"HELTER SKELTER" IN NEW YORK CITY...FOR A LITTLE WHILE ANYWAY

As I currently go through my rolls of film to add more pictures for this blog, I came across some of these random shots from 1992.
There are even a few shots here from the short period when the legendary Goth club "Helter Skelter" existed in NYC around July/August of 1992.
Bruce from the original "Helter Skelter" in Los Angelos came to New York looking to branch out since the Goth scene was really going well here.
Initially he approached Marius, Jay and I, who were doing the "Belfry" night at the Bank, to start it up and gave us a ton of merch to promote it, including these incredible die cut peel-away "Helter Skelter" stickers that I was putting up EVERYWHERE in NYC that summer.
(Funny enough there's even one still up on the wall in my old room at my parent's house to this day...See pic below)

Anyway, one thing lead to another and eventually Father Jeff from "Ward 6" took over and had the night at Jackie 60 after "Troublemaker" ended it's run there on Thursdays.
Opening night was great, with the taped outlines of bodies all over the place with fake blood, right out of the Manson killings crime scene photos.
However, New York City wasn't as successful for a full-on Goth night and "Helter Skelter" only lasted about two months or so.
Just seems that in NYC you had to have a night that not only played Goth, but had all the danceable Wax Trax/Industrial stuff as well.
But even so, we were really surprised that the night didn't work here. Everyone thought it was a sure-fire hit since at the time, the scene was getting bigger with bands like Requiem in White, The Wake, Sunshine Blind, as well as smaller parties like "Dark Wave" and the "Night of Misanthropy" were starting up.

Jesse, Sheila and Sonja downstairs at "Helter Skelter" at Jackie 60

Adam and Summer at Skinny Puppy

Rob Xian, Sheila and Sonja outside the Pyramid

Helene and Jen at "Helter Skelter" at Jackie 60

Ian, Sheila and Sonja: end of night at Limelight

Robbie, Nicole, Brian and Me at Skinny Puppy

Laura at "Helter Skelter"

Vanessa Miasma DJ-ing at Tilt

Robbie performing at Pyramid (Michelle Meow at left)

Adam and Sheila at Skinny Puppy

Aimee and Patrick "Helter Skelter"

Marius, Jay and Ian outside the "Belfry" at the Bank

Sheila, Kenny and Michelle at Tilt

Sheila mugging it up at Tilt

Sharon and Scott in the Chapel at Limelight (Thanks Reese & Sam!)

PARTYING OUTSIDE OF CLUBS...

Here are some pictures of a bunch of us hanging out away from the club scene.
The first set is from a house-party Jesse threw in the summer of 1992 at his house in Queens. Fun night with lots of people, food and drink. Some people may not even remember being there (sorry Joe!).
The second bunch of shots are from the West Side Highway to watch the 4th of July fireworks show that summer. There weren't many years where the city had them on the Hudson, but this was one of them.
I DO remember that the year before in 1991 the fireworks show was actually down by Governors Island, so they let spectators go onto the Brooklyn Bridge and view the show from there. We all did just that. I remember it was Rory, Laura, Flavio, Weegie, Jesse, myself and a few others. THAT was an awesome place to hang out. But obviously, in this time of "Potential Terrorism" they'd never let that go on any longer. Sucks...
Anyway, enjoy...

Jen, Brian and Rory

Randi

Dale, Ian and Joe

Tuesday and Dale

Kristi

???, Jen and Tuesday

Here are the 4th of July pics:

Helene and Ian

Andre, Joe and Sharon

Jesse, Rob, Helene, Me and Ian

Sheila and Sonja

Jesse

Sharon and Joe

Joe, Helene, ???, Jesse and Sharon

???, ???, Mary, Andre and Joe

AS IF A CLUB EVERY NIGHT WASN'T ENOUGH...

