John Varvatos' Funhouse Blog

Michael Monroe opened his set at 315 Bowery with Nothin's Alright by the ultra hardcore fan favorite side project, Demolition 23.  The rest of the set was peppered with Hanoi Rocks favorites like Motorvatin, Back To Mystery City, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Malibu Beach. The crowd got to enjoy all the action of Monroe's latest group, consisting of Sami Yaffa (Hanoi Rocks, NY Dolls) Ginger (The Wildhearts) and Steve Conte (NY Dolls).

Thursday Nite Live w/ Michael Monroe from John Varvatos on Vimeo.

Half way through the set, Michael cracked his head open on the overhead monitors and started bleeding.  He didn't seem to mind as he kept belting out the songs. Now if that ain't Rock n' Roll somebody please tell me what is?!!!!

The band even came back for a double encore of two of my favorites, Kick Out The Jams by The MC5 and Feel Alright by The Stooges.  I'm just saying, you can take the guy out of Detroit, but you can't take Detroit out of the guy!!

Scott Morgan, Scott Morgan - Another gem from a true original.  Scott makes Detroit proud.

Iggy and The Stooges, Raw Power - Down & dirty. Raw Power is "THE" seminal punk rock album of all time.

Jesse Malin & The St. Marks Social, Love it to Life - Jesse is one of the great American songwriters of our time. Love it to Life is his best album yet.

Peter Wolf, Midnight Souvenirs - The former J. Geils front man delivers another powerful album. Very cool, eclectic mix of songs.

Jimi Hendrix, Valleys of Neptune - The last studio recordings. It makes me miss Jimi even more.

Sweet Apple, Love and Desperation - J. Mascis from Dinosaur Jr.'s new group. Killer R 'n R!!

The Beatles, In Mono - All 13 albums in glorious mono. The best sounding Beatles release ever.

Peter Frampton, Thank you Mr. Churchill - Peter's back with a rockin' set that leaves you wanting more.

BoDeans, Mr. Sad Clown - Milwalkie's BoDeans deliver another great slice of Americana.

The Byrds, Untitled (Legacy Edition) - My favorite Byrds album. Expanded with additional live material. A must have.

I had been in collaboration with two great photographers, Jim Marshall and Timothy White, who had just published a photography book called Match Prints.  Over their twenty year friendship, Jim and Timothy discovered there were striking similarities in their work, despite the photographs being taken 30 years apart. We were set to kick off the Match Prints book tour at my Soho Store on Wednesday, March 24th, when Timothy called with news of Jim's passing.  As we were both trying to sort through all the emotions that come with losing someone unexpectedly, we didn't know how to proceed with the evening's event.  Should we cancel?  In the end, we decided to provide a place for people to see his iconic photos, hear friends speak of him and remember the history he captured and created.

Jim was a man of few words....Timothy explained, and most of them were "Fuck!"  In his honor, the crowd gave the finger, mirroring Jim's famous Johnny Cash photo.

We'll miss you Jim. You left us too soon.