Party Pooper

Most of the ruckus went unreported to the Kansas City Police Department; the number of calls to the club's address increased slightly, from two in February to six in April, but most were reported as outside disturbances. "The reality of the situation is that most club owners like to handle problems internally," says Capt. Roy True, who's in charge of the Central Patrol's late-night shift. "A lot of times, they don't want to call us, because they feel there will be consequences on their [liquor] licenses, which isn't necessarily true."

Because hip-hop nights have such a negative perception in town, Rome says he allowed a clause letting Holloway terminate his contract if Holloway believed that the Friday promotions jeopardized his business. In April, Holloway severed ties with Rome (though he would rehire him a few weeks later after attendance lagged).

"I felt like that was an excuse for him to take over my door fees and cut me out," Rome says. "Jeff always smiled in my face, but I just felt like what he did was kind of snakish. He didn't talk to me about what we could do to stop the bad apples from coming down and hanging outside."

It was a kamikaze business plan that brought in cash — little of which seemed to be going back into the club. Lucero and other employees say they often contributed their own money for booze, hoping to make enough to be reimbursed later. "We had to chase them for money forever," Lucero says. "It was like pulling teeth, which is funny because he's a dentist."

Perhaps he should have stuck to his day job. His moonlighting had become the nightlife's punch line.

In April, Judge O'Malley called Holloway back to Jackson County Circuit Court and asked him to explain why he thought he could still operate a club until 3 a.m. after the 2003 order to close at 1:30.

HS&H LLC seemed to be a company created to avoid O'Malley's mandate to Holloway. According to court records, Holloway and his brother shared interest in HS&H, which had not only purchased the assets of HMKG&C but also leased the same building and parking lot and retained the same attorney and accountant. They had settled just $8,000 of the former neighborhood judgment. Though Holloway claimed to have purchased his old corporation for $50,000, he'd paid only $6,000 of that sum, most of which went directly to HMKG&C's creditors. (The twins now seemed unclear about terms of their own deal. "I don't own anything there," Jon Holloway tells the Pitch. "The only thing I did was go up there and help Jeff out. That's what I did, being a brother.")

But Holloway did the most damage himself when he took the stand. Under questioning, he told the judge he'd closed XO because of the judgment against it and had had no intention of reopening. Then, he said, he um, reopened it. Then he copped to the questionable "new" corporation.

"The corporation [HS&H] was created so we could obtain a liquor license," he testified. Then he explained his motive: "Because the other corporation had — how do I say it? Because we had expended all our attempts to get this appealed or resolved in the courtroom ... and I knew it couldn't survive at 1:30."

O'Malley found him in contempt and ordered the club to close for 20 consecutive days of operation — that's seven weeks on the party calendar, because the club was open only Thursday through Saturday — and imposed a midnight closing time. It was the equivalent of a death sentence for a bar with a reputation for being the night's last stop.

Now the hulking building is for sale. Other potential nightclub owners might understandably view the location warily; speculation among business owners is that it will likely be converted into office space or high-priced condos.

The long-running good times at 3954 Central are most likely over.

Someone, however, may have had one last blast.

In June, Holloway reported a break-in at the building. Someone had pried a deadbolt from a door on the building's north side, forcing a two-by-four from the wall and looting $76,000 worth of equipment — computers, sound mixers, turntables, lighting equipment, video projectors, CD and DVD players and karaoke machines, stacks of amps and towers of speakers.

Whoever got away with the goods could throw a hell of a party.