CONTINENTAL
The Continental is closing its doors to bands.
My feelings are mixed. Almost every band I've ever been in was able to get a show at Continental when no one else would book us. The stage was deep, the monitors always worked, and the green room had excellent stickers. It was the only stage I fell off.
As an audience member, the place sucks. It's an airplane hangar of noise. So what if the Ramones played there? The important ones are all dead!
Several years ago, I was dragged by an out-of-town friend to Continental to see a Doors coverband. I *hate* the Doors. Apparently, these guys saw it my way--they hated each other. The guy from Blues Traveler was playing Jim Morrison - he must've weighed 2,650 pounds. Ray Manzarek clearly had a daughter in the 5-6 year range; his keyboard was 'decorated' with glitter and silver construction paper. Robby Krieger was there, and had funny male pattern baldness to look the part. But Densmore was a Jersey guy off a construction job, just happy to be playing drums. That cheered me up. Until I sat through 'Light My Fire'.
Strikes Again! did play Continental 1-2 times. At one point, our guitarist Jeff Wiens was out of commission--I think he was skiing Giant Slalom in the Olympics--and we got our friend Josh to sit in on guitar. Josh is a great guitarist and a cool guy, but he's a freak. We rehearsed at his Williamsburg studio, and his drum kit was made by alien wolves. All the rack toms were kick drums. The cymbals had been chewed on by platinum-teethed sharks that swam around in Josh's brain. Set up outside of the garguantan tom drums, they were a good 6-8 feet away from the drum stool, and I had to work to reach them. I had to really *want* to hit that cymbal.
It turns out that Josh had been playing guitar for 10 years or so, but had never played a gig as a guitarist--he normally plays drums. So for our fill-in show at Continental? He plays his virgin show as a guitarist dressed in a hot sweaty bear costume. Mighty impressive. Thanks, Josh.
That's all you get from me, Continental. Write a nice letter of recommendation for Noel, who ran decent sound for more awful bands than I can count, but remember this: up-and-coming bands will always find a place to play if they try hard enough. Good luck as a 'lounge', but don't come crying if we don't rush to find drunken comfort in the environs of your 19-coats-of-black-paint interiors.
My feelings are mixed. Almost every band I've ever been in was able to get a show at Continental when no one else would book us. The stage was deep, the monitors always worked, and the green room had excellent stickers. It was the only stage I fell off.
As an audience member, the place sucks. It's an airplane hangar of noise. So what if the Ramones played there? The important ones are all dead!
Several years ago, I was dragged by an out-of-town friend to Continental to see a Doors coverband. I *hate* the Doors. Apparently, these guys saw it my way--they hated each other. The guy from Blues Traveler was playing Jim Morrison - he must've weighed 2,650 pounds. Ray Manzarek clearly had a daughter in the 5-6 year range; his keyboard was 'decorated' with glitter and silver construction paper. Robby Krieger was there, and had funny male pattern baldness to look the part. But Densmore was a Jersey guy off a construction job, just happy to be playing drums. That cheered me up. Until I sat through 'Light My Fire'.
Strikes Again! did play Continental 1-2 times. At one point, our guitarist Jeff Wiens was out of commission--I think he was skiing Giant Slalom in the Olympics--and we got our friend Josh to sit in on guitar. Josh is a great guitarist and a cool guy, but he's a freak. We rehearsed at his Williamsburg studio, and his drum kit was made by alien wolves. All the rack toms were kick drums. The cymbals had been chewed on by platinum-teethed sharks that swam around in Josh's brain. Set up outside of the garguantan tom drums, they were a good 6-8 feet away from the drum stool, and I had to work to reach them. I had to really *want* to hit that cymbal.
It turns out that Josh had been playing guitar for 10 years or so, but had never played a gig as a guitarist--he normally plays drums. So for our fill-in show at Continental? He plays his virgin show as a guitarist dressed in a hot sweaty bear costume. Mighty impressive. Thanks, Josh.
That's all you get from me, Continental. Write a nice letter of recommendation for Noel, who ran decent sound for more awful bands than I can count, but remember this: up-and-coming bands will always find a place to play if they try hard enough. Good luck as a 'lounge', but don't come crying if we don't rush to find drunken comfort in the environs of your 19-coats-of-black-paint interiors.
posted by stinkrock at 2:22 AM
4 Comments:
Hard to believe it's all over.
Played many a show at Contintental, including their "Christmas Party" a few years back (with Happy Boy) - we were the only band who did a Christmas Song, "Father Christmas" by the Kinks.
Noel hated one of our band members, who was always asking for "more reverb" on his trumpet. (Yes, you read that correctly.) But Noel's a nice guy and always told us how much he enjoyed our show.
The only time I ever went to the Continental was to appear onstage or to support a friend's band, like Jerk Alert (included Justin, future member of World War IX). Going there to just hang out doesn't seem too likely. The place is stinky. So they tell me.
Stinkrock, you nailed my Continental love - I always enjoyed playing there, wasn't but fond of going there to see others play.
But Noel was(is?) the best. He always would play a Husker Du or Replacements track after our set finished.
Noel is great. He hired me as his number two (he only works/worked 5 nights a week) when I was a methadone soaked zombie. I learned a lot working there, mostly that I don't like doing live sound for 5 bands a night.
Noel was right to hate those who asked for reverb, and my time there instilled that in my own style of sound reinforcement.
I never went there to 'hang out' either, but I have worked that stage more times than I can count.
I can't cout very high.
All puns intended.
um...so i just finished reading the entire stinkrock archives, and all i can say is...where the hell's the croatia story? bastard.
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