first infractions, he said. "We never got a warning. We just got shut down."
Franklin also downplayed the severity of the fight, saying police exaggerated to avoid liability.
"If there was a Tony Award for that performance, they would have gotten it," he said, referring to recent police testimony before the Licensing Board about the situation that night.
"We just got in front of the Licensing Board at the wrong time," Franklin added. "They are going to slam all the clubs now," because of what happened with the Rio.
Johan Lopez of the Jowa Lounge admitted that his bar was recently involved in an incident where an underage girl got into his club with a fake ID. He said the club got a warning from the Licensing Board. But he said it was the only time the club has been cited in the five years he's owned it.
"We are pretty picky," he said. "We have a big sign on the door that says '21-plus.'"
A small club with room for about 100 patrons, the Jowa also doesn't work with an outside promoter and doesn't allow buses or limos to deliver customers.
"We get a good crowd," he said. "We're near the police station, so every weekend we get three or four cops in here, too. As long as you keep an eye on who comes into your place and you have a dress code, you eliminate a potential problem."
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