People on the Edge of the Night.
On Friday night, Josh (my new, amazing BF) and I went to the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of the Squeezebox movie For those who don’t know Squeezebox was an amazing queer rock party at Don Hill’s which began in the nineties and lasted for 7 years before ending in 2001. Drag queens performed every night, but there was no lipsynching - these hardcore queens performed dirty rock, punk, and metal songs for an eager crowd of fags, dykes, and straight punks and freaks. I was there a handful of times after I first came out, but not long after, the party closed up shop forever. I wasn’t anything close to a regular or an insider, but I remember the times I went being some of the most insanely fun times I’ve had at a club.
Last summer, I ended up working with Zach Shaeffer and Steve Saporito, who directed the Squeezebox movie, helping them transcribe the edited cut into a documentary script, so they could take it into the final stages of editing. I also gave them some good notes on the script that Zach told me were very helpful when I saw him at the premiere party Friday night - though he may have just been being really nice. Still, I don’t think I’ve been prouder to have helped with any movie, except my own, than this one. My name scrolls up first in the Special Thanks section.
The film is really incredible. Moving, kick-ass, filled with outstanding live concert footage from the party and tons of hysterical appearances from talking heads like World Famous B*O*B, John Waters, Debbie Harry, Jayne County, Justin Bond, and more. There’s even footage of the time that Jean Hill, from John Waters’ Desperate Living, came by to sing I Will Survive, wearing an Oxygen tube that she ripped off mid-song. There’s a void left by the party in NYC nightlife, and as you watch it, you realize you’re living in a different city than the one on film.
Right after the film, we all hoofed it over to the Blender Theatre for the after-party. I knew the event would be amazing, but at first it seemed like a really odd affair. People who were clearly just Tribeca-Festival trendoids - it seemed like skinny model actress types and their straight BF’s were milling about downstairs. There was a weird energy - at first I thought, this isn’t Squeezebox, and it’s not going to be, and I’m going to get depressed. Mistress Formika took the stage to perform, and the mostly too-young to have been really at Squeezebox crowd seemed half-interested, maybe wondering like me, if this was going to make them more depressed that there’s no Squeezebox anymore. But that was a fleeting feeling, cause once the show started, it became one of those nights that makes you feel like there’s no other place to be in the entire world than in New York City.
When I saw the original cut of the film, I knew that there were going to be a lot of performances that they weren’t going to be able to use because of rights to some of the songs that were performed by the drag queens. But actually most of the performances were intact from my memory of that cut. One sequence that did get cut was of Justin Bond and Lily of the Valley singing Bowie and Queen’s “Under Pressure.” I’d told Josh that I was upset it got cut, even though the film was great. Lucky for me, Steve and Zach decided to have Lily and Justin perform the song live. Without a doubt, the best moment of the night:
That’s not to say it got worse - it didn’t. It stayed amazing and kept on going like that all night. John Cameron Mitchell, who developed Hedwig and the Angry Inch through performances at Squeezebox, did a number with his composer Stephen Trask. Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black turned it out with giant flower backup singers. The Toilet Boys, one of my favorite bands, performed “Another Day in the Life”, followed by a cover of the Ramones “Blitzkreig Bop.” Jayne County, the legendary punk rocker who used to be Wayne County before the sex change, performed “Are You A Boy or a Girl?” and absolutely brought the house down.
I was so freakin goofy and elated by 2AM when Mistress Formika, who was on one of the many bottles of Jack Daniels she seemed to put away that night, came out for the encore, a cover of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name of”! Suddenly, she takes the bottle of Jack in her hand, and throws the whole bottle into the audience, spraying everyone within ten feet of her with whiskey. People went nuts, started moshing, got naked and went back in the most pit. It was insane! I wanted to join in, but frankly, I was just too in shock. Was I really seeing what I thought I was seeing?
It was the best night I have had in New York in a long, long time. Luckily, my friend Mark Tusk took a ton of pictures which as always, capture the energy and the spirit of the event. It had been a pretty tough week for me, but luckily there are nights like this to make it all worth it. I know, I know, I’m a corny mother fucker. Deal with it!
Anyway, the sweetest and best thing about the night was that I got to spend it with Josh. Here Mark catches us literally sucking each other’s face off. Welcome to Spring!
Pics by Mark Tusk http://www.flickr.com/photos/flaneur_photo/sets/72157604778413212/
