Andrew W.K. certainly made sure that everyone on the planet knew he was all about the party right from his inaugural release, or so I thought.
I Get Wet, drawing equal parts inspiration from punk rock, heavy metal, pop and alternative, landed the party rocker praise from MTV to PunkNews to Rolling Stone and in each article there was sure to be a mention that 3/12 of the songs featured “party” right there in the title. He might as well have called the album I Party Party.
So when Andrew announced that he would be bring said party to The Huntridge at the tail end of this media blitz I wasted no time buying my tickets from Balcony Lights because in my mind, there was no way this show wouldn’t sell out in seconds.
Apparently I’m a bad judge of internet popularity versus real life popularity.
This is the story of how on one night at the Huntridge Theatre in 2003, me and about 20 other people got to be “the other ladies from Destiny’s Child” to Andrew W.K.’s Beyoncé, belting out those “hey hey heys” loud enough that hopefully everyone who skipped out on the show could hear what they were missing from across town.
I still remember the feeling of complete and utter bewilderment that overcame me as I pulling up to the near empty parking lot of The Huntridge that night. Arriving a little late, right in the middle of openers The Bronx’s face-melting rock, I expected the venue to be overfilled with people wearing Hawaiian shirts, a balloon in one hand and a beer in the other (ok, so maybe I don’t really know what a party looks like).
Did I show up on the wrong day? Maybe everyone car pooled or suddenly became very eco-conscious and rode bikes? Did everyone park behind the lone tumbleweed passing through the lot?
Honestly, it could be that people just weren’t digging what they heard from The Wolf, Andrew’s sophomore album that was set to drop a few weeks after this gig. But either way, the Party God himself was getting ready to play to a room of only about a few dozen. In 2003 terms, that’s a “kickback” not a party, and who wants to hear songs about that?
Many people in his shoes would cancel, and honestly, I wouldn’t be too angry with him if he did. Disappointed, sure. But I can’t fault someone for cutting their losses when their turnout is less than your average house show. While I’d normally prefer a smaller gig, Andrew’s music is made for partying is large numbers. It’s anthemic and has gang vocals. How can you have gang vocals without the gang?
Turns out, Andrew W.K. knows how to do that and on this night, he set the bar for making the best of a bad situation.
After a short intro from his band, Andrew burst on stage in his trademark white t-shirt, matching jeans and infectious smile and started his set with I Get Wet opener “It’s Time to Party” and though we were few, you’d think there was a packed house by the volume of the refrain we sang back to the man and his band. There wasn’t a fist not pumped in the air. Andrew growled “Hang out with yourself and have a crazy party” and we were determined to do just that.
Feeding off that first song’s energy, Mr. W.K. announced that what this show really needed was to become a different kind of party. A “more intimate party,” as he put it. So he cordially invited every last one of us to party on stage for the duration of the show. It was like that famous scene in “Dancing in the Dark” with all of us filling in for Courtney Cox and Andrew W.K. playing the part of The Boss, just with slightly better dance moves.
After taking up every square inch of space Andrew’s band would normally use for rocking out, the group of musicians looked at each other, shrugged, and launched right back into things with “Ready to Die.” It was a very surreal feeling, looking to my right and seeing a now 100% empty Huntridge floor and to my left, Andrew W.K. had his arm around me and was now playing his “Kit Kat Bar” jingle on piano.
From here on out, the set was all requests, which resulted in the entirety of I Get Wet being played, as well as few new tracks and the Jackass The Movie theme “We Want Fun,” the audience getting to sing the “hey heys” right into AWK’s face. I feel confident in saying that any song with the word “party” in it was a crowd favorite so hey, the marketing must have worked on some people.
Thankfully no one puked during “Party till you Puke” (though one overly enthusiastic, and overly inebriated, young fan looked like he was about to) but we all did our part to party hardest during lead single “Party Hard,” which unsurprisingly had the biggest response. The song has just never sounded as good as it did when me and 19 other people got to crowd around the mic for the refrain.
If Andrew W.K. were a different kind of man, low turnouts like what he experienced that night can cause people to pack up their gear and call it a night for good. But he lived up to his posi-persona, and because of that, I have the unforgettable memory of getting to party with one of my heroes, in true party hard fashion.
When Andrew finally made it back to Vegas ten years later, celebrating the 10 year anniversary of I Get Wet, the crowd was so thick you could barely move – and I was happy that Vegas was finally throwing Andrew the party he deserved.
-Emily Matview
Andrew W.K. photo by Emily Matview and taken at the I Get Wet anniversary gig
Setlist:
Everything from I Get Wet
“We Want Fun” from the Jackass soundtrack
Lots of jamming
The Kit Kat jingle
A couple tracks from The Wolf
More jamming
Party, Party Party, Party
No Comments