AFTR/IMG · ROOM · NASA · CONF NEEDS REVIEW
NASA
Overview
A one-year Friday-night rave inside TriBeCa's Shelter, co-founded by British promoter DB Burkeman and DJ Scotto, all-ages, no-alcohol, hardcore breakbeat and UK techno, which ran a single year and inspired the club scenes in Larry Clark's Kids (1995).
NASA (Nocturnal Audio + Sensory Awakening) launched in July 1992 when DJ Scotto moved his existing 'Rave the Ritz' events into The Shelter, a non-alcoholic, membership-adjacent afterhours house club that DJs Timmy Regisford, Merlin Bobb, and Freddy Sanon had opened at 6 Hubert Street in TriBeCa the previous year, inheriting spiritual and literal lineage from the Paradise Garage. Scotto partnered with DB Burkeman (David Burkeman), a British expatriate A&R figure who had relocated from London to New York in 1989 and was steeped in the UK rave and breakbeat-hardcore scene. Together they reoriented The Shelter's Friday slot toward that harder, faster British sound (breakbeat, hardcore, early drum and bass) turning it into, in DB's own framing, 'America's first rave club.' Because The Shelter served no alcohol and charged a door that included ice water, snacks, and breakfast (admission was $9 before midnight, $14 after), NASA skewed young and all-ages in a city where liquor-licensed clubs required 21+. The Shelter's sound system, designed with input from Garage-era figures Larry Levan and Timmy Regisford, ran at an estimated 37,000–50,000 watts (sources vary) with speaker cabinets described as larger than the dancers themselves. NASA brought that infrastructure to bear on a booking policy aggressively oriented toward the transatlantic rave moment: Moby, Joey Beltram, Frankie Bones, Richie Hawtin, Josh Wink, Adam X, Junior Sanchez, Dmitry from Deee-Lite, Lenny Dee, Orbital, Sven Väth, Kevin Saunderson, and many others passed through in the span of a single year. Chloe Sevigny (later a coat-check worker or door regular depending on the account) described it as 'one of the best clubs ever,' and the party was culturally proximate enough to early-1990s downtown New York that Larry Clark used the NASA/Shelter scene as inspiration for the club sequences in Kids (1995), though the film ultimately shot those scenes at the Tunnel in Chelsea. NASA ran for exactly one year, closing in July 1993, two days after its own first-anniversary party, documented in a move-out video Scotto filmed at the time. Flyer artwork from the parties entered the permanent collections of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, an early acknowledgment that rave graphic design was worth preserving. After NASA closed, Scotto went on to produce Ravestock at Woodstock '94, and DB Burkeman (DJ DB) continued to champion drum and bass, later co-founding Breakbeat Science (the first U.S. record shop dedicated exclusively to the genre) in 1996. The Shelter itself continued under Regisford's stewardship, relocating to 157 Hudson Street and eventually 150 Varick Street, surviving as one of NYC's longest-running house-music institutions.
Oral histories & archival media
Archive plates
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Sonic profile
Cultural role
DJs, promoters & people
DB Burkeman
Promoter · British expatriate (born London); moved to NYC 1989; co-founder of NASA. Known as DJ DB. Later co-founded Breakbeat Science (1996), the first US drum-and-bass record shop. Red Bull Music Academy credits him as the principal starter of the NASA night.
Scotto (Scott Osman)
Promoter · Born Washington D.C. 1969; raised suburban Baltimore; moved to NYC 1988. Co-founder of NASA; brought DB into The Shelter in July 1992 by relocating his earlier 'Rave the Ritz' events. Later delivered Ravestock to Woodstock '94.
Timmy Regisford
Resident DJ of the long-running Shelter party · Co-founded The Shelter (the venue) in 1991 alongside Merlin Bobb and Freddy Sanon; his 37K-watt sound system (designed with David Soto) was the physical infrastructure NASA used every Friday.
Moby
DJ · Frequent performer at NASA; cited in multiple contemporary accounts of the party.
Joey Beltram
DJ · Belgian-American techno/rave producer; performed at NASA.
Frankie Bones
DJ · Brooklyn-born hardcore/rave DJ; early US rave scene figure; performed at NASA.
Richie Hawtin
DJ · Canadian techno artist (Plastikman); performed at NASA during its one-year run.
Chloe Sevigny
Club Kid · Regular attendee, variously described as door/coat-check worker. Said: 'NASA wasn't like, say, a rave on Long Island, it transcended raves. I knew I was experiencing one of the best clubs ever.' Her role at NASA preceded her appearance in Larry Clark's Kids (1995).
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