Yids, Vicious
Yidcore @ Mo Pitkin’s 12/12/06
(You might think that this post is a little late for Chanukah, but seeing as how Jesus was really Jewish it’s actually right on time.)
Oh my God, Yidcore and the Shemps.
Now, I know I told myself that I wasn’t getting involved, but I could not let a pairing like this go by without myself getting involved. So I had to contact WWIX and I sent them a link to Yidcore’s site and said, So get in touch with them, get on the bill, and break shit. Or at least go to the show.
Because even though I technically haven’t seen Yidcore yet and I have seen the Shemps, I know WWIX is on that comp w/the Shemps and the Blackout Shoppers were phasing in their new drummer at the time and besides, the gig was listed on that punk site so if anyone wanted to be on the bill, they can just get in touch with them on their own. Besides, it’s a Monday night gig in the Northsix basement and I don’t know how shows run there, because I’ve still never been there, Monday nights or not. Maybe they only have 2 bands because there’s a set time that shows have to end or something and there’s a limit to the number of band they have.
Still, I’m a pushy, busybody Jewess so I guess matchmaking is in my blood. All of this I explained to WWIX when I emailed them.
The next problem was when to pick up the ticket. Yes, technically I could’ve picked it up when I was in Williamsburg on the 9th, but they only sell tix at the venue on days they have shows, from 4pm-showtime. So when I was in Williamsburg on the 9th, I’ll be nowhere near N6 during box office hours. So of course I had to run to Williamsburg at the first available opportunity that I was free and they had a show. Because I wasn’t going to order an $8 ticket online.
Hard to believe that I haven’t been to N6 since C!BR in May, but ‘tis so. I turned down 6th and kept walking, thinking, Where the hell is this place again? The numbers are supposed to go down, right? Right.
So I tried to get a ticket and of course they don’t sell advance tix for the downstairs shows. Because running out to Northie to get a ticket after work is just as convenient for me as running down to the Merc to get a ticket after work. Well, you pass an American Apparel in both cases, so maybe it is.
On sites for either Yidcore or N6 or whichever, it turns out that the Shemps weren’t on the bill anymore. And there was a 12/12 show added in NYC. Huh. What to do, what to do. And this is probably going to be the most Jewish thing I’ve ever said, but the 12/12 show was $7.
The 12/12 show was sponsored by some website called Bangitout. They say that you have to be an idiot (or someone steeped in college finals) to miss the shows, so I think the site skews a little younger. And a little broader—they have an article in the music section on Seth Cohen’s iPod and—yet still narrower, they said the 12/12 show is for the “Bangitout readers who love Hashem and punk music, but dig staying within the Manhattan borders” and I’m like, “love Hash—” Oh, right, I know what that means. See, they just bust out these words and expressions that I just don’t use. I get it, you’re more Jewish than I am.
Or it’s for those who love punk rock and who’ve been going to way too many shows and might need a night off on Monday.
And then I realized that even though I’m coming off a 3-day show bender, I have to go to the N6 show because the Mo Pitkin’s show would just suck. Yes, I’d be incredibly exhausted at N6, yes it’s a Monday, yes, its $1 more, yes, there were 3 other bands and none of them were the Shemps, but N6 would be the better show. These are the executive decisions that we here at Hollow Sidewalks are prepared to make. Mo Pitkin’s is the wrong place to see Yidcore, or any punk band for that matter.
But Monday rolled around and I felt incredibly sick. I wasn’t doing any better on the 12th and as I walked over to Mo’s I felt like I was going to melt into the sidewalk. I got there to find the place a general mob scene with people eating in general, upstairs in use, and the Yidcore gig on the first floor. I spent the majority of the time sitting downstairs by the bathroom with my head in my hands, telling myself to just go home, telling myself that had I gone to N6 I would’ve gotten the show over with, and telling myself that Mo’s, on the Lower East Side, was, in a weird way, sorta appropriate for a Jewish band because downstairs by the bathroom are all these old photos that look like they’re from Bar Mitzvahs in the 70s. But it’s not an appropriate venue for a Jewish punk band.
Seth A. left Yidcore a love note directing the boichicks to Katz’s. Hey, it’s on the corner of Ludlow St., so he’d know. Blackout Matt was there, and someone greeted us with “Shalom Aleichem!”
At a punk gig.
Matt looked at me for an explanation and while I was going to respond with a nice hacking cough, “Peace out, dude” totally works.
So we were to be let in at 10 and the guy at the door said he was letting people in 3 at a time. He had 3 in and for some reason, those were the only 3 he was going to let in. The rest of us were left hanging. Standing around, looking at our watches, me almost passing out. Matt looks annoyed. They should’ve had a Jew doing the door. At least money would’ve been collected and hands would’ve been stamped while we waited.
The band gets onstage and starts playing. Cameras go off. Uhm. What about us? Matt again looks annoyed because it’s past 10:00 door time and while I was tempted to point out that this, basically, is what my life is like he saw how the doors were at 5pm for Reagan Youth that past Sunday. And that Blackout Shoppers played at 5 @ Passout.
And while I’m tempted to point out to the guy “doing the door” that its 10:10 and we’re outside and the band is not only onstage but playing music, I trust that he knows what he’s doing.
And someone else asks him when we’re going to be let in and aren’t we missing the show.
“Oh, they’re just soundchecking. We’re not open yet. You’re not missing anything.”
Yet all of a sudden it was open sesame time.
And what do you know, the first floor room is even smaller than upstairs. Yeah, this was not the place to see a punk band.
First I was thinking that this place would be whack for this band because there’s a 1-drink minimum, which there shouldn’t be at a punk show because there shouldn’t be seating at a punk show, not to mention that they can't tell us what to do. I try to anchor myself in the best spot for passing out and taking pix and try to avoid the waitress. Then I thought that maybe I should’ve tried to make N6. Maybe I could’ve had a good schvitz and gotten the cold out of my system.
Yicore came onstage with the guitar player in a Santa nightie and bass player rocking the latest in shtetl fashions. Though we all applauded and Bram said that was the only time during the night that we’d applaud, he was wrong. Of course wherever I moved to take pix I was blocking the people who were seated behind me and there were people sitting in front of me. The people sitting on the opposite side of the table nearest the band got up to jump around off to the side and of course the guy who did the door ran in tried to get them to contain themselves. Well, why did you have a punk show at a place like this, then?
Anyway, it totally made me happy (I just took out the “this shit,” even though I think my readers are smart enough to understand what I mean. Yeah, I know you are. Their shit totally made me happy. Well, what would convince you to see a band? A) Their shit totally made me happy or B) “This Australian Jewish punk band is in New York ready to blow you away with their absurd stage antics and incredible Jewish rock show”). I must say, it was quite bewildering for me to hear a singer announce that they were going to play some horas. (“Hey! Would yez play something Jewish already?!”) Bram tried to play the shofar but had a bit of performance anxiety and couldn’t get it going (then again, isn’t that what happened to Portnoy when he went to Israel?)—plus he probably had humus in it.
I wish I had this music around when I was younger and going to temple more. Our cantor rocked and had some pretty good arrangements and there were a few songs I really looked forward to, music-wise, but thinking back on it it’s probably because the arrangements could easily be punked up if played faster and get me all wound up. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if someone who knows musical arrangements would point out that the ones I like are actually very simplistic. There was one in particular that drove me crazy I loved it so much that my mom had to make sure the cantor did it during my Bat Mitzvah services.
Thankfully they didn’t hold fast to the “mandatory” minimum per set so I was able to get Rocket To Rechovoth and a T. I brought the CD to work and photocopied the cover (it copies the Ramones logo only w/Jewish stars and band members' names in Hebrew, and their motto is "Oy Vey Let's Eat") and hung it up on my wall, it makes me so happy.
See, hold fast to the Tree of Life not the 1-drink minimum.