So, besides having all of these clubs to hit in NYC, we were also lucky enough to have what seemed to be a concert to go to every night as well.
During the same time as all the clubbing, we had so many venues putting on shows it was ridiculous. Some of the more active venues back then: The Ritz, The World, Marquee, Limelight, Roseland, The Academy, The Cat Club, CBGB's, Pyramid, Irving Plaza, Wetlands, Maxwell's in Hoboken N.J., ABC No Rio, and your bigger spots like Radio City and the Beacon Theater.
So as I was putting this blog together it got me to remember some of the shows in that short period of time. It was insane just how many shows we fit in while clubbing. Usually we'd go to the show, THEN trek over to whatever club was going that night.
The following are as good a list of the shows we saw in that time as I can remember. These shows ranged from large venues down to the clubs themselves.
Thing is, I KNOW I'm forgetting many other shows. Any help would be appreciated. Here goes in NO particular order:
Sleep Chamber, Meat Beat Manifesto, Pigface 2x, Revolting Cocks, Killing Joke 2x, Front Line Assembly 2x, Wolfgang Press 2x, Dead Can Dance 2x, Happy Mondays 2x, Morrissey, Sisters of Mercy 2x, Creatures, KMFDM, Einsturzende Neubauten, Nick Cave 2x , Ministry, Lush, Nine Inch Nails, Nocturnal Emissions, The Fall, Fugazi, Sex Gang Children, Pere Ubu, Alien Sex Fiend, Cramps 2x, Skinny Puppy, Whitehouse, Hair and Skin Trading Company, Crash Worship 4x, Tony Wakeford, Front 242, Shadow Project, Christian Death, Wire, Pixies 3x, Gang of Four, Breeders, Legendary Pink Dots, Laibach, Consolidated, Thrill Kill Kult, Peter Murphy, Siouxsie and the Banshees 2x, Janes Addiction, The Cure, Bjork, Suicide, Cocteau Twins, The Cranes, The Damned, Suicidal Tendencies, Godflesh, P.I.L., Pain Teens, Foetus, Nitzer Ebb, Rollins Band, Die Krupps, Ajax, The Mentors, 808 State, and the Young Gods.
Again, I know there are many that I forgot, and I haven't even mentioned all the NY Hardcore shows (Murphy's law, Agnostic Front, etc etc etc), but this is what I could come up with at the moment. Not a bad bunch of shows for such a short period of time.
Some of the more memorable shows that stick out in my mind:
Sex Gang Children reunited after 10 years performing at Limelight; Sleep Chamber's show at Limelight was incredible; Dead Can Dance at Symphony Space; the Sisters of Mercy show at the Ritz where all they played were the classic tracks; (on a side note: the Sisters show at Radio City three months later was EASILY the worst show ever!! With Public Enemy, Warrior Soul and Young Black Teenagers sharing the bill. Total Debacle! Goths, Metal Heads and Hip Hoppers all together in one place. Recipe for DISASTER! They may as well has Skrewdriver play that night so they could fit in some Nazi-Skins to boot!); Suicide at Limelight (with Ric Ocasek from the Cars performing with them); Nick Cave at The World (as aggressive as I have ever seen him); and ANY Crash Worship show!! (I remember they had shows at Limelight, the Building, Wetlands, West Beth Music Center and I think even Brownies. Each and every show absolutely incredible!), and the incredibly rare performance by Nocturnal Emissions at some small venue on Avenue B sometime in 1992.
I DO remember the hilarious moment at Limelight when Shadow Project played, and Rozz Williams wanted to start the show by being "dragged" out onto the stage by someone on a leash. As much as Neville tried, he couldn't get any of us to do it, so Chris got stuck with the "job". The look on his face as he was "pulling" Rozz out was hilarious. He clearly wanted to be ANYWHERE but on stage with an old goth at the end of a leash! I found an image of this online (sadly I didn't take any photos):

Anyway, I know I've said it before, but it really was an incredible time in New York City then. So much going on and so many places to see it. And when you realize that MOST of the venues were relatively close to each other, as well as close to the clubs themselves, we never really had to trek very far to hit whatever it was we were doing.
Then Giuliani came in, and got rid of most mid-sized venues for concerts, and we all KNOW what he did to clubs...
And with that, people fled to Williamsburg and gave birth to Hipster Nation.
The rest, as they say, is history.

"EQUILIBRIUM" AT TILT...WITH A BIT OF ROCKIT RAGS THROWN IN

In mid-1992 Neville from Limelight opened up a night at Tilt called "Equilibrium", recruiting a bunch of us regulars as co-managers and promoters.
I remember Rob Wong, DJ Jay and I were pushing for the name "Spahn Ranch" (before that awful band came out), but they chose "Equilibrium" instead. We were trying to get a Manson thing going on, and funny enough, just a month or so later the New York City version of "Helter Skelter" opened up at the Jackie 60 spot where "Troublemakers" used to be. Oh well, we tried...
To be honest at this point I can't even remember what night of the week "Equilibrium" was (I'm thinking Saturdays), but it was really packed and had us going down to Soho on the West side, which was kind of out there as far as the club spots were concerned for that time.
I remember a couple of good live shows held on this night, most notably a Loretta's Doll set that was fantastic.
Tilt was a huge space with a big dance-floor and if I'm not mistaken while we had the upstairs, there was another event going on downstairs that was more mainstream.
Anyway, here are a bunch of shots from one of the nights held there.
I don't know if these were ALL taken the night of the "Loretta's Doll" show, but nevertheless they would have all been withing a month or so of each other since the night didn't go on for very long (three months at best).

