Club C*nt
Toad's Place
New Haven
May 2, 2025
Toad’s Place has cemented itself in both regional and national lore for being a venue where legends come by for one night, pack the house, and blow the roof off. This has happened in the past with international stars like Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. On Friday night it happened with a more local name: Club C*nt.
The DJ-led dance event that began as a celebration with friends of the local zine Connectic*nt four years ago has grown into an all-out rager and the place to be seen.
Anyone who had been outside that day knew it had been hot, but it was about to get even hotter. Sarting up at Diesel Lounge and growing most recently into an every-other-month packed house event at Café Nine, on this particular Friday Club C*nt leapt all the way to York Street for one special night of serious (and not so serious) fun.
Connectic*nt Co-Editor Zoe Jensen could not have been more amped for this event, which also coincided, as it often has, with the publishing of the newest issue — number 18 to be exact, out just a week before.
The zine aims to be inclusive and open to a wealth of local artists and writers, attracting more and more readers with each issue. According to Jensen, the dance party has more recently been the initiating factor in getting more eyes on the zine, not vice versa. “More and more people know us as Club C*nt,” she said. “It’s been a fun way to get people to the zine.”
On this evening there were four local DJs, a “reunion of Club C*nt DJs” per Jensen. They included Jools, Kasey Cortez, Lil Colibri (aka Mar Pelaez, co-editor of the zine) and Jensen herself, who spins under the name DJ QT. In addition to the four DJs there was a performance by local drag legend Loosey LaDuca. Jensen expressed her love for everyone participating and helping create a fun, safe, and celebratory soiree, which she said has been the goal of Club C*nt from day one.
“It’s a super welcoming space for people who want to dance and be joyful,” she said. “There are so many reasons not to be lately. People can let off steam and dance.”
Jensen also spoke of people messaging her and talking online about how they were “dressing up” for this one.
“[At Club C*nt] they can fully express themselves,” she said, smiling. “You don’t have to be an expert. Just have freaking fun, let loose, and go nuts.”
And that, dear readers, is exactly what happened for the next four hours, each one finding the dance floor getting progressively more packed with dancers doing their thing to the music with friends old and new. On the stage the DJtable was set with a large screen behind it announcing “Club C*nt” in a variety of psychedelic colors and swirls. Floral arrangements by Fairy Meadow Flowers adorned the stage as well as the small tables set up on either side of the dance floor, adding a magical and mystical element to it all. Tulips dipped and swayed as if they too were in a state of dance as the beats dropped and pulsed thought the space.
Each DJ had their own hour to shine. Jools started the night off and was joined by two attendees on stage who danced along to the electronic beats and encouraged the ever-growing crowd to join in. By the time Lil Colbri got up there the floor was near full, and as her reggaeton and Latin-flavored beats hit she danced and sang along, gassing the crowd up even more to come along for the ride.
“Let’s GO!” she screamed, and everyone screamed back, bouncing along to Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On.” Later in the set she added that while being there on that legendary stage was making her dreams come true, she had another dream: She wanted to have a twerking contest. Eight people volunteered to come up on stage for a dance off as the crowd cheered them on. She chose three as finalists, but the winner was chosen by the audience after one more dance. Lil Colibri hugged and thanked every one of them before they left the stage. It was one of many moments of the night where small gestures felt like huge movements that brought people together in a familiar and familial way.
As someone who is a veteran of a multitude of dance parties from way back in the ’80s (including quite a few at Toad’s), I remember them being fun yet intimidating. The culture at the time in my experience was more competitive: The outfits we wore, how our hair was done, and who we were hanging out with were all up for intense scrutiny. On Friday night, sitting under the multitude of signed photos of acts that have played at the venue over the years, I actually caught myself getting a bit teary eyed to think a person could now go to one of these events wearing whatever they wanted to wear and being whomever they wanted to be and not feel like if they would be left out if they did not conform to others. The variety of looks was staggeringly impressive and gorgeous: Sequined shorts, taffeta skirts, furry boots, and even ram horns were some of the stylish expressions. But perhaps the most memorable look of the night was the glow on everyone’s faces. All beautiful, all contagious, all inspiring.
When Kasey came to the stage and yelled, “We’re about to get lit! High energy!” the crowd ignited in unison. Adding better-known mixes of Fergie’s “Fergalicious” and Chappell Roan’s “HOT TO GO!” with other beat-heavy tracks got the crowd even more pumped and popping. After another hour of dancing, they were more than ready for Loosey LaDuca’s performance, which also included some Chappell Roan as well as a luscious live performance of “Sweet Transvestite” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show – which LaDuca said she had performed in recently. The screams were near deafening as LaDuca danced and sang her heart out both on and off the stage, in between garnering laughs and getting the crowd even more revved up for the rest of the night.
“I didn’t know there would be this many people here,” she said, expressing her delight with it all and promising that she would be down in the crowd dancing with everyone after she was done (she did).
To close out the night, Jensen came to the stage as DJ QT. She got ready to speak to the audience, then hesitated a moment.
“If I say what I want to say, I’m going to cry,” she said, and instead grabbed her flute and started the music, playing along and dancing to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” to open her set. Jensen also played Gaga’s “Abracadabra,” singing along and then dropping into a split in front of the stage — all to the jumping and screaming throngs of dancers that now at around 1 a.m. created a sea of enraptured souls. That’s when I got to dance a bit myself. It was lovely and liberating.
Two days later I am still feeling it, the “it” being that really good tired, the one that reminds you you did something meaningful and memorable with people who felt the same, a chosen family of sorts that welcomes you with open hearts, open minds and makes room for you. The following night while I was attending another local event, someone I had never met before came up to me and asked, “Weren’t you at Club C*nt last night?” We proceeded to discuss the evening with the same joy and reverence we had experienced 24 hours earlier. Legendary, indeed.
The next Club C*nt is June 7 at Café Nine. More information about Connectic*nt’s zine and events can be found at their website and their Instagram page.
