It was recently reported that Club Xpressions, the storied shit-show formerly known as Club NRG, got off to a trigger-happy start in 2011 when a man was shot during its New Year's Eve party. But records show that things really heated up the night before, during the club's first night of business.
Before changing owners and names, the club, near Grand and Seventh Street, was known as the place to be if you wanted to shoot someone, smash someone's head open with a liquor bottle, or throw rocks at neighboring businesses. As reports of such fun piled up late last year, the city forced owner Del Hedgepath to sell the club. The new owners, Eric and Natasha Union, threw a "soft opening" for Club Xpressions on December 30. According to a police report, the opening was anything but soft.
After the club closed that night, two women and two men were driving
home around 3 a.m., heading south on Highway 71, police say. A car
pulled up beside them and sprayed gunfire into the driver's side,
shattering the window and windshield. The driver was shot in the hand,
the front passenger in the knee. Leaning back in her seat as far as she
could, the driver managed to keep driving to the next exit, the Paseo,
where she got off and drove into a fence.
The bullet-riddled SUV was dead, so all four passengers ran toward Truman Medical Center. They were still running when police arrived. According to the report, one victim told police that he had been in a confrontational conversation with a man at Club Xpressions that night. This victim said he thought the man had followed them from the club and shot up the car.
The club's owners didn't return The Pitch's calls regarding the shooting. Before opening, they promised to clean up the venue's violent reputation. But after two nights, they were 0 for 2: On New Year's Eve, a man was shot in the stomach outside the club after it closed -- proving that for some clubgoers, the post-bar ritual of burning the roof of your mouth with pizza bagels and texting "You up?" to half the women in your phone just isn't sporting enough.
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