We Did a Show: Knitting Factory @ Baker Falls(s)
We closed out last year here and opened up our year here too! Psych, this is mostly about Pyramid Club.
Hello hello!
Time is strange and January and February always feel so short. (And if you asked me during any other month, I’d probably say that said month feels so short too.) When one lives an undisciplined and routine-less life such as mine, chronology ceases to exist and the only way to know how much time has passed is to jolt out of bed, away from a stress dream, look at a smartphone screen and think “Ugh, it’s still 3:44 am? … an it’s already the END OF FEBRUARY??”
It’s a leap year so I guess I have an extra day, but I am at least trying to ship one email? Post? Stack…? (What is an entry on a Substack called?) every month in the name of some level of consistency.
Between December and January, we got to play TWO shows at Knitting Factory at Baker Falls in the lower east side.
This location of the Knitting Factory used to be Pyramid Club.
A queer and punk club where RuPaul, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the likes played their first NYC shows, where Black Lips Performance Cult hosted their iconic Monday midnights (more on Pyramid Club history here if that’s what you’re into), and I spent almost every weekend of my early 20s in New York at their 70’s and 80’s nights with industrial metal in the basement.
When I started going, obviously their heyday was over, and I know people viewed it with a certain level of corniness. 70’s and 80’s night every weekend? A strange male go-go dancer who couldn’t dance to the beat to save his life? It definitely gave 43 year old girlies’ birthday bashes than cool East Village Kids wrapping around the block to get in. But it was perfect. Everybody was there to have a good time. And actually dance. A rarity in dance clubs, ironically. Nobody was there to look hot, nobody was there to be creepy, people just open to looking stupid while screaming I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
At the time, I was in the middle of an immigration process that kept getting delayed and delayed (last presidency, amirite?) and could not work legally. Also my degree was in theater so either way I had fucked myself, I guess. I hopped from unlivable sublet to unlivable sublet, sometimes sleeping in 24 hour laundromats and inside U-Haul trucks. I’ve lived out of so many cardboard boxes and on so many floors that I still have anxiety attacks every time I try to buy furniture. What if I end up having to move out in two weeks? To this day, I desperately need a bookshelf and still can’t talk myself into getting one.
All I had at the time was stand up and sometimes theater. I would sleep all day because simply being awake in New York during the day is expensive and therefore excruciating for someone in my position at the time. Once in a while I’d face the sunlight to go help with a light hang or do a load of laundry (not mine, costumes of plays). Most days I’d just leave my apartment once it got dark to do as much stand up as possible and stay out until I could pass out from exhaustion. It was easier to rot in a disorienting adrenaline blur than to examine my living situation in daylight.
Pyramid Club was my oasis. From Thursday to Saturday, a $7 cover would buy me blissful dissociation. On those days from 10pm to 4am I could moonlight as a young person enjoying my weekend. There was nowhere else in New York where I felt so completely safe and left the fuck alone. An introvert’s dream.
Dance to banger after banger of disco hits at street level.
Go downstairs to head bang and thrash to industrial metal.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
This was the HIIT that saved my life.
While my life has vastly improved since those days, was I devastated when I learned that Pyramid closed during the pandemic?
Absolutely.
Was I thrilled when they briefly reopened in 2022?
Yes, and Mark and I went, and pestered the owners about reopening their basement.
Were ALL CAPS TEXTS SENT AROUND weeks after when they announced they are officially closing for good?
YES MY HOME WAS OFFICIALLY GONE.
A month into first president of japan starting our weekly practice sessions, I found out the space that used to be Pyramid Club is being bought by Baker Falls and will be turned into a concert venue.
!!!!!!!!!
I still hadn’t found an as-good place to dance (I still have not, please recommend) but that hole in my heart was quickly filled with
wait
does
that
mean
we
can
maybe
play
there
someday??
It became a “maybe 3 years in” kind of goal.
You best believe my heart stopped when I was told we’re invited to play at Knitting Factory, and I realized that’s where Pyramid used to be.
So soon!?!?
And shortly after we got also booked there for January.
Twice!?!?
And both shows were truly a dream come true. The ghosts that live in that space are truly good. They are spirits who love art that comes to power through irreverence and unapologetic being in the face of pain. Oh what joy to get to reverberate among them.
on 12/15 we played with:
Fiona Silver - a beautiful songstress that made me be like “damn, people who just exude a classic iconicism”
and
High Waisted - suuuuch a wonderful party band that was extremely tight! Like truly just in awe of their skill level as a band (I think they said they’ve been around for over a decade, and it shows!) They also gave us glow stick accessories to wear in the crowd
and had a bubble guns and balloons and the whole shebang of F.U.N.
on 1/24 we played with:
Phantom Signals - Sweeeeeet indie rock vibes that spoke to that former emo teen that still lives inside my heart.
Onesie - Feel good jams that called for some step-touching that we the audience was happy to oblige to!
and
Kristin Flammio & The Pretty Bitchin - Charisma charisma charismaaaa! Wow, their music was a funky good time and Kristin just had the power to pull everyone into the room.
Thank you thank you thank you for inviting us to join your bill.
None of these bands have ANY idea how much this meant to me.
1/24 was also Aki’s birthday/send-off show, as he is currently stuck in Japan awaiting closure on an immigration process. Yes, as a band, we are very familiar with USCIS proceedings. Zev is our only American band member hah. But all of this deserves its own post so for now I’ll leave it at this.
I hope my sappy ode to Pyramid Club RIP added a little something to your Friday.
Here’s what’s up for us these days —
We played Nicky’s Unisex last night with camp legend Sugarlife and explanation defying solo act Jay Henry. It’s not everyday we get to feel like the normiest band on the lineup, so fun!
ON MARCH 19th,
We have a show at Sleepwalk in Bushwick.
What makes this show EXTRA SPECIAL is that…
It’s our single release party!!
Yes, on 3/15 we are putting our first single out in the world 💖
Can you guess which one…?
You know me, we will have limited edition merch at the Sleepwalk show that will also serve as “physical copies” of the single. It’ll come with other tokens of appreciation for you actually buying our music in this digital age. You guessed it, designed and handmade by me.
So put 3/19 in your calendar and get ready to be WIDE AWAKE at SLEEPWALK (do you think anyone has ever said that?)
But for now, I must go to sleep.
Thank you always for being here, can’t wait to see you IRL at one of our shows soon.
Big Love,
Non
💖💝💗