Not far south of the Polish Villa and east of the ‘Kids Escaping Drugs’ center, there once was a club that aspired to be as great as its name, New York New York  935 Harlem Blvd., Buffalo NY.

Parousia played New York New York three times in 1981; Friday May 22^nd, Friday August 7^th and Saturday August 22^nd.  With all of our shows taking place on the weekend, we knew we could expect a decent crowd each night.

Our first show at New York New York the band was paid $200.00 to play on Friday night, May 22, 1981.  We rolled in with a large entourage. Dave and Mike on sound and lights, plus many ‘regular roadies’ like Keith Huels, Steve Styn, Steven (Mike’s friend) and someone named “Bob’s friend”.  Roadies were paid $10.00 each.  Our expense totaled $291.00 including the truck rental of $141. The truck cost was a split expense from our gig last night at Dad’s Cafe. Patt was using the truck on Saturday to move his Mother and pitched in by paying $40.00.  So, with that contribution, it was like we were paid $240.00.

As a new live music venue, New York New York was heavily advertised in Rockers Magazine and was considered trendy. That meant people were coming there just to check it out for the first time and then there were the regulars and of course the local alcoholics and angry loners… who in no way do we intend to disparage because without them any bar would be a lot less crowded.

Parousia was paid $200 to play our second gig at New York New York, too bad our expense ran $230.00. We had a good crowd none-the-less.  Let’s hear it for the party-goers in the world, although they may not always be aware of what’s going on around them (do they even know a band is playing?) it’s nice to have all those extra bodies filling the seats.

Our third and final show at New York New York, we were paid our usual $200.00. Gregg came out to run sound and was paid $50.00. Mike Carroll ran lights and was paid $40.00. Keith and Tom were paid $10.00 each. Steve Styn made a whopping $18.00.  Rick at Backstage took his 15%, ($20.00) and the truck rental expense was $87.00.  We had an unfortunate extra expense of a speaker repair that cost us an unexpected $140.00.  All in all, our expense totaled $380.00 for this show.

Our massive sound really filled this place up. I think we broke the record again for loudest rock band in the smallest club.  What can I say we liked to ‘turn it up to 11’.  Here are just some of the tunes we cranked out at high volume that night: “Hocus Pocus” by Focus, “My Generation” by the WHO, “Heart Breaker” by Pat Benatar, “White Punks on Dope” by the Tubes, “Hold the Line” by Toto, “Surrender” by Cheap Trick and “Train Kept a Rolling” by Aerosmith.

At the Music Mall we became friends with the band Stiff Mitten. And while there are no pictures of Parousia performing at New York New York, we do have one with Stiff Mitten!  So, here is what the club New York New York looked like on the inside with the band Stiff Mitten on stage.