The day started very early, as in 5:00 am early in order to get to the airport on time. The flight to NYC was very short and relaxing. After listening to a couple songs and a music podcast in no time we were there.  

As soon as we arrived, the marathon began to arrive at “the city that never sleeps”. We had to take the AirTrain, another train, the subway, and then walk to our Airbnb in Brooklyn with bags at tow. We've stayed in Manhattan before and regretted after receiving a pro tip that most of the punk shows are Brooklyn bound, we scored a sweet Airbnb close to Utica Station.  

After arriving and checking into our Airbnb, we immediately went exploring. We hit up a Mexican restaurant and then took the “A” train to our favorite clothing store, “The Cast NYC”. If you don't know this shop, you should! They've got the coolest leather jackets we've ever seen, really nice button-ups, accessories, and overall the coolest clothes of all time. The back part of the story has gorgeous vintage thrift items and it’s called “Night Shift”. The staff fit the vibe and are completely knowledgeable about the scene, if you’re lucky you can score a zine by the insanely talented Nico Malvaldi entitled MANI, we were not so lucky this time his issue came out after. 

We scored this round a handcraft leather studded bracelet and a tea, an item from both stores. We walked up to the cash and we were greeted by Julia. After we made the purchase we inquired about any Punk shows happening that night.  

She smiled and said she was playing that night! She explained that she will be performing at a venue in Brooklyn called “Our Wicked Lady”! She texted us the poster and exclaimed it was a rooftop venue and to come check it out. The title of the flyer read “Sin is in the Party”. F*ck yeah we're in!  

Day 1 Mission accomplished: we acquired sick gear and found what seemed like the perfect place to do a show review. 

Now I know this isn't a travel blog, but you'll have to deal with it. New York City is the coolest. We went and explored the neighborhood, walked around the city a bit more, and then went back to our Brooklyn home for a quick nap. Literally quick. We had like 30 minutes to start getting ready. We had a long night to go, our feet were sore from exploring all day; but it’s nothing a few drinks won’t fix.  

A 30 minute nap, two subway rides later, and we were at our stop! We arrived at the legendary venue called  Our Wicked Lady, as we approached the door there was a coffin with the title on it. A lovely lady took cover at the door and a sign that said “Cash Only”. We looked at each other and we are like damn, she explained it was to pay the bands, we nodded. Luckily there was an ATM right in the doorway, unlucky for us there was a dude totally trashed who kept forgetting his pin. Eventually he cleared out and we could pay and go up. 

We walked up to the second floor, the rooftop was likely covered, and the stage was lit up with a background of blue bulbs, on the opposite end was the bar. There were already several photographers working the room. Not with flash so we accepted the challenge. Hands full with drinks we headed to the stage. 

As we arrived, the first band, Sex Fixx, was playing, a post punk glam rock band and and there was an immediate attitude of "Fuck Yeah, Fuck You!” energy. This band kicked ass, the lead singers had that perfect rasp of riot girls, and one of my favorite female singers Courtney Love especially on "Pretty on the inside". They had a very powerful stage presence and an attitude that screams punk rock. We were absorbing the energy of the place, this was our first punk show in Brooklyn. 

We were finally settled, had a couple more drinks, and made a few friends when the second band went on stage, The Knight Shades. This band consisted of some incredible tones and catchy tunes, a surf rock vibe that also had elements of punk and garage. Some of their songs were in Spanish too, which represents the Latin culture in the States. Be on the lookout for this band; they do not have anything released on Spotify right now, but you can be sure once they do, you'll be seeing us sharing their tunes.  

The last band was TDA. This was our new friend's band who we met at The Cast, and oh my god did they kick some serious ass. Their tones again were on point, the songs were catchy, and they were pure punk rock. The bassist broke a string and had to borrow a bass, a member of the audience went on stage to sing a song and crawled around the stage, and I am pretty sure we all got in a solid mosh pit and danced a ton (we had one too many drinks by this point). What I can remember is the energy of the room was feeding off TDA , and Julia hypnotized the audience and made us all feel the power of their music. We were all under her spell.

Overall this was a Punk rock wet dream knee deep in Brooklyn...

Shout out to Stephen, who was also taking photos, and we had a very nice chat about music and the culture of Brooklyn. Frankie the amazing bartender who completely dazzled us with his bartending skills and Kristen (Maybe?) her energy was Lit AF. Thank you all!

Safe to say we were hooked and we were left chasing our next fix. 

Friday night we planned to go check TV Eye and attend a punk rock tour to learn about the rich history of the New York Scene. That day our luck ran out as one of us ended up with severe food poisoning meaning the only venue we would see that night was the ER in Brookly, but that’s for another story....