The Scene: Friday night’s gala opening of...

The Scene: Friday night’s gala opening of the 2nd Coming, the new private club that now holds down the spot where Flaming Colossus went down in flames. Club owner Rob Vinson, a 24-year-old urban planning and theater major at USC, summed it up: “To me, the important thing is happiness in life; I’m not into being a martyr.”

The Buzz: Will this be the next big thing? And just how exclusive is it? Did I get in because I’m truly important, or is the door policy just alarmingly lax?

Who was there: Lots of well-heeled college types, sullen art boys, and glamazon women in severe black dresses. And after all the hoopla, hardly a celebrity.

Justine Bateman Watch: The party girl nonpareil and “Family Ties” star apparently had other fish to fry.

Dress mode: Gals opted for de riguer black on black. Guys wore expensive cautiously trendy suits: kind of a Billionaire Boys Club/Ghost of Otis Parsons effect. Most alarming was the proliferation of sunglasses. At night. Indoors. In a dark room.

Amenities: Visine and mousse in the little boys room, dispensed by a genial attendant.

Chow: Ludicrously trendy. How about sweet potato and cashew soup, or maybe stuffed squash blossoms in blue tempura batter?

Entertainment: Two live bands and a DJ, billiards, cards, watching yuppies beg the impassive doorman for admittance. (“We’d really like to come in. We drove a long way.” “The club is full right now, sir.”)

Ironies: $900 for a 12-month membership, in a town where most clubs curl up and die in a matter of weeks.

Triumphs: Two terrific live bands: an international combo of Long John’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Group and Okanise, and the Chuck Higgins Blues Band. DJ Henry Peck and gal pal TraLaLa kept eclectic platter spinning in their usual entertaining style.

Glitches: Low celebrity quotient, although people reputedly were trying to wrangle their way onto the guest list as late as Friday afternoon. At least the name, the 2nd Coming, was right: the crowd, the atmosphere, even the building--haven’t we been here before?