The first question we’re bound to ask about new venue the Hindenburg Night Club is ‘Why?’ Why call it that?

“It’s basically because every place in Vancouver seems doomed to fail. It’s a reminder that things are temporary, so enjoy the flight,” answered booking manager Stephen Lyons in a call to the Straight (promptly cracking himself up).

Older readers might remember when the new Gastown venue at 23 West Cordova Street was known as the Cruel Elephant. For the rest of the ’90s it was the Hungry Eye. More recently it hosted fetish nights as the imaginatively renamed Club 23 West.

“It looked like the bar from Forever Knight or Highlander. Lots of blue light and brushed metal, that sort of feel,” said Lyons, adding somewhat mysteriously that “whoever had it before stored a lot of really weird stuff down there. Not only weird, but very meticulously organized.”

New managers Dave Duprey and Rachel Zottenberg took over the property earlier this summer. With renos completed and new sound equipment installed, the Hindenburg makes its first hydrogen-powered flight with Thee Manipulators and the Vicious Cycles next Saturday (October 18).