I don’t really like New Year’s Eve and this pressure to party for a change in the date, this custom to celebrate at any expense the new year with its load of hopeless resolutions and let’s-start-all-over-again false optimism. It is the night when everyone is out, the cops are watching every single street, and finding a parking place anywhere becomes a long-term project in itself.
That’s why I had no expectation but it turned out that New Year Eve at the Satellite was refreshing and a lot of fun. It was a carefreeand crazy night, with the Henry Clay People playing a long set of their songs and another long set of ‘shitty’ covers, as they had announced it, at midnight. Just a fun and laid-back occasion to enter the New Year, with humor, a lighthearted attitude and the help of many friends.
With the Los Angeles Quartet, the live experience is alwaysa high-energy affair, the vocals are aggressively, almost a-melodically shouted by Siara, the guitars are loud and seemingly going all over the place from semi-classic rock riffs to wild punk fun, and the drumming is muscular and tireless. But when I say aggressive it is not mean-aggressive, rather playful-youthful aggressive, like a second affirmation of life. Their set was explosive and adrenaline-charged, as they were gently pushing or leaning on each other, or climbing on something, while delivering a throwaway rock’n’ roll show with songs of their 'This is a Desert' EP, or 'Somewhere on the Golden Coast' LP, that would have kept anybody fully awake past midnight.
Even if some of their songs worked better for me than others, it was clear that their we-want-to-do-some-damage music with this genuine we-couldn’t-care-less-if-we-are-sloppy attitude worked marvelously.
As the night was progressing, more people got drunk,this was perfectly fitting the music, and a fast and nervous mosh pit started in the club. More people got on stage to join them in their fun and dense show,a new guitarist, John, a new drummer a few minutes before midnight, and after some acrobatics on the public shoulders, Siara was back on stage after midnight, for the ‘shitty’ covers.
And if people were already all-smile and drunk, the rest of the night was a real treat as they covered some great classics and also a few cheesy numbers, but everything was an absolute funfest. From a fast Beatles cover, ’ I Saw Her Standing There", to Bryan Adams’ ‘Summer of 69’, from the Sex Pistols’ ‘I Wanna Be Me", to Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, the Henry Clay People and many friends became the jukebox of everyone’s dream for probably about more than one hour.
Something very cool and un-staged happened as they were about to begin the Undertones’ ‘Teenage Kicks’, the current singer of the band, Paul McLoone, jumped on stage and sang the song!
‘Is this real life?’ said Siara, ‘Is Johnny Rotten in the club?’ he added before starting the Sex Pistols’ song. Rotten was not there, but Twitter told me that a few other famous musicians appreciate the Henry Clay People; I cannot confirm it as I never recognize anyone in the dark, but apparently Anthony Keidis (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Vanilla Ice and Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) were there?
Anyway, the spectacle was truly on stage, and another great moment was when Manhattan Murder Mystery’s Matthew Teardrop appeared to do a whiskey-fueled rendition of the Dead Kennedys’ ‘California Über Alles’, and there also was a Rancid’s ‘Ruby Soho’ cover, a Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’ cover, a R.E.M. ‘It's The End Of The World As We Know It’ cover, a Green Day’s ‘Basket Case’ cover, a Cure’s cover, … I know for sure Ihave forgotten a few, but at this point it was pretty chaotic, I could not follow who was on stage or who wasn’t, who was singing, who was playing, what they were singing and playing, and the truly excited crowd asked them to do‘one last song’ after their all-cast-ensemble rendition of the Journey song. And they came back for a devilish and totally drunk version of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run'.
Rock’n Roll is an excellent way to start the new year, so I have nothing to complain about this new one so far.