Chai! Chai! Chai!
(You might think that this post is a little late for Chanukah, but seeing as how Jesus was really Jewish it’s actually right on time.)
Oh my God, Yidcore and the Shemps.
Now, I know I told myself that I wasn’t getting involved, but I could not let a pairing like this go by without myself getting involved. So I had to contact WWIX and I sent them a link to Yidcore’s site and said, So get in touch with them, get on the bill, and break shit. Or at least go to the show.
Because even though I technically haven’t seen Yidcore yet and I have seen the Shemps, I know WWIX is on that comp w/the Shemps and the Blackout Shoppers were phasing in their new drummer at the time and besides, the gig was listed on that punk site so if anyone wanted to be on the bill, they can just get in touch with them on their own. Besides, it’s a Monday night gig in the Northsix basement and I don’t know how shows run there, because I’ve still never been there, Monday nights or not. Maybe they only have 2 bands because there’s a set time that shows have to end or something and there’s a limit to the number of band they have.
Still, I’m a pushy, busybody Jewess so I guess matchmaking is in my blood. All of this I explained to WWIX when I emailed them.
The next problem was when to pick up the ticket. Yes, technically I could’ve picked it up when I was in Williamsburg on the 9th, but they only sell tix at the venue on days they have shows, from 4pm-showtime. So when I was in Williamsburg on the 9th, I’ll be nowhere near N6 during box office hours. So of course I had to run to Williamsburg at the first available opportunity that I was free and they had a show. Because I wasn’t going to order an $8 ticket online.
Hard to believe that I haven’t been to N6 since C!BR in May, but ‘tis so. I turned down 6th and kept walking, thinking, Where the hell is this place again? The numbers are supposed to go down, right? Right.
So I tried to get a ticket and of course they don’t sell advance tix for the downstairs shows. Because running out to Northie to get a ticket after work is just as convenient for me as running down to the Merc to get a ticket after work. Well, you pass an American Apparel in both cases, so maybe it is.
On sites for either Yidcore or N6 or whichever, it turns out that the Shemps weren’t on the bill anymore. And there was a 12/12 show added in NYC. Huh. What to do, what to do. And this is probably going to be the most Jewish thing I’ve ever said, but the 12/12 show was $7.
The 12/12 show was sponsored by some website called Bangitout. They say that you have to be an idiot (or someone steeped in college finals) to miss the shows, so I think the site skews a little younger. And a little broader—they have an article in the music section on Seth Cohen’s iPod and—yet still narrower, they said the 12/12 show is for the “Bangitout readers who love Hashem and punk music, but dig staying within the Manhattan borders” and I’m like, “love Hash—” Oh, right, I know what that means. See, they just bust out these words and expressions that I just don’t use. I get it, you’re more Jewish than I am.
Or it’s for those who love punk rock and who’ve been going to way too many shows and might need a night off on Monday.
And then I realized that even though I’m coming off a 3-day show bender, I have to go to the N6 show because the Mo Pitkin’s show would just suck. Yes, I’d be incredibly exhausted at N6, yes it’s a Monday, yes, its $1 more, yes, there were 3 other bands and none of them were the Shemps, but N6 would be the better show. These are the executive decisions that we here at Hollow Sidewalks are prepared to make. Mo Pitkin’s is the wrong place to see Yidcore, or any punk band for that matter.
But Monday rolled around and I felt incredibly sick. I wasn’t doing any better on the 12th and as I walked over to Mo’s I felt like I was going to melt into the sidewalk. I got there to find the place a general mob scene with people eating in general, upstairs in use, and the Yidcore gig on the first floor. I spent the majority of the time sitting downstairs by the bathroom with my head in my hands, telling myself to just go home, telling myself that had I gone to N6 I would’ve gotten the show over with, and telling myself that Mo’s, on the Lower East Side, was, in a weird way, sorta appropriate for a Jewish band because downstairs by the bathroom are all these old photos that look like they’re from Bar Mitzvahs in the 70s. But it’s not an appropriate venue for a Jewish punk band.
