For the past 20 minutes, an hour and a half after my arrival, I was talking to a 6-foot-8-inch 30-something Brooklynite named Fred, who had a neck beard and sported a Karen O shirt....

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  I was born in 1966, so the first time I ever went to a club I was 13 — that would have been ’79. I was familiar...