“City Nights” – Debbie Harry Flops @ WiP

Photo by Sam Horine

There’s a lot to be said about legends when it comes to the music industry. Most know when to call it quits and quietly fade away when their talent begins to go while others tend to hold on to make as much of a quick buck as possible. Seemingly harsh words at first but the latter is the vibe given off at DropOut, WiP’s Tuesday night bash at Greenhouse. Headline star? Debbie Harry!

To start, our hosts for this soiree included Darian Darling and Tommy Hottpants, among others. I arrived early as I was informed that it was first come first, served with the guest list. “Jesus Christ, all of you are on the guest list,” I thought as I walked down Van Dam Street and saw the massive line nearly wrapped around the block. We’ve all heard of exclusive guest lists but this is ridiculous. It’s not so much an exclusive event if everyone is on the list and I’m sure as shit not waiting.

Kiss & Tyler Stone

Penny Arcade

“Oh, hey, blah blah blah,” I politely smiled to a half intoxicated young man dressed in various fashion violations; all the while pretending that I’ve met him before in some far off dark corner of The Eagle or something. (I really didn’t know him but this line had to be cut… now!) Dashing into the darkened venue, I was met with the likes of the delicious Penny Arcade just having a casual night out on the town, club kids Christopher Morgan and Matthew Herra C, and Kayvon Zand.

Christopher Morgan, Kelvin & Matthew Herra C

What time is it? Debbie Harry was scheduled to go on at midnight but I won’t hold her to that as she is an original punk rock bitch. It’s now 12:35am and we are finally introduced to Debbie. Or, so I thought. What the patrons believed was a little artsy introduction to Ms. Harry actually turned out to be a twenty-plus minute drag when Kristina Kiss and Tyler Stone of Liquid Blonde took the stage and decided to “redesign” a store mannequin. A little red spray paint here and there and some slight teasing of a natty blonde wig is fine but this is just too much.

Francis Legge & Tracy Von Becker

Mikey Pop

Ok, yay! It’s Debbie Harry! No? Shit, what’s next? The next act better be a donkey show or something because I’m starting to lose interest and so is portion of the crowd. What followed was supposed to be a nice introduction to Miss Guy’s new music video, but due to a lack of preparation, the video projector kept freezing at certain intervals thus giving the lovely Guy the image of a stutterer. Finally… Harry enters to thunderous applause.

Kayvon Zand

What ensued was nothing short of an absolute travesty of nightlife performance. The first song I couldn’t recall as the bass was terribly loud to which Harry’s voice could barely be heard. Round two: a duet with Harry and Guy. Perfect. Not so fast; I see lip-synching. I came to see a legend and left, along with a sizeable number of the crowd, before the second song came to a close with a feeling of sheer disappointment. (At least a notable majority of the attendees came dressed fierce.) I couldn’t dart up the stairway quick enough to grab a cigarette. “Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit smokin’!”

About Kevin Novinski

is the writer of the "City Nights" column which divulges all the juicy goodies about NYC when the sun goes down. He survives on little sleep and a healthy diet of martinis and cigarettes.

Tags: christopher morgan, City Nights, Darian Darling, debbie harry, dropout, gay, greenhouse, Kayvon Zand, kevin novinski, Kristina Kiss, LGBT, Matthew Herra C, miss guy, music, nightlife, NYC, penny arcade, Tommy Hottpants, tyler stone, wip