In the '70s and '80s the club became a hangout for "a new breed of politicized drag performers" like
Lypsinka,
Lady Bunny, and
RuPaul, whose first New York City show was at the Pyramid Club in 1982. On Labor Day 1985, Pyramid performer
Lady Bunny hosted the
Wigstock Festival in
Tompkins Square Park.
Andy Warhol and
Debbie Harry dropped in the Pyramid to do a feature on the club for
MTV, and
Madonna appeared at her first
AIDS benefit at the club. Both
Nirvana and
Red Hot Chili Peppers played their first New York City concerts there. Both
Live Skull and
Sonic Youth played there in 1983 and 1984.
They Might Be Giants was considered the house band for some time. From 1992–95,
Blacklips Performance Cult, a collective founded by
ANOHNI, presented plays at Pyramid every Monday at midnight. Many visual artists, such as
Keith Haring,
Jean-Michel Basquiat, and
Jack Smith were frequent patrons of the club. Performance artists
John Kelly,
Ann Magnuson,
Steve Buscemi and
Eric Bogosian performed there and
John Jesurun began his drama/comedy/mystery serial play
Chang in a Void Moon at the Pyramid in 1982 and received a
Bessie Award for it in 1985. Drag performances at Pyramid Club also played a key role in inspiring Japanese drag queen Simone Fukayuki to start
Diamonds Are Forever in 1989 (originally based in
Osaka, now in
Kyoto), today Japan's oldest and longest-running drag show. In 2007, it was proposed that 101 Avenue A, the Pyramid Club's building, be
landmarked. The proposal, described as the first
drag landmark, was not adopted by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). However, in the spring of 2011 the LPC proposed a new historic district in the East Village focused around lower Second Avenue and encompassing 15 blocks and 330 buildings. The original proposal excluded buildings such as the Pyramid Club, but because of efforts made by local community groups, the proposed district was expanded to 101 Avenue A as well as other similar buildings. The LPC designated the club as part of the
East Village/Lower East Side Historic District on October 9, 2012. The club shut during the
COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It unsuccessfully reopened under different management for a short period after, but subsequently closed permanently. The new owners confirmed that it would reopen in the summer of 2023 as
Baker Falls, a community-driven rock club. Baker Falls opened in July 2023 and as of August 2025 has moved location from Avenue A to 192 Allen St on the
Lower East Side. The club is now open and called "101" Nightclub. In 2024, a book on the history of the Pyramid Club called
We Started a Nightclub: The Birth of the Pyramid Cocktail Lounge as Told by Those Who Lived It was published by Damiani Books. == Notable performers ==