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Andy Shaw Posin' X2
On Thursday, June 3rd, Cityzen
staffers were at the new Bloomingdale's SoHo for the unveiling
of exclusive photographs by David Yellen. Dubbed "On
The Verge," this photo exhibit featured empowering portraits
of individuals on the verge of major breakthroughs in their
respective arts. As a special treat, Cityzen Staff Writer
and Promotions Agent extraordinaire Andy Shaw was one of five
subjects in the collections highlight work, a classic image
of NYC scooter culture. Also featured were Motherfucker's
Justine D and Michael T, TV on the Radio, and many other friends
of Cityzen. A truly unique event, we were treated to cocktails
and hors d'ouevres in the basement of the new superstore while
Justine D strut her stuff spinning crowd favorites like the
Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The White Stripes.
Justine D with her new friend.
Attendees received gift
bags from Ben Sherman and GQ that included BS hats and shower
gel, the current issue of GQ magazine, the compilation disc
"21st Century Noise" and a postcard with Andy's
mug on it. What a treat!
A patron checks out the photo of Michael & Justine
After the festivities, everyone
headed over to Table 50 for a party sponsored by Patrón
Tequila. With more free drinks flowing and the mood getting
flirty, things were looking great. That is until the squelching
of fire alarms interrupted everyone's drinking time. Most
people in the club were tucked into nooks and did not notice
any trouble until they went to the bar to grab another free
cocktail. It was then that one could see a waterfall pouring
out of the ceiling and a crowd of soaked partygoers. Apparently
there was a small kitchen fire in the restaurant above and
the sprinklers were flooding the club. No one stayed long
after that, but overall the party was a raging success, despite
the extremely watered down drinks.
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| Michael
T: I actually had the idea (for Motherfucker) at Curfew, which
was a young gay college party which took place at Tunnel, back
in 98 or 99. At one of my birthday parties there, I was a little,
chemically enhanced, shall we say, and it was about five in
the morning at least, if not later. There were groups of my
friends, the Curfew kids, and the regular Tunnel kids that would
filter through the back and talk their way past the rope-persons.
And I thought, wow, what an interesting mix of people, it would
be cool to have a party like this. I didn’t say anything
for a while, but then Georgie was the first person I talked
about it with. Then Johnny, then Justine was the last. |
"Motherfucker’s
usually crazy from start to finish, but there’s
a moment where it really hits this zenith, and we
know when we hit that, it’s like you can’t
really explain it but you see it and feel it. It’s
total electricity in the room."
- Michael T. |
|
Georgie: I think it was around the
time I was involved in the On party at Life which I was doing
with Justine on Wednesday nights. And I was also doing Glam
2000 at Coney Island High. So, Michael would always come by
to these different parties and I would see him all around,
so…we’d talk on the phone and he’d talk
about this idea that he had, and he ran it by me. And, I liked
the idea, and then we would riff back and forth about what
we could do. We probably talked about that for a good eight
or nine months. We wanted it to be all types of people that
are into rock n’ roll, good music, and dressing up,
and being artistic, but not just the punk rockers or the glam
rockers. And, we hit the mark. A lot of it was Michael, actually,
because he picked the different promoters from the different
scenes. I brought the glam rock n’ rollers, Justine
brought the young modster, hipster kids. Johnny at that time
had Niagara with Jesse.
|
Johnny T: We had a loose
vision of just combining a few promoters, the night life people
from downtown, and doing a big mixed party in the tradition
of but not the same as, the way Squeeze Box ran that was rock
‘n roll based, you know, mixed crowd. Or the way Green
Door did their party for a long time.
Justine: I caught Squeeze Box and Green Door during the last
days. And Green Door was predominantly straight from what
I remember and Squeeze Box was predominantly gay, but both
rock based.
|
"Some
people don’t like it when there’s 1500 people
there instead of 500 people. But like I said, we still try
to maintain the integrity of the party. We don’t do
anything differently." - Johnny T |
Michael T: Squeeze Box I
would say was more mixed than Green Door, but Squeeze Box
was also more outrageous. It was 2000 and Squeeze Box had
either ended or was ending, and Green Door was also ending,
and those two were certainly large influences on what we did.
But even those parties weren’t exactly the concept that
I had, which was to bring all these different subcultures
into one, like the way New York used to be. You know, where
some Goth kid would be next to some rockabilly guy next to
some punker next to some fag next to some whatever. There
were still some parties that had elements of that, but I definitely
wanted it to be designed to have that. And New York- this
was Giuliani, the city was changing, and I was like, we need
something really raw and in your face, but sexy and fun...
