It’s always odd when you stumble across videos of events you attended. I find them hard to objectively watch, as I get too distracted trying to maybe spot myself in the background. It’s silly, really.
In any case, someone posted the video below on Facebook, yesterday, and I felt compelled to share it here -– not so you can help me spot myself in the crowd footage, but that given this blog’s usual themes, it checks all the right boxes.
This is a snippet of Soundgarden playing at the New Ritz in 1990. Actually, by then, it had dropped the “New” and was just going by Ritz, but everybody still made that distinction (the original Ritz being, of course, on East 11th Street). Also on this bill came Faith No More and Voivod. Shortly before this gig, my friend Brent and I had seen their other NYC stop on this tour at L’Amour in Brooklyn (as recounted on this old post). When the tour rolled into the New Ritz -– then newly housed in the comparatively expansive former Studio 54 space, we -– of course -– showed up again. This is a slice of that evening.
The Ritz at 54th Street closed at some point in the mid-90’s. I sadly cannot recall the final show I attended there, although it might have been GBH with a reunited Kraut opening.
Anyway, since this video, this iteration of the Ritz became a host of different things and is now a Broadway theatre. Chris Cornell of Soundgarden tragically took his own life in 2017.
Here they were, though, alive and well in 1990.
Recent Comments