Continued: Lives of the party

I go out a lot, but then I have to. It's my job. ¶ While covering Twin Cities nightlife, I repeatedly see people who don't get paid to go out but who traverse the bar scene with remarkable frequency and seemingly bottomless enthusiasm. I'm talking about nightclubbers with a four-night-a-week habit. ¶ I sat down with three of these very serious scenesters to find out what compels them to hit the scene so hard. ¶  Each has a day job, but they place just as much importance on their nightlife--and they all have related websites. ¶ One of them is on a mission to galvanize the local music scene. Another is a mover and shaker who likes to connect people like some Twin Cities godfather. Another one just loves to party. ¶ So without any further ado, let me introduce The Rocker Guy, The VIP and The Party Girl.

By day, 45-year-old David de Young works in the IT department for a Fortune 500 company. He declined to name the place where he nerds it up because, he said, it has nothing to do with his other life.

De Young is a rock-show junkie.

In 2002, he created HowWasTheShow.com, a website that covers the Twin Cities music scene (and recently added theater to its critical eye).

"Music has probably been one of the most important things in my life," he said. Originally from Monmouth, Ill., he moved to Minneapolis from Milwaukee in 1988.

De Young looks every bit the hipster: Black-rimmed glasses, sculpted sideburns and silver hoop earrings. Hanging on his right wrist are a bundle of embroidered concert wristbands from European music festivals. One is five years old -- he's waiting for it to rot off.

Each night is spent shuffling between music venues like First Ave, the Turf Club and the 331 Club. By doing so, he said, "You can make your own show."

Example: A recent Saturday night started at the Memory Lanes block party, listening to Mystery Palace. He bolted in the early evening for the Fine Line, where he hosted a gig featuring the Melismatics, Mars to Mercury and others. Before the last band came on sometime past midnight, he raced to the Uptown Bar (on, you guessed it -- his Vespa) to catch the final set by These Modern Socks. Then, bedtime. Somehow, he finds time to post photos, videos and reviews to his website.

"You have to have discipline," he said.

De Young said it's become easier to manage a night of venue-hopping because of social-networking sites like Twitter. More clubs Tweet set times.

His website gives him free access to shows. So, is this just a scam to get free tickets? Not a chance. No sane person would add another 40 hours to his work week. That's the time it takes to go out to shows, run the website and manage a staff of unpaid writers. And now he's reviewing theater on a regular basis, a sign that he's expanding the website's scope and maybe refining his tastes as he reaches his mid-40s.

After seven years, he said the pace has only quickened. "And I'm certainly not having any less fun," he said.

When Jimmy May walks through the crowd at Seven Sushi Ultralounge, or any other bar, he shakes enough hands to make you think he's running for office.

He isn't. He's just a businessman, one of many in the Twin Cities with the bank account and the desire to spend off-hours out on the town at the hottest bars, not at home going over balance sheets.

If you run in this crowd, and you don't know May, chances are you want to know him. He's the man behind an e-mail network known as Jimmy May's List, a sort of insider scoop on what's happening in the Twin Cities. His e-mail blasts reach up to 5,000 subscribers. The tips run the gamut, from an upcoming nightclub party to someone selling a trampoline.

While you might expect a guy like May to speak in the sly vernacular of a businessman-socialite, he's unmistakably Minnesotan -- you-betcha friendliness delivered in a Midwestern drawl.

"I'm sociable," he said. "And I just want people to feel like they are a part of something."

After moving back to his native Twin Cities in 2000, May created his e-mail network as a way to keep friends abreast on the weekend's nightlife. He had worked in Chicago as a sales manager for 3M and Kimberly-Clark.

May has a smoothly-shaven head and under his business-casual wardrobe you can detect the compact frame of an aging ex-athlete. "I was the second-most-recruited football player in Minnesota. But I blew out my knee against Armstrong in '81." Now in his "young 40s," he's unmarried and regrets the "player" stigma attached to night owls his age. (He has a girlfriend.)

He spends most of his nights at what he calls "in-betweeners" -- places that blend restaurant and bar, like Seven, Stella's and Chino Latino. While you might catch him in the VIP section of a nightclub, he doesn't waste money on bottle service. "I like beer," he said.

As the nightlife scene has grown, so has his e-mail network. Maintaining it can take up to four hours a day. In 2007, he renamed the operation "The Social Fly" (www.thesocialfly.com), and started charging for mentions in the e-mails. (It's still free for subscribers.)

Since entering the real estate business three years ago, May has dedicated less time to nightlife. But you'll still find him shaking hands and socializing at places like Seven. He laughed at the idea of totally giving up that lifestyle:

"I don't want to miss anything!"

"The craziest thing I've ever seen in downtown?" Nicole Fox pondered.

"There was one night when everyone was running out into the street. There were so many cops. As soon as we stepped onto that block we walked into a huge cloud of Mace. My eyes started watering and I started coughing."

Stumbling into a melee between cops and unruly clubbers is just a part of the game when you hit the downtown bar scene every weekend.

Amid the throngs of people, it's hard to miss Fox. The streaks of hot pink and purple that highlight her brown hair are like a neon sign declaring: "I'm here to have fun -- get out of my way."

Fox, 25, is the prototypical party girl. As the self-described ringleader among her group of friends, her connections with doormen and bartenders often mean zero waiting and free shots.

Party nights follow a strict routine. Each one starts with shots at a friend's house before touching down on the 1st Avenue strip. Once they hit that main corridor for nightlife, it's a never-ending journey through the party-bar scene -- Ugly Mug, Bootleggers, the Imperial Room and onward.

"I have ADD and I can't sit still for very long," she said.

Fox said there are moments when the drinking and the craziness give her pause. But that hasn't slowed her much.

"I have nothing really holding me back from going out with my friends," she said.

Fox, a University of Minnesota graduate from Maplewood, lives in south Minneapolis with her pit bull, Patton ("a whiny baby"), and works for an online record label called ArtistsMusic. But her night-time activities take up just as much time. Even on the nights she isn't downtown, she's playing softball and volleyball for bar-sponsored teams.

Earlier this year, Fox began documenting her nights out on a blog that she and her friends named the "Mpls Glitteratti" (www.mplsglitteratti.blogspot.com). It's a takeoff on Perez Hilton's celebrity gossip site. Since we don't have celebs here, Fox posts photos of her friends running amok downtown.

Fox is the type of party girl who always has a story to tell. But with hundreds of wild weekends logged in her memory, details can get fuzzy. She recalled one rambunctious evening when a friend rushed the stage at the Ugly Mug.

"Out of nowhere one night, she was on stage singing with the band," she said. "No wait, I forgot -- I was on stage too!"

Tom Horgen • 612-673-7909