FREE: Jay Reatard Show at Stuy Town Oval

This past CMJ season I had the chance to attend a show at one of the most hateful and awful musical venues this side of Terminal 5 at a little place called Santos Party House.  The floor space was cold and weird with its white concrete walls, huge plaster columns and blue and pink and purple flashing lights. It reminded me of the Music Factory, an alcohol-free “teen club” in Paramus New Jersey where, for reasons too humiliating to describe, I found myself on more than one Saturday night when I was fifteen.

The show I was seeing that night more than made up for the shitty venue; the Vivian Girls opening for Jay Reatard.  The Vivian Girls were great although their sound system was a little messed up but when the Reatard himself took the stage mayhem erupted.  He was crazy loud, energetic and the crowd was pumped.  The band was tight as a drum too, rolling out song after song without skipping a beat.

Two enthusiastically-dancing girls who looked like theater types decided now was the time to recreate the Lollapalooza experience their parents would never let them have, and they took to the stage. The first one maniacally jumped into the crowd, arms and legs flailing, and was caught and passed around for a moment of 90’s nostalgia.  The second girl held out her arms crucifixion style and gently dropped forward. The crowd, however, had tired of the mosh pit flashback, stepped back and let her face-plant onto the floor. This reception did not dissuade a stocky, portly young man from ascending the stage and attempting to dancewith the band like a drunk, gyrating, red-faced gnome.  Jay disengaged from his guitar just long enough to hurl him offstage and into the crowd.

My ears rang steadily for the next 24 hours

Apparently abusing fans who get too close is a little quirk of his, so keep your distance tonight at the free show in the Stuyvesant Town Oval.

Only blocks away from Murray Hill seems like an odd choice for a loud pop punk show, but maybe its time to give those stuffed shirts marketing analysts something to talk about.

Stuyvesant Town Oval near 332 1st Ave, New York, NY 10009