Saturday, January 22, 2011

Here we are livin' in Paradise








A few weeks ago Tim B. at Stupefaction posted a mind-blowing image of the flyer for a Richard Hell/Senders/Teenage Jesus and the Jerks/Contortions show, held at the Paradise Garage of all places.  Today he elaborated on what transpired that night, with help from Nightclubbing's Pat Ivers.  Dig it here.



Excerpt from Joe Bonomo's Sweat: the Story of the Fleshtones (New York: Continuum, 2007):

...as Eddie Holman sang "This Will Be a Night to Remember" over thumping disco party grooves and Peter [Zaremba] and Marek boogied through much of 1977 and 1978 in a glittering blur of dance floors at Studio 54, Hurrah, Paradise Garage, Le Mouche, Odyssey 2001.  Indulging and nurturing their love for kicks and speed, they greeted dawns stumbling out of whatever Christopher Street dance club they happened to have closed.  They became after-hours denizens, kicking their nights into gear at three or four in the morning...

Hi-watt circuses, soaking in gin and dusted with coke, allowed Peter and Marek glimpses of the kickiness of the underground gay and transgendered world...The fellas were intrigued beyond reason. "It was out there, like the Velvet Underground unearthing the subterranean New York experience," remembers Marek.  "It was really beyond the pale of a lot of the rock and roll people to do, but for us it was like an adventure into the nether regions of experience.  We really were into it, all of that homosexual undercurrent that we used to love to flirt with."

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