Aimee

Adam, Sheila and Rob Xian

Sheila

Bryan Doll/ Loretta's Doll

Ed and Jessica

DJ Jay Consoli

Randi

Around the time "Equilibrium" was going on, Jesse got a job at "Rockit Rags", which was the T-Shirt place everyone went to in the back of Bleeker Bob's on 3rd Street.
Soon after he started he managed to get me a job there as well, and I ended up working there for a couple of years before I switched over to the Bleeker Bob's side of the business until 1997.
"Rockit Rags" was an awesome job. It was the perfect location for your friends to come by and just chill with you until it was quitting time, and we would then jet off to whichever club was on that night.
This was when there was a club to go to every night of the week, even Sunday. It was insane since everyone made it out no matter what, every night. So it was one big family getting together night after night, clubbing until the sun came up, only to turn around, go home for a quick minute before heading out to work or school, just to do it all again later that evening. I don't even remember when I slept at this point. I think on the train or bus...An hour here, and hour there.
What contributed to the full club roster in NYC at the time was Techno. At about this time DJ Reese opened up a Techno/Trance night at Space at Chase up on 3rd Avenue, and it was awesome. This is when the Techno scene really hit NYC and a ton of us from the Goth/Industrial clubs were also hitting all the Techno spots as well. So besides the Goth/Industrial clubs going on, we now had the Techno clubs really beefing up the options to hit. Just amazing.
If I'm not mistaken, the week looked like this:
Monday: Black Lips at Pyramid
Tuesday: Communion at Limelight
Wednesday: London Dungeon at Zone Decay
Thursday: United States of Techno at Pyramid or Helter Skelter at Jackie 60
Friday: Stigmata at Pyramid
Saturday: Ward 6 (various locations at this time) or Equilibrium at Tilt
Sunday: the techno night at Space at Chase or Belfry at the Bank
Then of course you sprinkled in some time at the Mission (which became Ace bar), King Tut's Wah Wah on 7th and A, 7B's on Avenue B, Mona's up on Avenue B, Downtown Beirut on Houston, and a couple other dive bars in the east Village.
I remember Ian always showing up to Bleeker Bob's at the end of my shift with two 40 oz. bottles of St. Ides and we would crack those suckers open and drink as we walked to wherever we were going that night (ahh yes, when you could drink on the streets as long as the bottle was in a bag!).
Well, here are a couple shots I found from inside the store when we were working there: Summer hanging with us during one of our shifts and Jesse behind the counter ...

Summer

Jesse

"LET ME GET SOME LAST MINUTE DANCING IN..." (FAMOUS LAST WORDS)

