no slam dancing, no stage diving, no spikes

misremembering city gardens 🪴

Anemoia. Nostalgia for something you didn’t experience. For me, whenever I see or hear anything about City Gardens I feel that pang. Anemoia. Born too late. Same zip code just miles in the wrong direction. So close yet so far. For the uninitiated, City Gardens was a legendary punk/hardcore/dance club located in beautiful downtown Trenton, New Jersey.

Trenton Makes. The World Takes.

Operational from 1979-2001 City Gardens hosted pretty much every band you’ve ever heard of - Black Flag, Sonic Youth, Ween, Sinead O’Conner, R.E.M., The Cramps, Green Day, Bad Brains, Ministry, A Tribe Called Quest, Fugazi, DEVO, Nine Inch Nails, etc. If a band was passing through the northeast corridor, they were likely making a stop at City Gardens.

Maybe I was there in a past life. Who knows. In this life, I have this nice little oral history - No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes: An Oral History of the Legendary City Gardens to get me through. The book is no frills, and is obviously hyper niche — right up my street. Rough around the edges, as if to honor it’s subject. It feels very DIY. More zine than “book”, it’s not nearly as well-appointed as Please Kill Me. There are not as as many counter top drugs as Meet Me In The Bathroom — but it’s a beautiful remembrance of a moment in time. An ode to the lost art of community.

We’re destined for a future where live music doesn’t exist. Or if it does, only the elite of the elite will be able to experience it — if this is not already the reality.

If reading an oral history of a punk club seems from another era, it’s because it is. Imagine a world where a physical music venue matters, or one where a venue doesn’t bare the name of a corporate sponsor. Imagine the possibility of getting kicked in the head by accident. Surely it’s hard to conjure.

While I may not have been alive in it’s heyday, my Youtube history is littered with live performance gems from City Gardens. I’ve been living out my weird twisted alternate history through these classics. Spinning in reverie. Lost in Anemoia. Join me, will you?

But No slam dancing. No stage diving. and no fucking spikes.

Rollins Band - Full Set - 1989

Ween - I’m So Tired (1988). The boys.

Thurston Moore released a 7” of Venoms in-between song banter at City Gardens after Henry Rollins spent a night torching them. Brilliant. Hilarious still.

Butthole Surfers - Full Set - 1988

Green Day - Full Set - 1994. Dookie Tour. Energy!

Youth of Today, Full Set 1988. Hare Krishna!

Ween - Purple Rain - 1991

Riot on the Dance Floor trailer. Nice little doc on the club.

Thank you for sticking around. I hope you all are well. Feel free to reply to me and let me know how you are doing. I love you all!