Getting Nauseous in the Park

If you were to have asked me in 1988 what I thought of New York's own Nausea, I probably would have sneerily dismissed them as a bunch of smelly, grubby crusties (not entirely inaccurate) who basically wanted to be Crass, but by then I'd pretty much gotten bored of New York's hardcore/punk scene (with the exception of the Cro-Mags) and was getting more into stuff like Skinny Puppy and Big Black, British "grebo" bands like Gaye Bykers on Acid and an unhealthy dose of flouncy goth stuff like the dear old Mission and the Fields of the Nephilim. I was still a huge fan of the forebears of bands like Nausea, but all that just seemed like it was getting played out.

In any case, I stumbled upon this colorful clip below this morning of Nausea playing a cover of "Real Enemy" by British skinhead band, The Business at one of the annual Rock Against Racism showcases at the bandshell in the leafily unlikely confines of Central Park in 1988, and it's jolly stomp down memory lane. As you might remember, I posted a video of Cheetah Chrome of the Dead Boys playing at just such an event from a few years earlier. Say what you will about Nausea, but it's a spirited clip.

Twenty-five years after the below was filmed, you will still see the odd punk rocker and hardcore kid walking around New York City, but their numbers seem decidedly fewer. I don't believe Nausea are still a going concern (their thunder stolen by more literally incendiary bands like Missing Foundation), but I suppose they might be. The East Village squatters are a rarer breed these days, but the crusties still flock to Tompkins Square Park like the swallows return to Capistrano.

It's hard to imagine Nausea this far uptown. See more of the same performance by clicking right here. And here's a fan's first hand account of the full gig (with some nice pics).

Comments

[arem]

Always surprised to see the range of bands you feature on the blog Alex. Nausea has been broken up for a long time but they are considered a pretty seminal crusty punk band and are still well loved in that scene. The members have gone on to do some interesting things, Neil the singer is now an organic farmer out in Oregon or Washington State, John-John the bassist is a well respected painter and the drummer Roy (not the drummer in this clip) now plays for the Slipknot side project Stone Sour. Amy Miret's whereabouts are one of the great mysteries of the NYHC scene, lots of people want to know what she's up to but those who know aren't telling...

[tenfoldhate]

Also worth noting––guitarist Vic (who also played in Reagan Youth) is in a surf band called "Coffin Daggers" who still play around the NYC area.