Last 700 Social Club Show - July 31, 2008
The 700 Social Club begs appreciation. And not just for having over a hundred shows in one year in the basement of a residence where you can drink, smoke and party all night long. Like most good properties, it's all about location.
When I was coming up, the pre-emminent local punk club was Art Callahan's Barn Door on 9th and Tatnall, right in Wilmington's Center City. And in those hollowed halls you could see Explosive Kate, Jake and the Stiffs, the Crash, Plow United, the Halflings, Third Year Freshmen, Wally, the Bouncing Souls, Fifteen, the Queers, and many, many more, no matter how old you were. If you were underaged, when you walked in Art would say, "Go near the bar and I'll make ya' sleep with my sister!" or something like that. My first band Ninja Attak played our first show at the Barn Door when I was 16 and Brendo-Nintendo was only 15.
When punk rock crashed in 1998, the Barn Door went with it, and I started my bar tour of Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and New York, which would stretch over the next few years. Bars suck because ain't no one there wanna hear you play at all (unless you suck, then people are more inclined to enjoy you). The younger people are, the more they are willing to listen to you play. Plus, in larger metropoli, people tend to be more jaded, or at least wear an aire of jadededness. And they overcharge for booze! Only after playing fucking bars in Times Square or Southeast Philly or Newark, getting berated by everyone with a mouth, forced to lower our volume, and slap-fighting with coked out oldsters can one really appreciate the 700 Club.
Do you understand? It's in WIlmington, the finest city in all the Mid Atlantic! Sure, West Chester, PA and Brooklyn, NY have strong and good voices. And granted the voices of Philly and Manhattan are very loud indeed... but this could be the voice of Wilmington! (Voice supplied by Tit Patrol, Count von Count, the Headies, etc...) WIlmington offers most anything a city could want, except for and adequate night-life. For the most part, that is left in the hands of our extremely apt citizenry. Situated nicely at 7th and Harrison Streets, a block off Hilltop in the West Side of WIlmington, three or four times a month the Club regularly attracted good crowds for every show, black, white, Mexican, Asian, and Cherokee, very young and very old, sexy and busted alike, hippies (boo!) and punks like me, and a plethora of touring bands from all over these United States. And presiding over it all was the Dungeon Master Tom von Count.
J.P. Neary introduce me and Tom in 1997 and he joined Ninja Attak to replace the recently schizoed Mike Cruz. Tom was officially in the scene, and since that time I have seen him grow exponentially as a sick drummer, and into someone who can and did hold the entire scene on his shoulders. What Tommy accomplished at the 700 Club is one of the most impressive things I've seen locally in regards to love of punk rock. Any idiot can form a band, but it takes gumption to sustain a venue! He made sure that the music I love could be played in the city I love. And he has an Afro.
So, when my band the Headies gets back from playing the Mean Fiddler or some such nonsense for a bunch of pretentious hipster fucks, the greatest feeling in the world is walking into that basement at 104 degrees, after some dirty bitches played an hour and a half long set of industro-stoner power-sludge, (while me and Timmy listened to the Phillies on the transistor radio on the porch), it smells like a catholic boys school locker room, everybody who came to see the show is too tired and drunk to stand, so we play for Tommy, Peter, Sammy, and Jess. Thanks 700, I appreciate you.
The 700 Social Club will host it's last soire on July 31, 2008, the lease runs out at midnight.
When I was coming up, the pre-emminent local punk club was Art Callahan's Barn Door on 9th and Tatnall, right in Wilmington's Center City. And in those hollowed halls you could see Explosive Kate, Jake and the Stiffs, the Crash, Plow United, the Halflings, Third Year Freshmen, Wally, the Bouncing Souls, Fifteen, the Queers, and many, many more, no matter how old you were. If you were underaged, when you walked in Art would say, "Go near the bar and I'll make ya' sleep with my sister!" or something like that. My first band Ninja Attak played our first show at the Barn Door when I was 16 and Brendo-Nintendo was only 15.
When punk rock crashed in 1998, the Barn Door went with it, and I started my bar tour of Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and New York, which would stretch over the next few years. Bars suck because ain't no one there wanna hear you play at all (unless you suck, then people are more inclined to enjoy you). The younger people are, the more they are willing to listen to you play. Plus, in larger metropoli, people tend to be more jaded, or at least wear an aire of jadededness. And they overcharge for booze! Only after playing fucking bars in Times Square or Southeast Philly or Newark, getting berated by everyone with a mouth, forced to lower our volume, and slap-fighting with coked out oldsters can one really appreciate the 700 Club.
Do you understand? It's in WIlmington, the finest city in all the Mid Atlantic! Sure, West Chester, PA and Brooklyn, NY have strong and good voices. And granted the voices of Philly and Manhattan are very loud indeed... but this could be the voice of Wilmington! (Voice supplied by Tit Patrol, Count von Count, the Headies, etc...) WIlmington offers most anything a city could want, except for and adequate night-life. For the most part, that is left in the hands of our extremely apt citizenry. Situated nicely at 7th and Harrison Streets, a block off Hilltop in the West Side of WIlmington, three or four times a month the Club regularly attracted good crowds for every show, black, white, Mexican, Asian, and Cherokee, very young and very old, sexy and busted alike, hippies (boo!) and punks like me, and a plethora of touring bands from all over these United States. And presiding over it all was the Dungeon Master Tom von Count.
J.P. Neary introduce me and Tom in 1997 and he joined Ninja Attak to replace the recently schizoed Mike Cruz. Tom was officially in the scene, and since that time I have seen him grow exponentially as a sick drummer, and into someone who can and did hold the entire scene on his shoulders. What Tommy accomplished at the 700 Club is one of the most impressive things I've seen locally in regards to love of punk rock. Any idiot can form a band, but it takes gumption to sustain a venue! He made sure that the music I love could be played in the city I love. And he has an Afro.
So, when my band the Headies gets back from playing the Mean Fiddler or some such nonsense for a bunch of pretentious hipster fucks, the greatest feeling in the world is walking into that basement at 104 degrees, after some dirty bitches played an hour and a half long set of industro-stoner power-sludge, (while me and Timmy listened to the Phillies on the transistor radio on the porch), it smells like a catholic boys school locker room, everybody who came to see the show is too tired and drunk to stand, so we play for Tommy, Peter, Sammy, and Jess. Thanks 700, I appreciate you.
The 700 Social Club will host it's last soire on July 31, 2008, the lease runs out at midnight.
Labels: DAN_ROBINSON
posted by MUP at
11:26 AM
1 Comments:
awesome
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