In all fairness, we were responsible for one of the “tenth or eleventh time that some stranger took our picture while we were trying to relax and pretend we weren't in a swelteringly hot and disgusting filthy warehouse,” but that doesn't excuse the abuse that Patrick from Titus Andronicus was subject to prior to their performance at Saturday night's Vice Halloween/anniversary party.
Gawker has their own version of the night, but since their photos include nothing but the lifestyle they seem to be dogging (um, Gawker, weren't there two legendary bands playing?), we suggest you read Patrick's account.
In case you're feeling link-lazy, his experience is similar to Cassie from the Vivian Girls:
In summer 2008 we played a VICE party and the security was very much the same. Although my experience wasn't nearly as bad as yours, I do remember one instance where we were about to go on, and I was in the downstairs area trying to get to the upstairs area (where the stage was), and the security guard guarding the staircase kept telling me that the upstairs was full and to “tell your manager to talk to me.” I couldn't get up there until Katy realized something was wrong and sent a guy from VICE to find me. Terrible!! There were a lot of complaints that night about the security too, and obviously nothing has changed.
We wonder whether the dungeon-like party quarters and the Fascist bouncer culture is actually something a sponsor-driven company that feeds off a drug-swilling demographic wants. There's a kind of sadomasochism at play in this weirdly elitist party that claims to be public when it's a cold, private cluster fuck, and maybe the aura that's rising up in all these ambivalent, mildly scarred
