House of Flesh: More Than Just a Fetish

After ruling the fetish underground for about five years, Sin-a-Matic finally has some feverish Saturday night competition. The granddaddy dance club of Hollywood’s S&M; underground paved the way in combining the thrills and chills of dancing and whipping, but the upstart House of Flesh took the ball and ran with it.

The club, which started about three months ago at Club 8240, has some distinct advantages, including the spacious facility’s two levels and numerous rooms. While Sin-a-Matic dictates high-octane dance music mixed with Nine Inch Nails, House of Flesh has a variety of deejays with two distinctly separate dance areas.

Downstairs, guests can view dominatrixes dripping hot candle wax onto masked victims (who line up for the treatment) while listening to the hard-core musings of Skinny Puppy and KMFDM. Upstairs, the huge dance floor is filled with a crowd moving to the wholesome dance and new-wave hits of the early and mid-’80s. In a memorable juxtaposition of innocence and decadence, this dance floor adjoins a room where patrons can watch a woman undergoing a little public flogging.

In its own way, the House of Flesh is a lot of fun. Sin-a-Matic, for all its efforts, offers only one view of the erotic underground, and it’s a pretty serious (albeit silly) one. At House of Flesh, you can slice it any way you want it. If voyeurism’s your thing, voyeur-seekers abound. If dancing’s your thing, musical variety is in the House. And if you don’t know what your thing is, you just might figure it out here.

* House of Flesh, Saturdays at Club 8240, 8240 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 18 and over, $10 cover. (213) 462-7442.