East Village Reckoning

 

Just a quick one.

I'm a member of a group of Facebook called Manhattan Before 1990, which aggregates posts and pictures about just that (as you'd expect from such a title). In any case, through this group, I encountered the photographs of a woman named Susan Fensten, who has posted a few choice images she's taken over the years. I reached out to her to see if it would be okay if I put up some of her work here, and she very graciously consented. 

Above is the shot of hers that first caught my eye. I can't put an exact address on it, but Ms. Fensten says it was in the East Village in 1984. I'm particularly fond of the R.E.M. flyers. By this point in their career, they'd have been promoting their second long payer, Reckoning (although for my money, their finest hour remains the Chronic Town e.p.). I can't quite make out what venue they were playing at, can you?

ADDENDUM: Heard back from Ms. Fensten. Turns out it was actually 1985, and the venue was Radio City Music Hall, with The Three O'Clock opening.