Smiths' Night

I forgot last weekend was Memorial Day until someone asked me what my plans were and I realized I didn't have any. Things turned out pretty well considering. Sunday I was able to head over to The Echo to catch Part Time Punks, a weekly club event I'd been wanting to attend for some time, but hadn't been able to since I get up super early for work. Part Time Punks takes it name from the Television Personalities song of the same name and is a weekly club/set devoted to post-punk and its influences/followers including punk, dub, new wave, etc. The DJs that host the event have a weekly show on KXLU, the Loyola-Marymount college radio station that I like to listen to. If you want to check out the Part Time Punks radio show, I'm pretty sure you can listen online at www.kxlu.com. The show is every Thursday from 4-6PM Pacific. They also have a myspace page here.

Last Sunday, Part Time Punks was Smiths Night, and I was really excited. Although we were exhausted after going to a BBQ and the mall earlier in the day, Claudia, Robert, and I had a few cups of coffee and made it to the Echo. We ended up dancing for about 3 hours to the Smiths and Morrissey with a few other songs sprinkled in. I made the mistake of wearing a pair of green wedges that weren't the easiest to dance in and ended up killing my feet. But it was worth it. Early in the night I went to the bathroom, and asked a girl inside if all the stalls were full. She squatted to look underneath for me. I asked her if she was in line and she replied that, yes, she was. I felt like she'd given me a bit of a quizzical look. Only once I was in the stall did I realize that I had been talking to Chloe Sevigny. When I met up with Claudia and Robert outside, I told them what happened and asked them to verify my sighting. We got a close look a little later when I was trying to get Claudia's attention at the bar. I kept calling her name, but she didn't hear me, and Chloe tapped her on the shoulder for me. Some Morrissey twin bought her a drink and she danced the night away like any other Smiths devotee. Robert was freaking out at the sighting, but I guess I just don't get as crazy about things like that, unless of course, it's a soap star.

I can't tell you how good it felt to dance to the Smiths with other people who were Smiths fans. People were twirling, dancing, smiling, moving, lip-syncing. I felt so free, and I was so very happy. I just remember smiling and dancing to this:

They also had Smiths videos playing on the TV. I can't remember the last time I felt that happy and free. Part of it might also have been that I'd watched Harold and Maude earlier that weekend and had "If You Want to Sing Out" stuck in my head. Everyone had a great time, and that meant a lot to me since Robert wasn't familiar with the Smiths prior to that evening, and later asked me to make him a Smiths mix CD. The thing about Smiths fans is that most of them are secretly or not-so-secretly tortured or at least a little brooding and crazy. That's why it was so great to see people up on the wall watching the dancers, and later joining in themselves. I mean, if you can't dance to Morrissey with a bunch of Morrissey fans, who can you dance to Morrissey with? And it was surprisingly easy to dance to. Normally, when they slip in a Smiths song at the Short Stop I clear the dancefloor because it's just too weird. But you have a night filled with Johnny Marr's haunting guitar, it works.

Here's the Playlist, from the PTP myspace page:
-THE SMITHS "I Know It's Over"
-MORRISSEY "Yes, I Am Blind"
-THE SMITHS "Never Had No One Ever"
-THE SMITHS "Money Changes Everything"
-BOB "Worra Performance"
-BRADFORD "Saturday Insanity"
-NEW YORK DOLLS "Jet Boy"
-THE SMITHS "Rubber Ring"
-MORRISSEY "Break Up the Family"
-THE SMITHS "The Draize Train"
-MORRISSEY "November Spawned A Monster"
-THE SMITHS "Shoplifters of the World"
-THE SMITHS "Accept Yourself"
-THE SMITHS "Well I Wonder"
-THE SMITHS "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"
-ALWAYS "Love & Death In Metroland"
-THE STONE ROSES "She Bangs the Drums"
-ORANGE JUICE "Blue Boy"
-MORRISSEY "Last of the Famous International Playboys"
-THE SMITHS "Barbarism Begins At Home"
-Q LAZARUS "Goodbye Horses"
-MORRISSEY "Ouija Board, Ouija Board"
-MORRISSEY "Interesting Drug"
-THE SMITHS "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
-ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN "Do It Clean"
-McCARTHY "Something Wrong Somewhere"
-THE SMITHS "The Boy With A Thorn In His Side"
-THE SMITHS "The Headmaster Ritual"
-MORRISSEY "Sister, I'm A Poet"
-THE SMITHS "I Want the One I Can't Have"
-THE GO-BETWEENS "Man O'Sand to Girl O'Sea"
-CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN "Take the Skinheads Bowling"
-THE SMITHS "Ask"
-THE SMITHS "Rusholme Ruffians"
-THE SMITHS "This Charming Man (New York Vocal)"
-THE SMITHS "Vicar In A Tutu"
-THE SMITHS "Sweet & Tender Hooligan"
-THE SMITHS "Girlfriend In A Coma"
-THE LA'S "There She Goes"
-MORRISSEY "Such A Little Thing Makes Such A Big Difference"
-MORRISSEY "The First of the Gang to Die"
-JOY DIVISION "Isolation"
-THE SMITHS "Bigmouth Strikes Again"
-JAMES "What's the World"
-MORRISSEY "Suedehead"
-THE SMITHS "A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours"
-THE SMITHS "How Soon Is Now?"
-ASSOCIATES "Party Fears Two"
-KATE BUSH "The Big Sky"
-MORRISSEY "Tomorrow"
-THE SMITHS "Is It Really So Strange?"
-THE SMITHS "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"
-THE SMITHS "Sheila Take A Bow"
-T. REX "Jeepster"
-SUPERGRASS "Alright"
-FELT "Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow"
-THE JAM "Going Underground"
-R.E.M. "Radio Free Europe"
-THE SMITHS "What Difference Does It Make?"
-THE SMITHS "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby"
-THE SMITHS "These Things Take Time"
-THE SMITHS "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"
-THE SMITHS "William, It Was Really Nothing"
-THE SMITHS "Half A Person"
-MORRISSEY "Everyday Is Like Sunday"

Maybe I'll have to throw showing up to work sober and well-rested to the wayside and go to more Part Time Punks shows. It was so very fun.