this place was a total hole in a total hole of a neighborhood. and somehow, every great band from that era played there again and again. i was lucky enough to see a number of shows there in high school, and my own band (high water) even played there as part of a "local upcoming band showcase" once right before it closed. love you shiatty gardens.

That describes just about every place I went to see a punk show in the 80's. In fact, if you saw any of those bands in a clean, well lit, safe venue, you were doing it wrong.

I haven't thought about Shiatty Gardens in more than a decade. And looking back, I can't believe we managed to get there and home in one piece so many times. Saw Nitzer Ebb, NIN and a bunch of other loud, obnoxious stuff back in the late 80s. Now that I live in podunkville, I appreciate the access to cutting edge music even more than I ever could have then.

Thanks for the story, subby!

Johnny Pompadour!!!

DjangoStonereaver: Langston: Weird, I've never heard of this venue. Then again, I got to see punk shows in LA and OC and wasn't paying much attention to East Coast clubs.

/especially not Jersey

In the 80s, City Gardens was probably the #2 place in NJ to see college radio/
indie bands (after Maxwells in Hoboken), and Maxwells was on a par with
CBGBs as to the calibre of bands that played there, so being #2 to them was
in no way a bad thing.

I never went myself, but many of my friends were regulars.

The Pipeline, Connections, Sneakers, Dirt club, the Loop Lounge, Peppermint Lounge....

good times.

Many a night of broken orbital bones and broken hands.

/Oi Oi Oi!

I spent almost every sunday there through high school. Saw a ton of great bands.

White people. Huh.

The Exploited was the sickest show I ever saw in Providence, RI. I think I sill have a few scars from it.

My buddy's band open up for The Exploited there in the 80's. Anybody remember The Uprise?

Giltric: Many a night of broken orbital bones and broken hands.

Not all that different from a WV dirt bar.
Hardly anything to brag about though.

I can NEVER place the voices of 'visual' personalities like Jon Stewart when I hear them in a phone call. I'm sure it has to be the lack of professional microphones, or the change in posture, but for the life of me I can't convince my brain that the audio is of Jon Stewart.

Kurmudgeon: Giltric: Many a night of broken orbital bones and broken hands.

Not all that different from a WV dirt bar.
Hardly anything to brag about though.

Yeah but we beat up Nazis, ya'll beat up your sisters and wives.

grew up in Monmouth County,NJ. I had the ,shell of its former self, Stone Pony. I moved away to nc in 1998. Missed the starland ballroom become the place to see a show. My dad reminds me of the pony hey day and the osprey, in manasquan,nj.

There is something about dingy,diry,dangerous concert halls that stick. Thunderous rock, good friends, and decimation in the pit.....what more could a kid from suburban nj want?

Wow, I can actually say "I know this guy!" ...

I went to Trenton State (now The College of New Jersey) and from 1988-1996 was a DJ and News staff at WTSR, the school's radio station. Unlike most college stations that barely reached the edge of campus, WTSR had a 30 mile range from New Brunswick to Northeast Philly, which was a rarity for a non-commerical, completely student-run station.

Randy "Now" Ellis (the postman, City Gardens manager, and subject of the flick) was also a volunteer DJ at the station, which played almost entirely alternative/indie bands you couldn't find anywhere else, as well as a variety of specialty shows. He probably got a lot of his booking ideas/contacts/demos from his work at the station. He was also the DJ and host for "One Step Beyond", what was then the longest-running all-ska radio show in the nation. (The original Prince Buster 45 of "One Step Beyond" was his intro music and ran on all his ads, I still can't get that damn tune out of my head 20 years later) He also did an annual Christmas show for the station where we got to hear a lot of the records he was showing off during the trailer, all kinds of bizarre and rare holiday tunes.

I read news during some his shows in the late 80s, and by the mid-90s was a DJ in my own right and sometimes followed his shift. He was always, as mentioned in the trailer, an easy-going guy to talk to/work with,

Of course, the fact that my college days are long enough ago to be the subject of a retro/biopic just makes me want to chase people off my lawn ...