Last year about 25,000 people walked through the doors of afterHOURS for everything from acoustic showcases to Monday Night Football. Now, the on-campus nightclub has new hours, a new menu and is ready to deliver programming to the students that hopes to bring in higher volumes of patrons.
In addition to events put on by student organizations such as comedy night with NU ‘ Improv’d and karaoke with the Vietnamese Student Association, performers like Gavin DeGraw and Kay Hanley are already slated to perform at the Curry Student Center’s late-night venue. Major acts such as Nada Surf, the Von Bondies and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are in negotiation, afterHOURS’ manager Jacqueline Indrisano said.
Also in the works for afterHOURS are movie showings of some of the most recent films such as “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “Shrek 2,” “Saved” and “Supersize Me,” as well as bigger comedians and DJs from New York City.
Besides sporting a revised menu with extended food options, afterHOURS will be offering students more opportunities to get familiar with the establishment with expanded hours. Starting in the fall, afterHOURS will be opened during activities periods, four more hours per day. They will be up and running Mondays through Wednesdays 8 p.m. to 12 a.m., Thursdays 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Some students have already begun to see the change in afterHOURS’ reputation, and the idea of spending a Saturday evening at an on-campus nightclub seems more appealing.
“When I first got here I wouldn’t have thought of going to afterHOURS, unless it was for food late at night,” said Kene Piasta, a middler biology major. “Now I try not to miss the acoustic nights and improv nights.”
More and more student groups are also beginning to use afterHOURS to hold events as an alternative to typical locales such as the Indoor Quad.
“As a student leader, I can say I am now more open to the concept of holding programs in afterHOURS than I was previously,” said Marc Lo, a senior communications major and Resident Assistant in White Hall.
Lo also attributes afterHOURS’ growing success to its manager, Indrisano.
“The biggest difference that I have seen is the visibility of the afterHOURS management,” Lo said. “Before, I was absolutely clueless as to who ran the facility, but now I can identify Jackie with our campus’ late-night establishment.”
Indrisano, a 1992 Northeastern graduate with a bachelor’s degree in music industry, looked at this position as a second chance to get involved in the student life at Northeastern she had missed out on while she was here.
“When I was here, I was not really active,” Indrisano said. “I worked full-time at the Hard Rock Cafe and as a program producer at WBCN.”
After losing her job as a teaching assistant in the city, Indrisano saw the position posted on the Northeastern Job Opportunities Web site.
“I thought, if I can’t get this — which encompassed everything I’ve ever done — then I’m not paying back my student loans,” Indrisano said.
On starting her new position, Indrisano knew, being in its third year of operation, afterHOURS needed to start getting some attention.
“I thought this place [had] incredible potential,” Indrisano said. “The enthusiasm from the student body was there, the curiosity factor was high and something had to happen now to elicit a response or people would have forgotten about it.”
Since taking over as the manager of afterHOURS last fall, Indrisano has established NU ‘ Improv’d as an in-house comedy troupe, showcased avant-garde performers such as the Dresden Dolls and hosted drag shows, which she described as “an engaging level of entertainment and something unfamiliar and unexpected to [the] student body.”
Indrisano also worked with several cultural organizations, such as the South Asian Student Organization, the Vietnamese Student Association and the Latin American Student Organization.
“I’m really big into exposing different cultures,” Indrisano said. “It comes from my end, being really curious with the student organizations and what they had to offer.”
Although afterHOURS offered a variety of successful programming last year, Indrisano still wishes the number of attendants was higher.
She pointed out that while word of mouth has been a huge asset, having an effective marketing campaign and proper advertising has been a constant struggle and may be the cause of why so many students are still unfamiliar with the facility.
“It’s about making sure everyone had the opportunity to come that would want to,” Indrisano said.
With big acts already scheduled to perform, an enthusiastic manager with a keen sense of what’s hot and word of mouth spreading like wildfire about afterHOURS’ success, things are looking to heat up this fall.
