It’s lights out for Output!
The Williamsburg club where party animals for years would go to dance the night away will close for good in January — but not before its owners host a final blowout bash on New Year’s Eve. Output’s last hurrah will feature techno tunes spun by a seasoned disc jockey to celebrate its run as the neighborhood’s go-to house-music spot, according to its founders.
“Fittingly, the club’s storied tenure will conclude with a New Year’s Eve marathon by John Digweed, a DJ whose professionalism and decades-long dedication to electronic dance music and club culture are emblematic of the values on which Output was proudly founded,” the owners of the Wythe Avenue club wrote in a Dec. 11 tweet that has since garnered hundreds of comments from dismayed patrons.
The neon-lit club opened inside a converted warehouse between N. 11th and N. 12th streets in 2013, debuting as Kings County’s first full-sized, licensed venue dedicated to house and techno music at a time when other club owners on the distant isle of Manhattan shunned those genres, according to Output’s founders, who leased the space for their dancing den.
In 2016, Output co-owner Shawn Schwartz opened his Halcyon record store inside the club, after setting up the shop at no less than three other Brooklyn locations since debuting it in 1999.
Halcyon now boasts a second location on West Street in Greenpoint, and will keep its shop inside the Wythe Avenue building — which closed for renovations weeks ago, but will reopen as soon as this week, according to manager Andres Torres, who confirmed the vinyl shop will stick around after Output closes.
On Thursday, some locals noticed a blank billboard that appeared on the roof of the property, which workers putting finishing touches on the store told this newspaper will soon bear an advertisement for Halcyon.
Schwartz, however, won’t be sticking around, because he sold Halcyon to new owners a few years back, he said.
He and Output’s other owners credited the club’s staff, deejays, and loyal patrons for keeping it open all these years, and said the spot’s sudden closure is the result of several factors, including changing social trends and financial challenges.
“This sudden turn of events may seem shocking to many, but for those of us watching from the inside, we have seen the writing on the wall for some time,” the owners said in their tweet.
The club’s founders declined to comment further on their decision, instead pointing this newspaper to their tweet — which suggests they may return to the dance floor somewhere else down the line.
“What comes next we do not know, but rest assured the beat will go on,” the tweet read.
New Year’s Eve party at Output (74 Wythe Ave. between N. 11 and N. 12th streets in Williamsburg, www.outpu
