After the Tempest

Snooze button. That’s what lots more O.C. clubbers are punching now that Metropolis is blasting back to normal.

Turning 7 this year, the enduring nightspot suffered an attendance deficit during the spring and summer, no thanks to a management change that wisely was reversed.

Without getting into details of the family feud, the trouble began when one of the club’s owners--four Hanour brothers--took over management from senior brother and majority owner Jon.

The idea, Jon recently explained, was to turn the place into more of a live-music house, like Santa Ana’s Galaxy Concert Theatre, and go after a slightly older (21 plus) crowd.

Hence, outside promoters such as Alton Aksu, the venue’s first promoter and one of the county’s best, were fired; Tuesday nights were nixed; and the club’s sushi bar was closed. All of that led to a 20% drop in overall attendance, said Jon, who took back control and began to revitalize things in August.

After all, Metropolis, which is across the street from UC Irvine, has always drawn a younger crowd. In fact, a long line of 18-and-older party people had formed by 11 p.m. on a recent Thursday.

Streaming into a dark cocoon of machine-made fog pierced by frantic lasers, this hyped-up horde packed the club’s cavernous main room, where DJ Alpha spun a divinely deafening, high-energy mix of house, trance and underground.

At first, only three heavily made-up beauties in revealing, stretchy synthetics writhed atop an elevated platform; later there wasn’t any room left at the inn. Guys watching from below seemed to especially enjoy the show.

Doings in the smaller hip-hop room followed a slower pace, as did the music. Deejay Coke-E rotated with assistance from Stress, and together they packed an arm-waving crowd, which turned the weather inside hot and humid through exertion. A disco ball reflecting lasers produced a swirling snowstorm of colored light specks.

Only a few slouching souls inhabited the club’s new Venus Lounge, a large chill-out space where the sushi bar used to be. It’s only got two couches and a few tables, but give it time. It’s still in transition.

Promoters Limelight Entertainment and Nostalgia organize Thursdays at Metropolis, which, dubbed Asian Night, draw a largely Asian clientele. Tom Nguyen of Limelight put on a similar gig at the Galaxy in 1997. It was short-lived, but he wanted to try again.

“I chose Metropolis because it’s the hottest venue in Orange County,” said Nguyen, who’s booked one-offs at such raging Los Angeles spots as Florentine Gardens and the Key Club.

Part of Metropolis’ appeal, certainly, is its coolly attractive, understated industrial decor. Thin metal railings and minimalistic light fixtures complement a beautiful, spiraling wooden bar that’s amazingly lower at one end, where it begins, than at the other, where it ends with a view of one of those platforms.

Jon Hanour also has revived the practice of booking big-name deejays from Europe and elsewhere on Saturdays, between 1 and 3 a.m. or later. Those nights begin with a musically mainstream format. Fridays are rock en espanol. Look for patio dining in the near future and perhaps a Monday promotion from Aksu.

BE THERE

Metropolis, 4255 Campus Drive, Irvine. (949) 856-9800. Doors open at 9 p.m. and close at 2 or 3 a.m. Thursday, Asian Night, house and hip-hop; Friday, rock en espanol; Saturday, mainstream format. Cover varies from $5 to $12.