From: laural@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (laura.l.la gassa)
Subject: Gimme the Gun
Organization: UNIX System Laboratories
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 14:21:09 GMT

The 'burbs of New Jersey are known for Bruce Springstein and Bon Jovi.
Hoboken is known for lots of great bands, including the now-lamented
Feelies.  What this area is *not* known for is its dance culture.
New Jersey clubs tend to fall into two categories -- meat markets that
play very cheezy top-40 dance music and draw a late 20's - early 30's crowd,
and meat markets that play cheezy alternative dance muisc and draw a
late 'teens - early 20's crowd.

I had an adventure in this world last night.

It started out with me meeting some friends at a "club" called Jukebox
Eddie's.  Now would you trust a place with a name like that?  I think
not.  But on Thursdays they have a good happy hour and usually play
MTV hits like Soup Dragons, INXS, and U2.  Not bad when you're only
paying $1 for mixed drinks and they have free tacos.  So we arrived only
to find out they've changed it to COUNTRY MUSIC NIGHT.  With Texas Two-Step
lessons and all.  I felt like I was in some bizzare hyperspace warp.
From there some of us headed to another club -- and boy was I feeling
doubtful.

So we arrived at The Club House (such a cute pun) in Plainfield, Jersey
Burbs, USA.  I was pleasantly amazed -- the club was beautifully decorated
with huge paintings of pop-culture icons on the walls, and had a great
balcony bar area where you could watch the people on the dance floor below.
It really reminded me of the old Ritz in New York City.

Shortly after arrival we found out it was "Rave Thursday" (this is where it
gets interesting you all).  "Yeah RIGHT" I think.  All these girls have on
way too much makeup to have any idea what it is to rave.  Fortunately my
friends were wild enough to try anything, so we pushed through the posing,
drinking crowd to the front of the floor (by the stage, more on this later)
and decided to dance even though no one else was.

The DJ could not mix to save his life.  Even *I* can slap a record on each
of two turntables and fade from one to the other.  The little action and
energy we did create would die with each song.  But somewhere (maybe after
me staring up at the DJ booth and screaming "faster faster harder harder")
along the line we got some techno.  "Oh good, let's see if these people have
any Idea about rave."  Objectively speaking it was abysmal.  The DJ played
45 minutes of techno and then dropped back into the likes of Pearl Jam and
A School of Fish.  Besides my gang of three, only about six other people were
dancing -- and only two other were really going at it to the techno beat.
I can't tell you how *funny* this all was.

Around 11:30 (things get started early in NJ) the music died and someone got
on stage to introduce a band.  I was nearly floored when Gimme the Gun took
the stage.  These guys play your basic rock-and-roll style stuff, sort of
flavored a bit by Faith No More.  They were infinitely amazing.  If you
ever are in the mood for 2 guitars, a bass, keys, and a very energetic and
creative drummer and you can find them playing out somewhere GO SEE THEM.
I don't even really *like* their kind of music, and was so completely blown
away I bought one of their tapes.  I've not seen a band so tight and energetic
on stage in a very long time.  The bass player really kicked, and was dancing
and jumping around like a maniac the whole time.

So that's the New Jersey club-rave thing.  Very odd, but very serendipitous.

Laura

P.S.  If you know anything about Gimme the Gun please drop me email or
post.  I've become a rabid fan after hearing their tape twice this morning.
I'll review it soon.

her mind was jet-propelled
a psychedelic wishing well
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc