Remember Platinum X?

For you younger folks out there, it was Pure used to be, close to 6th and Trinity. To tell you the truth, this is where my downtown adventures really started.  The layout was similar to Pure’s with Platinum X downstairs and Chrome upstairs, except that you couldn’t see the downstairs from upstairs. If I remember correctly, they were 2 separate clubs in 1 and added up to 4 bars total and 3 dance-floors.

Most of all, Platinum X was all about the music and the people. The dance-floor was an elevated platform that stretched from the entrance all the way to the back bar. One thing about PX was that people danced their asses off. Little dance circles popping here in there. I’ve gotten to meet a lotta great people there. And over time, I became a regular. Actually, me and buncha people became regulars. It is almost like a church where we would all reconvene every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and sometimes Sunday. It had gotten to a point where we acted like we ran the place. From skipping lines and getting people in for free to hanging with the owners and getting our songs played. Also we used getting a hookup at the bar (although i only drank Coke & Orange Juice at the time…That’s right and you should try it before saying ewww) but for all my alcoholic friends back then, it was hard to beat $1 wells on weekends and $0.25 drinks on Sundays.

The DJ had stacks of Case Logic wallets full of CDs of course, since Serato was not around yet. The selection was Top 40 but towards the end of the night it turned more to house/techno sounds. Actually, we each had our anthem so-to-speak. When Billie Jean was played, everybody would turn to same person like “that’s your shit! show ’em up and do your thing!”. I came around right around the same time that Sean Paul’s Gimme The Light was out so that was my song. How many times did I end up in the middle of the circle busting dancehall moves? That’s back when I enjoyed dance circles because everybody would get into it (It still happens today but rarely).

I remember when I walked into Pure for the first time, I thought “damn, what have they done to the place?! It’s all fancy and bright and flashy!” As you may remember, Pure seems to be diametrically, diagonally, and in-and-outally opposed to PX. Platinum X was dark. The brightest thing there was the lights that ran along the dance-floor. During PX days, girls didn’t always wear high heels and mini-skirts and stand around waiting for the Kodak moment. Actually, some would wear jeans, sneakers and bikini tops and wanted to be as comfortable as possible to be able to dance their asses off. Baggy jeans were still OK. Guys didn’t wear sunglasses inside. There was no such thing as bottle service so there was nowhere to sit. Either you stood along the dance-floor or found one of the 2 or 3 spots where you could feel the fans blow in your face or you were doing your thing (no matter what your thing was) on the platform. People weren’t afraid of getting sweaty. As a matter of fact, that was how you could tell at 2am whether people had fun or not.

My PX years go back to 2001, my college years. Damn! That almost a decade ago. Bottom line is Platinum X was the place to be back then and I’m sure that you too have fond memories of it. That was really my introduction to Austin’s nightlife and apparently it got me hooked.