Last year, when it was announced that Maxwell’s would be closing, it seemed possible that we wouldn’t be able to fit in a farewell show, and we were fine with that. But then the Pastels asked if the Condo Fucks would open for them when they were in town for the Chickfactor shindig, and it turned out we’d get in one more appearance after all. And when the watchdogs at U.S. Immigration decided that we as citizens would sleep easier if Stephen, Katrina and the gang were denied entry, plans changed again. Maybe under normal circumstances, we’d have canceled, but that was never considered. Instead we opened the evening with an acoustic YLT set, including “3 Blocks from Groove Street,” played at our very first appearance in 1984, and “Mr. Tough,” with its shout-out to Maxwell’s impresario Todd Abramson. Performing “Speeding Motorcycle,” dedicated to the Pastels, who recorded it too, proved a challenge–I had to ignore a commotion in the audience, couldn’t tell if it was requests or questions or heckling. It was definitely tempting to put on the brakes and see what was going on, but there was a separate-admission late show after ours, and we wanted to use our limited time wisely. Only between sets did I discover that the source of the ruckus was Maxwell’s founder Steve Fallon. He had surprised us by coming to the show, and picked the moment of us playing a song he put out on his SOL label to let the cat out of the bag, except I missed it entirely, despite him standing right in front of–and yelling at–me. Following the Condo Fucks set, we did a single, acoustic encore: “This Is Where I Belong.”
