Before Madonna was Madonna, she was working coat check. Before the Beastie Boys were the Beastie Boys, they were janitors. They worked at Danceteria, a five-story downtown Manhattan nightclub that became the unlikely launchpad for some of pop culture's biggest names in the 1980s. DJ Rafe Gomez runs Danceteria Rewind on Twitch every Thursday night, reconstructing the club's legendary playlists for nearly 60,000 followers worldwide. He joins us to talk about what made Danceteria unlike anything before or since, and why Manhattan nightlife has never quite recaptured that magic. Photo: Steve Eichner/Archive Photos via Getty Images -Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at NYCNow@WNYC.org