Well, it must be a bitch to be in a band in NYC, it's a disaster to drive anywhere so no one has a car, which makes it diffucult when you're in a band. So, everyone here shares equipment and just takes their essentials to a gig, which is a little weird. The show was at a new club in the East Village called The Scenic and the show was set up by a guy named DJ Mojo. I liked the East Village a lot, lots of cool stores and it just had a cool feel to it.
We woke up around 1PM at Sasha's place in Chelsea and geeked around there for awhile, getting Bagels and hanging out, being severly unproductive, which we needed. We went to pick up the van from a garage we parked the van at and found out that even though we were told that it would cost $27 to park it overnight, that it was really $37 because of an "oversized vehicle fee," which the guy last night told us was included in the $27 price, which was more than the sign said in the first place. So, evidently it's okay to make up prices on the spot and completly lie like a bastard because, oh yeah, they have California liscense plates. At least lube me up next time before doing that.
We rolled out to the gig a little early to get some food before the show and oh man did we get some fucking grub. We found this place called Mama's, with a coffee shop across the street called Step Mama's!! This place was classic, you walk in and there's like six tables, five two seaters and a big picnic style table. You go to the left and there's all this food layed out and you pick a meat and two sides for $10, which I thought was a little pricey until they put it all on my plate. They filled one half of the plate with Mac and Cheese, the other half with brocolli and put a huge slab of salmon on top, it was an insane portion. Now I'm quite the eater, so it didn't bother me one bit!!
After leaving Mama's feeling like the Goodyear Blimp, we headed down to the club and checked in with Mojo, who is a cool guy and who I found out used to be a chef and won some James Beard awards, which if you don't work in the food industry, is a big deal. I'm bummed I didn't get much of a chance to chat with him about it though. We found out that they put a curfew on the show and it had to be over by 12:30 because of a Brian Jonestown Massacre afterparty going on there. We were to go on third and hoped that our friends could make it in time for the show.
The first band was called The Soviets, not the Soviettes on Fat Wreck. They were supposed to be a three piece, but their drummer was late, so the bass player jumped in on drums and did a great job, we really liked them. Their drummer showed up for the last two songs. The next band was awesome, called Twitch Stutter, a keyboard rock/punk band with a cool female singer, we enjoyed them a lot. We went on next to a half empty room, but if there is one thing Riot-A-Go-Go is good at, it's playing to an empty room and rocking it!! So, we did and by the time we finished the room was full and people were digging it. Casey and Nova were rocking out and being there overly energetic selves. I was playing this house drum kit that was not so great for me, but I made the best of it. I'm not a fan of using other people kits because of a really bad experience at a show we had in Tijuana. I was SO close to breaking the snare drum head, two songs and it would have been mine!! I definatly knocked it way out of tune. The bass drum head was busted by the end of the night, hopefully I contributed. Our friends missed the show by five minutes, but they came the night before so it was okay.
It was a blast to play the Scenic and we really enjoyed the bands and people. Thanks to Mojo for setting up the show, we really appreciate it. People in NYC are cool and hopefully we can come back up here soon. Tonight we're playing in Boston and I'm really looking forward to this show. Have a rad day,

Matt