Justine: ...that was rock based.
Michael T: ...and it wasn’t hip-hop or house or techno.
|
The
MoFo's: Georgie, Michael T, Justine D, Johnny T
|
Johnny T: We wanted downtown,
you know, young energetic night life. But we wanted them to
be from different sub sects- you know, like punk rockers, and
gay kids, and the Goths, and fashionistas and just all these
people that intermingle all the time anyway, but we wanted a
party that would, hopefully make them all happy. The motivation
is to connect with other people on an artistic level and a social
level. Which, really when we started this party, had been ground
out by the Giuliani administration. |
| There weren’t
places to go where you could really let your hair down and
get crazy, yet feel safe, and be a freak or be different and
feel like you were in an environment that wasn’t full
of fucking yuppies or jarheads or frat boys, ‘cause,
the East Village quickly turned over to that. Everyone kind
of rolled over and let it happen. So it wasn’t the way
of “taking back” the city, ‘cause the city
changes and that’s what makes it so great, but it was
a way of sort of taking back our corner. Like, what we had
enjoyed for years and years before that. So, (Michael) and
I, and I think Justine, went to the old club Mother and talked
to Chi Chi Valenti about the party and I think Justine may
have been there, I don’t really remember.
Michael T: Eventually I approached Mother,
which is now defunct...now it’s called Filter 14. And
I asked Chi Chi Valenti, who was running the club, if she
would let us do this party that I have a concept for with
these new partners of mine. It was Memorial Day weekend, and
she said yes. Justine actually missed the first meeting. |
Early
MoFo Fliers are now extremely rare.
Collectables to some, the real value is in the memory.
Here's an assortment from the early days... |
Justine: Michael had told
me about the meeting about two weeks prior, and I confirmed,
and I was younger, about 23 at the time, and was new to the
whole business. But I’m a little bit of a space cadet
sometimes, so I totally forgot about the meeting until Michael
called me after and was like, “Where were you?”
Oops. So it wasn’t the best introduction.
Michael T: It was a little awkward. I
thought, “Oh boy, I asked the young one, and now...”
But it turned out fine. And (Chi Chi) said, “Do you
have a name for the party?” And we said no. And she’s
like “How about calling it Motherfucker?” And
we all looked at each other and said “OK, that sounds
fine.” |
Justine: It was kind of cheeky
and in your face and very New York.
Michael T: We were gonna try it as a summer thing; we’ll
do Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day, and if it works,
we’ll keep going. But our plan was to stay at Mother.
There was no reason to move, because Mother was a great venue,
great location, the people who ran it were cool. You wanna work
with people who know you and you can kind of trust. And we did
the party, and it was definitely a success.
Justine: I had never seen anything like it. I had done Life,
which was a mega club on Bleeker Street, but it was a Wednesday
night party, and it would go between 200 and 600 people, but
it wasn’t the same type of energy at Motherfucker. Not
as adventurous musically. I feel bad saying that, but still
a great party in its own right. But the first night of Motherfucker-
wall to wall people, non-stop all night. |
|
Georgie: I definitely consider
it a success. The first one, we were pleasantly surprised.
Because, I mean, it was a modest one, but we did it at Mother.
And pretty much every single one has been a success, short
for maybe one, or two. But out of all the parties that we’ve
done, they’ve all been great. And it just steadily grew,
and grew.
Justine: It seemed like we answered a
lot of people’s subconscious questions of “What
now? What next? We need something more!” And we came
along, and it was an instant success. |
"I
think one of the main reasons for its’ success is
because of its’ diversity. There’s pretty much
every type of person from straight, to gay, to normal,
to not normal..." - Georgie
Seville
|
Which is strange, because the best
parties are not like that. We all have side projects, and
sometimes it is still a struggle, it’s never a guaranteed
success...but the crowd at Motherfucker, they are there to
party and dance. And dance and dance. And that’s really
reassuring as a DJ. We kind of get away with almost anything.
I can’t say we’ve ever killed a crowd at Motherfucker.
Michael T: As a matter of fact, what
happens at Motherfucker is we’ll see people dancing
to songs they would never dance to anywhere else. It’s
hilarious.
Justine: Our favorite is watching the Goth kids dance to Donna
Summer or Chic.
Michael T: Or the Britpop kids dancing to Nine Inch Nails.