So around June of 1991 Ward 6 in the Michael Todd room at the Palladium was really packed every Saturday night . There was always a line down 13th street at about 10pm every week as we were all antsy to get some good clubbing time in. It almost became a kind of "pre-clubbing" spot to kick off the night.
I remember one evening when we were all milling about outside on line, leaning up against the building waiting for them to let us go in, and suddenly Jessica starts screaming and pointing above us, about 15 feet over our heads, at the wall. Everyone was there, a good 50-60 people.
I was with Aimee, Helene, Andre, and Jesse and we instinctively ducked and ran away from the wall trying to figure out what the hell Jessica was pointing at. As we turned around and looked up we saw about a dozen flying water bugs circling overhead, then "bam", landing against the wall, walking around a little, then back into the air. Friggin' nasty! They were just hanging out with the rest of us, flying around in the middle of 13th street.
What was really funny was when everyone else realized what was going on and took off away from the building yelling and screaming. I can only imagine what people thought when they saw a bunch of goths and industrial kids running down the block towards Third Avenue like that.
Another night that stands out for me at Ward 6 was just classic.
It was around 2am and I was with Aimee, Helene, Dreamer, Jesse, Andre, Michael T and Amanda, really kind of winding down and getting ready hit a diner. Suddenly, as we were ready to head out, Father Jeff puts "Burning Inside" by Ministry on and I figured, "Fuck it, let me get one last stomp in". So I tell everyone to hang out a second and I run into the pit. I'm having a good time stomping around then "WHAM!", I see a bright flash of light and I wake up to Jesse patting my face asking me if I'm alright. I have no clue what just happened, and my first thought was "Damn someone just punched me out!"
It wasn't until I got up on my feet that I saw someone else staggering, holding their head. It was Eve (not "Psychotic Eve", another dude who was out a lot then, and an aggressive stomper like me), and I saw some blood on the side of his face.
I was still dazed but kept feeling my forehead, which oddly enough felt like a wet sponge. So I went to the bathroom to see what the hell was going on.
Remember those big Palladium bathrooms with the huge mirrors and bright lights? Well, they came in handy for one of my favorite scenes in my life! I got in front of the mirror staring at my face, and it just so happened there was a crew of hardcore guys in there, and they also were looking at my reflection because something was "off". (There were always a bunch of skinheads hanging at the clubs as well, like Frank from Step 2 Far and Summer Trenholm who was going out with Paul from Oxblood at the time. Totally cool group of guys and girls). Anyway, there was a weird thin red line across the right side of my brow, but no blood. So like an idiot I started poking at it, and thought the best thing to do was see if I could open it. Well, OPEN IT DID!! And just like that we were all staring at the front of my SKULL, and that's when the blood started pouring out like a faucet!
But the best part was, at that very moment, all these big skinheads recoiled with a collective "ewww!" as I started cracking up at the reflection in the mirror. Totally a moment I WISH I had a picture of!
All I could do (besides laugh) was turn to Jesse and say "Shit, I need stitches".
So we went out to the dance floor, got Aimee and Dreamer, and hailed a cab to Beth Israel Hospital over on 1st Avenue.
After a bit of a wait I got stitched up (24 stitches poorly done) and we all decided the best thing to do was head back to the club! Makes sense right? I mean, there was STILL about a half hour left before closing, so with me looking like some war casualty with this giant white bandage on my forehead, we went back to hang out for a few more minutes, then collected Michael T, and THEN finally went out to the Cosmo Diner on 23rd street and 1st avenue.
To make a ridiculous night even better, here we are, trying to eat, looking the way we do (a group of goths and a cabaret performer), when suddenly, about a half hour into it Michael T asks me if I'm going to wash my face. Seems like I didn't realize I had all this dried blood running down my face and back across my ear for the last hour or so. And to top it off, there was a older gentleman with some blond model type sitting in the booth next to us, staring, smiling a bit until he said, "Must have been some night huh?".
It was comedian Jackie Mason. Just perfect. You just can't make that shit up...
Anyway, just one of those nights back then when something always seemed to happen.
Here are a few scattered pictures from that time, including a shot of Aimee and me that was right after my bad stitch job. Enjoy...

Jessica and Renzo at Ward 6

Patrick and Reese at Troublmakers

Me with my favorite jacket

The front of Troublmakers at Jackie 60

Vanessa Miasma and Renzo

Jake

Rob Xian and Gerard

Mary, Marius and Debbie

Aimee and Me (Notice my bandaged forehead)

"TROUBLEMAKERS" at Jackie 60

When DJ Reese started "Troublemakers" at Jackie 60 in August of 1991 it quickly became one of my favorite clubs.
It was big enough to have fun dancing all night, but small enough to really be more of a bar hang -out than anything else.
Back then the Meat-Packing District was absolutely deserted at night. Except for tranny prostitutes and, if you were out late enough (or early depending on how you looked at it), the "meat" trucks that came to load up on the cow-carcass for deliveries, there really wasn't anything going on there.
Looking at the area now, especially with all the chic boutiques, the High Line, posh eateries, and the Gansevoort Hotel, it's hard to believe it's the same 'hood now.
Reese always seemed to have new tracks before anyone else, and really was one of the good guys DJing back then.
He even hooked me up with a sweet internship at Einsturzende Neubauten's management company through his job as a writer for Soundpool Magazine.
Anyway, here are some pictures from a few nights in Summer/Autumn 1991...

Brian and Craig Curiousity

Reade, Brian and Jen

Ian

Jesse

Reese and Michael T

Rob and Jake

Unidentified and Alex

Marius, Helene, Andre, AJ and Max

Rory and Genevive

Tommy

Chris, Gerard and Sean