In London yesterday morning, BBC television news carried a quitessential New York story: a bouncer had been stabbed and killed by a patron after the patron had been asked to stop smoking inside a nightclub, as required by a new law. In the 15 seconds it aired, a camera panned across a purple awning that looked, well, familiar.
It was. It was Guernica, I later found out. Guernica sits atop the legendary Save the Robots, which sits atop the mythicalA seriously outdated web review still includes Save the Robots. Robots, an original East Village punk establishment. I caught the tail end of Save the Robots when I settled on Saint Marks in 1996. Save the Robots sat across empty lots on Avenue B, between 2nd and 3rd, and was the default destination whenever a 4am closing time at 7B We always suspected 7B was actually called The Horseshoe Bar, or maybe Vazac’s but it often proved easier to conflate name and location, especially as their Jack and cokes barely ever had any coke in them. Many of the beat poets drank their livers away at the corner of 7th and B—Allen Ginsberg lived around the corner. was not reason enough to call it a night.
Save the Robots had a smoky cellar for a dance floor where seriously loud techno-cum-punk was played without apologies out of a cage where the DJ protected his records. The place was open all night, so club kids developed the strategy of sleeping in Tompkins Square Park during the days and frequenting Save the Robots at night. Spending the night in Tompkins Square Park was no longer possible after 1989, when the park acquired closing hours in order to remove the tent city that had sprung up there. The result was some pretty darn serious riots.In those days, the aide mémoire for navigating Alphabet City still rang true: A is for Adventurous, B is for Brave, C is for Crazy, D is for Dead.
By around 1997 or 1998, the place was closed on account of one too many drug busts. It was ridiculously easy to score drugs there, Not that I ever tried. or rather, it had been. Giuliani’s Quality of Life Campaign was extending into the foxholes of the alternatively lifestyled, and popping pills on the raised sofas of the main room was just not on anymore, especially now that those empty lots were being filled with “medium income” housing and their attendant families.
In its place came Guernica. It remains one of the better places to dance in the East Village, but youThe best is Sapphire Lounge. Still, although New York is many things, dance capital is not one of them. have to make a beeline past yuppie scum to a fresh downstairs dance space. How strange that after all those years as a druggie landmark of sorts, somebody would end up being killed at the place over a cigarette.
>>Spending the night in Tompkins Square Park was no longer possible after 1989, when the park acquired closing hours in order to remove the tent city that had sprung up there. The result was some pretty darn serious riots.
I’ve investigated a little further, and it turns out there were 2 riots, one in 1988 and one on Memorial day 1991. Depending on your sources, either the first or the second involves a police raid. Looks like everyone’s memory from the time looks a littled addled…
http://www.art.man.ac.uk/Geog/fieldwork/newyork/studentvisits_tompkinssquarepark.htm
http://home.nyc.rr.com/jkn/nysonglines/ava.htm
The latter site also serves up this tidbit: “In August 1989, murderer Daniel Rakowitz served soup to the homeless here that may or may not have contained the remains of his roommate Monika Beerle.”
The “riots” were prio to ’90 – get it straight,; ’88-’89 were the year of th Tomkins Sq lock down. At this point in time the East Village died and became a point of historicl retrospective for “those wild & crazy EV days.”
Police were everywhere – horses, gas, and armor. We were there, living 75 yards from it; during all of it. Every minute. I had troubl getting to work.
What do you really know, glory boy.?
There were 3 major riots from August 6 1966 to the closing of the Park on June 3 1991. The first was Aug 6 and occurred when the police followed Mayor Ed Koch’s orders to curfew the park at midnite. Neighborhood people were pissed and refused to leave, cops put out a radio call saying that officers were down and cops from all over the city poured into the park. The reuslt was over 100 complaints of police brutality, and the city backed down on enforcing the curfew.
Because the park was open all night, NYC homeless people started to move in, prefering the open air and friendly community to the violent and disease-ridden shelters.
A second riot broke out on May 1 1990 after the police rushed the stage at the end of a “squatters may day festival”. 29 police went to the hospital and 29 protesters were arrested. Memorial Day 1991 a fianl riot happened when a rogue cop beat up a homeless man while he was on a food line outside the park. There was a punk show in the park when this happened, and the punks ran out onto avenue A to protest. One week later, the park was closed by the city for 14 months. The bandshell was destroyed and the over 300 homelss people who lived in the park were uprooted and scattered.
TOMPKINS SQUARE EVERYWHERE!!!
I’m so tired of clueless, inacurate stories about Save The Robots, where I DJ-ed practically EVERY friday night between 1984 and 1991.
The club that followed in that same location was NOT the same, it was a cheesey rip-off called Robots, owned and operated by the owners of Stingy Lulu’s, a bar/sidewalk cafe on Saint Mark’s Place off of Avenue A.
The new club-owners were trying to capitalize on the fame of the original STR, but Denis Pruvot, the original co-owner of STR and owner of the Registered Trademark by the same name, had his lawyers send them a nastygram. Nonetheless, the clue-less public and patrons continued to refer to “Robots” as Save The Robots.
The only thing the two “clubs” shared was the location and maybe a few DJ’s who actually worked at both spots like Phil D. and DJ Romain and maybe the hapless, pathetic Keoki. As far as drugs are concerned, the original STR was certainly a Den of Inequity, but they shut down due to the massive legal bills resulting from issues and incidents that were only indirectly a result of anything illegal going on, substance-wise.
Rant to be continued.
I was turned on to Save the Robots one late nite after partying at Nells on 14th street. Caught a cab to the east village and was allowed in because my friends knew the doorman. Not the prettiest place, drugs easy to find, and the worse vodka known to man. Robots was awesome! Hip hop, reggae and house music played thru the nite. Never any fights, multicultural audience, celebs sprinkled in, and some of the cutest ladies you wanna meet at 5 or 6 in the morning. Gotta tell ya I had many a great time in that joint!
I only made it to Robots on Ave B in 1996,1997 and it was fab. I will never forget the first time I went I ran into Tori from back home! She was the gorgeous door girl! The line was long to get in. The dingy dark cellar dance floor was awesome and the vodka only with OJ is so true. Spent some spectacular kholes at Robots. Smoked cryptonite, no charge, from nice Jamaican dude from Amsterdam and it blew us away! It was always a bright challenge of confusion after leaving to go home in the sun.