And totally into it, not faking it. Justine was shocked over
some of the music I was telling her to play. |
 |
Justine: That was my first
time ever coming into my own as a DJ. I would always kind of
blow my wad kinda early. Cause I’d play, like X Ray Spex
and all these great obscure punk tracks really early, cause
I didn’t think people would dance to it on a big dance
floor, or on a busy dance floor. “No one’s gonna
dance to ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours!’” And Michael
told me, “You may want to save those and play those later,
because this crowd will dance to more obscure rock and punk
songs.” So then I did, but I think I was more obscure
in the early days, just being myself. |
Justine D Controls the Crowd at the
4 Year Anniversary Bash |
Michael T: We touched more
or less everything that we wanted to. We were obviously still
feeling things out, but you would hear Guns N’ Roses
and Pulp in the same night.
Justine: Sometimes in the same set. Sometimes
within 30 minutes of one another. We would find ways to segueway.
We didn’t put any barriers on ourselves in terms of
rock based music. So we could go from punk to new wave to
a new electro song and somehow find our way to disco and that
was the beauty of it. We just weren’t into techno and
house, so they never found their way into our sets, especially
in the early days. |
Michael T: We were just like,
let’s make this so people dance. Not as a side thing,
not like the band is the main thing; you’re here to dance.
We also wanted people to dress up.
Georgie: I think one of the main reasons for its’ success
is because of its’ diversity. There’s pretty much
every type of person from straight, to gay, to normal, to not
normal, I mean, every kind of person that likes rock n’
roll, and pop, and good fun music, and that obviously are pretty
artistic. You know, people that dress up really nice. They’re
either musicians, or actors, or painters, or dancers…
everybody’s a creative person. So, they’re just
as much a reason for the parties’ success and it being
so much fun. It’s not just us as promoters. I mean, we
help put make it come together but it’s the people that
come. I mean, you can just sit there and people watch. And it’s
amazing! There’s every kind of cool, freaky people in
New York. That’s a great feeling. There’s a lot
of beautiful people that come through. |
Justine: We
were talking about this one club freak- and I love the club
freaks that come to Motherfucker, because they’re all
painted up-
Michael T: Which you didn’t in the beginning.
Justine: Which I didn’t, cause
I was a little closed-minded. I was younger when I started,
and I was a snob. But just seeing that part of the crowd really
play off the music and sing along and being very physical,
going nuts...(During “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
at the 4th Anniversary), that was one of those moments where
I looked down at the crowd, and people were jumping up and
down- everyone. I remember feeling like I was commanding the
audience- as a DJ, you’re responsible for how you make
people feel. And watching people go crazy, that’s such
a state of hysteria and euphoria. Not always, but (“Teen
Spirit”) usually gets a good reaction like that.
Michael T: Motherfucker’s
usually crazy from start to finish, but there’s a moment
where it really hits this zenith, and we know when we hit
that, it’s like you can’t really explain it but
you see it and feel it. It’s total electricity in the
room. I think people definitely vent at Motherfucker.
|
 |
The
Parties Always Bring Out A Mix Of People... |
 |
Justine: Sexually, emotionally,
and physically. It’s almost like a science experiment.
“Let me go out on a limb and play this song and see what
type of reaction it gets.” Sometimes it doesn’t
go over well. (At the 4th Anniversary) I played Franz Ferdinand
and it didn’t go over extremely well. But a couple of
parties before that it went over exceptionally well. So it changes
each time....but before (danceable rock) bands like Franz Ferdinand
broke, I remember DJing Motherfucker in the early days, and
the only current bands which we could play were Blur and the
Britpop bands. |
 "We
didn’t put any barriers on ourselves in terms of rock
based music. So we could go from punk to new wave to a new
electro song and somehow find our way to disco and that was
the beauty of it." - Justine D |
There weren’t
really any exceptional new rock bands. Probably the first
was The Strokes. I remember when all the rap metal shit, which
we will never play, ever, was current rock. And then New York
blew up. Now we have the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Rapture and
The Party, so it’s nice to be able to freshen up our
DJ sets.
Michael T: Between the new group of bands
that came in, and going a few years back when electro made
a big impact, those two things shook up the city and expanded
our repertoire musically. And by bringing in the newer stuff,
we were able to look at our older stuff and... |
Justine: ...see
the connection.
Johnny T: Our third year anniversary with Andrew W.K. at the
Roxy was just a lot of fun because that was the biggest Motherfucker
we had done up to that point. It was just great because Andrew
W.K. was just starting to crest in his popularity, and everything
met up on the right level. And we were terrified that we weren’t
going to be able to fill the place, or pay the band, and it
could’ve gone really badly. But it turned out great. It
worked out and it was a smashing success. And it was packed,
and just, it felt good like, wow, we’ve actually really
been able to hold onto something for a few years and make it
really great and still be big without losing its’ intimacy.
