It's only fitting the world's best DJ will perform Sunday during Club Freedom's closing party, which will mark the end of the techno-dance club's three-year run in Tempe. "Paul Oakenfold played when he opened the club three years ago,’’ says owner Steve Kushnir, 29, of Scottsdale.

"I called him and asked him to do us a favor in closing the place down...I wanted to leave the dance music scene on a high note.’’ Kushnir says it wasn't an easy decision to close Freedom — which has hosted such well-known musical stars as 50 Cent and DJs Paul Van Dyk, Sasha and Digweed — but he was forced to confront the declining state of the electronic music scene. In recent months, the club only has been open Fridays and, occasionally, Saturdays.

"I put my heart and soul into the music, and the support really kind of bottomed out,’’ he says. "There comes a point where it doesn't make sense anymore. It's also not as hip and cutting-edge as it was when we first started doing it.’’ But 28-year-old Jennifer Tanguy of Chandler says the Valley's nightlife scene will feel the loss. "It ends yet another chapter in Phoenix nightlife," she says on a recent Friday night at the club.

"(Freedom) attracts the underground crowd." Rachel Doskocil — who has been going to Freedom since it opened — agrees. "It’s the only place that gets good underground, not mainstream DJs," says Doskocil, 22, of Tempe. Kushnir — who also promotes theme nights at Scottsdale nightclubs 6, Next and the Pussycat Lounge — says his off-nights (with lesser-known acts) don't draw what they once did.

The after-hours scene — Freedom was open to 4 a.m. Saturdays — also is dying out, he says. "I think the after-hours thing saw its hey day in Arizona a few years ago,’’ he says. "It's moved more from the club thing to (private) house parties.’’ Ironically, that's how Kushnir got his first taste of nightlife promotion in high school — throwing large parties at his parents' house in Cherry Hill, N.J.

"The parties that I was throwing started progressing and getting bigger and bigger to the point to where I'd send my parents away for the weekends and get cleaning crews and security and DJs,’’ he says. While attending ASU, Kushnir worked at Tempe's original Dash Inn and The Sawmill, progressing from security guard to manager to promoter.

"The parties at the bars weren't really enough for me, so I started throwing some underground parties at some warehouses downtown,’’ he says. In the mid-’90s, Kushnir created Kind — a Thursday night event that featured electronic, trip-hop and drum-and-bass DJs from around the world — at Pompeii, a Tempe techno-music club on the southeast corner of Apache Boulevard and Rural Road. In 2001, he bought Pompeii and turned it into Club Freedom, moving Kind to Fridays.

"I bought the club because of the (Kind) night,’’ he says. "I had about four or five months of deposits out for artists that were coming in. The owner of the club was a friend of mine who was getting married again.

His wife wasn't having the club thing. She gave him an ultimatum: ‘Sell the club or we're not getting married.' ‘‘He turned to me and said, 'Listen, either I can sell you the club or I'm going to sell it to this other guy who is a hip- hop promoter. You have a choice. You either lose your night or you could buy the club.' If I lost my night, I would have lost all my deposits that were out so basically I had to step up to the plate and buy the club.’’ Although his dance club will close this weekend, Kushnir plans to open a new club in Scottsdale in 2005.

‘‘I'm going to wait the summer out and see how many clubs actually shut down over the summer because they can't sustain their business,’’ he says. ‘‘We'll see what happens with the 2 a.m. (closing) law. I'm really going to take my time and try to make the right move because I know my move in Scottsdale has got to be a big one.’’

Kushnir envisions a 21-and-over club that's a hybrid of lounges and Freedom.

"Entertainment is going to be the key to any place I'm doing,’’ he says. ‘‘It's the key to my success in Scottsdale.’’ While Kushnir makes plans for a new club, Freedom fans are wondering where they’ll go from here.

Doskocil, a Kind regular, is holding out hope that a new club will open in Freedom’s structure. "They’ve gotta open something else up," she says.

"If they don’t, it’s going to suck." Sam Locke, 19, of Mesa, fears he’ll have to go back to attending house parties. "There is nowhere else to go for this kind of music," Locke says. "There are other places to go for after-hours, but not to see cool DJs. Losing Freedom is like losing a family member for some of us."

Last taste of Freedom
Tempe's techno-dance club closes its doors with one last hurrah
Freedom Closing Party With: Paul Oakenfold When: 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. Sunday Where: Club Freedom, 919 E. Apache Blvd., Tempe How much: $20 Info: and www.freedomnightclub.com.