#fontana's

On Saturday night my friend (and yoga teacher) invited me to see her husband’s band, The Salted Hand, play down at Fontana’s on the Lower East Side. It was kind of like a guitar school band recital for guitar students from the NYC Guitar School. 

All of their songs were covers and it was basically a concert of my favorite songs. They started with Green Day’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams, then played Amsterdam by Guster, followed by Weezer’s Buddy Holly. 

Fontana’s is closing and we know it. On occasion a spot will shut down out of the blue and years later we’ll walk by wondering what happened. I didn’t know when I saw my last show at CBGB’s and my last night at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge is as much a blur as my first.

But last night The Rev. Timmy James played a set before The Lovely came on, and we swayed and shouted as we drank beer and whisky in the basement knowing it was the end. 

I’m not an old regular. Hell I never went there as much as I meant to, but let me tell you I kissed @piper-doll there the first time. I met Tristan Taormino there along with Jiz Lee and Princess Kali. I listened to Dee Dee Vega belt out her beautiful songs in the basement, and I got drunk with the Gotham Girls.

They let in the kinky ones, the punks, the musicians, and the rest of us. They welcomed neighbors, drunks, and nostalgia hunters all the same. 

It’s rare that I’m aware of a moment so clearly. It’s rare that I can pause and think, this is the end of something. It’s rare than I can stop, even for a second, and say thank you.

From Below

Fontana's 

December 12, 2014

As 2014 was drawing to a close, I managed to close it out as I know best -- by catching a number of shows across town. One of the last shows I caught as the Brooklyn-based rock band From Below at Fontana's in the Lower East Side. Check out some photos of their set below.  

For these photos and more, check out the Flickr set here:

The Bootleg newyorkcomiccon X New York SuperWeek

META-DIMENSIONAL ROCK SHOW feat. thisgoodrobot & powerplaycomic

with comedic stylings of Patrick J. Reilly, Silver Age sensei Arlen Schumer, artwork of chrispyratearts, mutants & monsters by Blank-It Novelties, and the rock power of seanvongormanart!