For bartender Zane Aburaneh, the night doesn't begin until 4:00am. Smelling of stale beer and weary from working on his feet for the last five hours, Aburaneh doesn't plan to go home. Instead, he heads out to meet friends and enjoy some drinks, dancing and conversation.

"If it wasn't for this kind of place, I don't think many people working in this business would have a social life...I know I wouldn't," Aburaneh says. Aburaneh's after-hours destination differs greatly from the place that he works. The club at 42 Gladstone Avenue has no sign out front. The large ‘four’ and ‘two,’ hand-painted in black on the door, offer the only distinguishing characteristics to set it apart from the other industrial spaces on the street. Patrons will not see tell-tale security staff, excess furniture or no smoking signs.

"You walk in and you see a bunch of people partying,” Aburaneh says. “It's like, crazy loud house music. Everyone's really having a good time. It's not your average club, where people are standing around worrying about who's looking at who. Everyone's just sort of enjoying themselves. Anything goes.”

Derek Mainella, also known as DJ DMT within nightlife circles, offers a similar viewpoint. "Simply put, it's just a really special place," Mainella says. Mainella has a long, positive, personal connection to the Gladstone space. A member of Mind Control, an art collective that specialized in guerilla and underground art installations, Mainella and company operated and lived within the space until October 2005. "I came into the space to open a gallery there....like an art space, not really a commercial gallery," Mainella says. He describes the events during this period as art "happenings," complete with musical performances and DJs, rather than traditional shows.

"The space was very conducive to a party atmosphere," Mainella says. "People would stay for hours and hours, where you wouldn't at a stuffy art opening. People loved that place. I would just tell people we were doing something and they would be like 'ok ok we're coming'. We used to have, like, four hundred people in there.” Mainella describes the allure of 42 Gladstone and other after-hours spots as more than the music and décor: "You have friends that you see at theses places, but you just never see them in the daytime," he says.