Seth A. left Yidcore a love note directing the boichicks to Katz’s. Hey, it’s on the corner of Ludlow St., so he’d know. Blackout Matt was there, and someone greeted us with “Shalom Aleichem!”
At a punk gig.
Matt looked at me for an explanation and while I was going to respond with a nice hacking cough, “Peace out, dude” totally works.
So we were to be let in at 10 and the guy at the door said he was letting people in 3 at a time. He had 3 in and for some reason, those were the only 3 he was going to let in. The rest of us were left hanging. Standing around, looking at our watches, me almost passing out. Matt looks annoyed. They should’ve had a Jew doing the door. At least money would’ve been collected and hands would’ve been stamped while we waited.
The band gets onstage and starts playing. Cameras go off. Uhm. What about us? Matt again looks annoyed because it’s past 10:00 door time and while I was tempted to point out that this, basically, is what my life is like he saw how the doors were at 5pm for Reagan Youth that past Sunday. And that Blackout Shoppers played at 5 @ Passout.
And while I’m tempted to point out to the guy “doing the door” that its 10:10 and we’re outside and the band is not only onstage but playing music, I trust that he knows what he’s doing.
And someone else asks him when we’re going to be let in and aren’t we missing the show.
“Oh, they’re just soundchecking. We’re not open yet. You’re not missing anything.”
Yet all of a sudden it was open sesame time.
And what do you know, the first floor room is even smaller than upstairs. Yeah, this was not the place to see a punk band.
First I was thinking that this place would be whack for this band because there’s a 1-drink minimum, which there shouldn’t be at a punk show because there shouldn’t be seating at a punk show, not to mention that they can't tell us what to do. I try to anchor myself in the best spot for passing out and taking pix and try to avoid the waitress. Then I thought that maybe I should’ve tried to make N6. Maybe I could’ve had a good schvitz and gotten the cold out of my system.
Yicore came onstage with the guitar player in a Santa nightie and bass player rocking the latest in shtetl fashions. Though we all applauded and Bram said that was the only time during the night that we’d applaud, he was wrong. Of course wherever I moved to take pix I was blocking the people who were seated behind me and there were people sitting in front of me. The people sitting on the opposite side of the table nearest the band got up to jump around off to the side and of course the guy who did the door ran in tried to get them to contain themselves. Well, why did you have a punk show at a place like this, then?
Anyway, it totally made me happy (I just took out the “this shit,” even though I think my readers are smart enough to understand what I mean. Yeah, I know you are. Their shit totally made me happy. Well, what would convince you to see a band? A) Their shit totally made me happy or B) “This Australian Jewish punk band is in New York ready to blow you away with their absurd stage antics and incredible Jewish rock show”). I must say, it was quite bewildering for me to hear a singer announce that they were going to play some horas. (“Hey! Would yez play something Jewish already?!”) Bram tried to play the shofar but had a bit of performance anxiety and couldn’t get it going (then again, isn’t that what happened to Portnoy when he went to Israel?)—plus he probably had humus in it.
I wish I had this music around when I was younger and going to temple more. Our cantor rocked and had some pretty good arrangements and there were a few songs I really looked forward to, music-wise, but thinking back on it it’s probably because the arrangements could easily be punked up if played faster and get me all wound up. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if someone who knows musical arrangements would point out that the ones I like are actually very simplistic. There was one in particular that drove me crazy I loved it so much that my mom had to make sure the cantor did it during my Bat Mitzvah services.
Thankfully they didn’t hold fast to the “mandatory” minimum per set so I was able to get Rocket To Rechovoth and a T. I brought the CD to work and photocopied the cover (it copies the Ramones logo only w/Jewish stars and band members' names in Hebrew, and their motto is "Oy Vey Let's Eat") and hung it up on my wall, it makes me so happy.
See, hold fast to the Tree of Life not the 1-drink minimum.
Chai! Chai! Chai!
posted by heather @ 3:54 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home