Some people don’t like it when there’s 1500 people
there instead of 500 people. But like I said, we still try to
maintain the integrity of the party. We don’t do anything
differently. We actually have become more restrictive on certain
things that we used to be a little more lax about. As far as,
maintaining the original vibe. Now, the party changes, like
the city and that’s what’s great. We have a whole
new crop of people every few months. And we have some people
who’ve been coming for four years now. It loses some intimacy,
but we try to make up for that – we try to add more rooms
and more different things. So…mehh! If people don’t
like it they don’t have to come. It’s not that we
hate them; we say like, “Hey man, go do what you want.”
We have a good party, and people usually have a good time. |
| Georgie: One particular
thing that really made me laugh and made me proud as well occurred
at one of the early Motherfuckers. It was in the winter of 2001.
It was at a club called True. I was dancing on this elevated
area, with this girl that I was seeing at the time, and I remember
looking onto the main floor, and onto the stage, and everybody
got up on stage and started dancing. Two really cool lookin’
gay boys just completely took all their clothes off. Everything,
everything. No clothes, what so ever. Nothing. And they were
just going at it. And they were surrounded by people dancing,
but everyone just kept on dancing. No one winked an eye, everybody
just kept on boogying, boogying. And I kept looking at that
and I loved it. I laughed, and it was fun. That was great. There
have been other crazy things, but that’s one of my favorites.
|
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| Johnny T: I don’t
actually get that crazy at Motherfucker because I run around
all night. I’m kind of the floor manager of the evening.
But I have a good time. I think the craziest things that happen
at Motherfucker I probably haven’t seen. They probably
happen in some deep dark corner. I have heard about just about
anything that you can imagine that would happen in a night
club, happening. There’s definitely crazy shit that
happens.
George: Now, for me personally, now that the party’s
grown into such a big beautiful thing that it is, which I’m
very proud to be a part of, I would like to preserve it, and
even help it grow and see how far we can possibly take it.
I think we’ve touched a nerve that works. People respond
to it. That’s an amazing feeling. That’s one of
the best feelings you get from being a promoter. When people
come up and just really whole-heartedly mean what they’re
saying. And you know it. And they’re just going on about
how much fun they had, and the new girlfriend they found,
or boyfriend, or, you know, the crazy sex that they just had,
or the great pills that someone just gave them…and it’s
great. I don’t know that it’ll be “over
taken.” Sooner or later there’s gonna be another
party, maybe. (Motherfucker) occurs often enough where people
can enjoy it regularly, but it’s also…each party
is spread apart enough so that by the time the next one rolls
around, you’re anticipating it. ‘Cause I mean,
to do weeklies, which I do a lot of, it’s tough to keep
up that kind of excitement, week by week…so, that’s
one of the key ingredients to our success- that it’s
periodical.
|
"[Four Years]
definitely feels like an accomplishment, and it’s been
an uphill battle to say the least. I think our concerns now
are where do we go after this within the next year or so.
Because I don’t think anyone of us thought that the
party would get this big, number one, and four years is a
long lifespan in clubland. Even though we only do the party
a couple of times a year, at this point in the game the expectations
are so high, its like what can we come up with next?"
- Georgie Seville |
Johnny T: It’s like
having a good date and then knowing you’re not going to
be able to see that person again for two weeks. And I think
the crowd that’s involved, and everyone else that’s
involved on our end- the sub promoters, and the different sponsors,
and all that stuff, I think it keeps it fresh, us moving it
to a different location every time, so the party’s been
able to grow up to ten times the size it was the first time
we threw it. But I think it still maintains pretty much the
same spirit of when we started it. I think we all, in a way,
feel like it’s great to be part of a party that’s
successful and is great to go have a good time at. But I think
that we all kind of- now remember, I know I’m talking
about a party- this is just a rock ‘n roll party, and
there’s insane things happening in this world and I would
never ever put what we do up against what’s going on politically,
socially, and economically in this country. |
That being said, I think we
definitely provide a service for a lot of young people, or people
who haven’t been exposed to everything life has to offer,
I think that all of us enjoy being able to expose people who
have a thirst for something different from what they come from,
or were raised with, or went to college with. I think we enjoy
providing an alternative outlet to people, and I think that
that’s a good thing. It’s a very positive thing.
Beyond just going out and getting wasted and having a good time,
I think that we actually have allowed some people to flower
in that environment. We plan to continue until we feel that
it’s not relative anymore or it’s not pertinent
to life.
Justine: At the next party I’ll play Misfits and Minor
Threat back to back.
Michael T: And Metallica. |
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