Chosen Family Reunions
Choose Your Own Adventures
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of hosting the “core” line up of Ascetic Parade. Joe and I started the band as he was finishing college and we recruited Brandon before our biggest tour. Dan came along on a few adventures, including that tour, as a tour mis-manager. Our friend Kevin, who regularly filled in as a second guitarist, wasn’t up for the trip this time.
I come from a large family, both my parents had 4 siblings and all of them have children. It should come as no surprise, then, that I have a large found family as well. The two comingle a lot. My sister, my parents and Adrianne’s cousins have been regular attendees at RocketCon.
Words fail to express how much Covid stripped from us, but I’ll do my best to transcribe some of it here. My social circle, between work and the pandemic, had dwindled down to a very insular bubble. I’m so grateful to the people that allowed me into their bubble, I wouldn’t have been able to survive without them.
Community though, was found almost exclusively online. How refreshing it was, then, to host one of my oldest communities. Joe and I have been friends for 17 years. We’ve been on many adventures (including bachelor parties for both of us, cabin trips and tours). One of our adventures was playing a show in legendary venue Saint Vitus.
Here’s the notable shows list from their Wikipedia page:
November 3, 2011: Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi book signing[20]
April 23–28, 2012: One-Year Anniversary Celebration[21]
September 8, 2012: Descendents, after Riot Fest Brooklyn was canceled early after a tornado warning[22]
September 25, 2012: Saint Vitus[23]
September 25, 2013: Carcass and Immolation[24]
April 10, 2014: Nirvana tribute show with Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Joan Jett, J Mascis, Annie Clark (St. Vincent), John McCauley of Deer Tick, and Kim Gordon formerly of Sonic Youth[26]
January 25–26, 2015: Zola Jesus, including a performance outside in the snow[27]
April 28, 2015: John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols book signing[28]
October 27, 2015: Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney) in conversation with Questlove[29]
July 14, 2016: Gojira, rare club show, on Bastille Day and Nice terrorist attack[31]
August 20, 2016: The Obelisk All-Dayer, a one-day festival hosted by The Obelisk with Mars Red Sky headlining[32]
September 16–17, 2016: Anthrax, benefit shows for Gilda's Club cancer support group[33]
December 12, 2016: Megadeth, billed as Vic and the Rattleheads[34]
May 16, 2019: Killing Joke, 40th anniversary[35]
September 19, 2019: Blink-182, warmup show days before Barclays Center stop[36]
October 27–28, 2023: Gridlink, performing their final two shows[37]
Saint Vitus has been open for 13 years and is currently closed because the New York Department of Buildings showed up to a Mindforce show at 8 pm on a Friday and shut it down.
Something else Covid stripped from us was independent third spaces. In Richmond, Strange Matter closed right before the pandemic and we still haven’t had a venue fill that void. This is a city that regularly supports small touring acts and almost every dive bar in the city has a stage and PA.
Touring bands have come back with a vengeance in the last two years. Some venues did manage to survive, in part because of the Save Our Stages act.
The issue surrounding Saint Vitus is a Certificate of Occupancy and a Place of Assembly. Their paperwork wasn’t in order. That’s a problem. What is a bigger problem for me is that this seems to be the work of one person with a vendetta against the venue. While they aren’t wrong that it should have been addressed sooner, the way it was handled is criminal.
8 pm on a Friday ensures that the business will have no way to even start the process until Monday morning. Right before a huge show and over the busiest days for music venue. If this were such a priority, why wasn’t it dealt with over the past decade? And if it isn’t a priority, why wasn’t the venue given the opportunity to address it in a timely manner?
The issues here are multifaceted. The war on third spaces. The loss of a valuable touring space that helps foster the next generation of DIY musicians. Weaponized bureaucracy, suspected in the name of gentrification (at least on reddit). The venue is addressing the issue proactively, working on the permits and ensuring the bands are rehomed for their shows. This kind of set back could be ruinous.
The night we played Saint Vitus was one of the worst nights I ever had. As a member of a band and as a person. A terrible show with a worse ending. The kind of story that sounds great when you make it as a band, but was awful to live through and worse when you don’t “make it.” We relived that night this past weekend, thinking of all our misadventures and the great stories they produced. Here’s hoping Saint Vitus will be around to help others make the same mistakes we did.
Grey AM’s catalog is on Spotify, that’s what I’m listening to:
God I miss Strange Matter.