How Emo Nite Turned a Tuesday Night Party Into a Full-Fledged Business

variety.com:

Jessica Shalvoy While most proms are filled with cheesy ballads, sparkling dresses and awkward boys in ill-fitting suits; Emo Nite’s prom has a mosh pit to System of a Down, a guest appearance from Travie McCoy (formerly of Gym Class Heroes) and a tombstone mascot affectionately known as “Graveboy.”The event, held on May 6 at the Avalon with a live room upstairs at Bardot, was one of many parties Emo Nite has thrown over the years dedicated to the genre.

Emo Nite founders T.J. Petracca and Morgan Freed created the event in 2014 to give adults a nightlife option that played music other than what was popular at the time — and reveled in the alternative bands they grew up on.“I had gone to a friend’s birthday party, and she had a karaoke night,” explains Petracca. “I sang Dashboard Confessional and had so much fun just being able to go out and sing along to music that I actually like to listen to, instead of every bar I go to in L.A.

where they just play Top 40, EDM or hip-hop. Why don’t any of the bars play the music I listen to at home?” Petracca and Freed had previously bonded over emo and pop-punk while working in the same office building. “I would just come in and do my job and Morgan forced me to be his friend,” Petracca says, echoing the inception of countless great friendships in history.

Petracca told Freed about his “Dashboard Confessional” epiphany. Freed, coincidentally, had a friend bartending at the Short Stop in Echo Park and convinced them to take over the music on a random Tuesday night.They created a Facebook event, invited all their friends and accidentally doubled the bar’s capacity, leaving a line around the block. “Neither of us had any idea how to DJ, we had never thrown parties or events before,”.