A significant amount of my life has been spent in Beauty Bar. Just do a search on my site to see how often it comes up. It’s a lot. I have photographed events in Beauty Bars in Vegas, LA, Austin and the Brooklyn location. LA and Austin all had their time and are gone now but their are still Beauty Bars in San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, Dallas and of course the original location on 14th Street in Manhattan.

Last night Beauty Bar celebrated twenty years since opening the doors of that first NYC location and I had to be there to party with so many familiar faces. Ironically the anniversary event was actually at Webster Hall with the after party at Beauty Bar but they made the middle floor of Webster look like Beauty Bar since Beauty Bar isn’t licensed to have live music… and there was a lot of live music.

The Prettiots opened the night and I was really excited to see them since I am doing a photo project with their front woman Kay. They were great which was a relief since I had only heard one of their songs before last night. I was a huge fan of Kay already but it’s pretty hard not to fall in love with her after watching them play.

Flor de Toloache played next and they were an all female mariachi band which was kinda rad. It also marks the second time in two weeks that I have seen a mariachi band. Up next were Daddy Long Legs who put on a hell of a show and were the most rockin’ band of the night. Still not psyched on the dudes with perms look coming back, but I will forgive them because they were great. The night ended with the band from the Hedwig & The Angry Inch Broadway musical playing a bunch of covers and they brought out my old pal and nightlife legend Michael T to a Bowie song. It was a pretty fun way to wrap things up.

In between bands there was a sword swallowing performance, two burlesque acts (hi Betttina May!), DJs and hosting insanity from Joey Arias. All in all a great night but the best part was seeing all the old friends and Beauty Bar family that I rarely see now that we all really old and the East Village has become overrun with douche bags.

Congrats Mike and Paul on 20 years as a NYC institution. Here’s to 20 more.

Click here to see all the photos from the Beauty Bar 20th Anniversary party at Webster Hall.

Ps. These photos are mildly NSFW thanks to the Burlesque and my friend’s boobs.

On the last night of South By Southwest a mini riot broke out at the not-so-secret Death From Above 1979 reunion show. It was the last thing I shot at SXSW and it seemed like something Vice would want.  Before I went to Austin they told me they wanted SXSW coverage but they didn’t want bands or music stuff. They wanted weirder more interesting non traditional stuff and this seemed right up their alley. They ran a bunch of my photos and a story about the whole thing last week.  I am just going to reprint the whole thing here so I have an archive of it on my site plus there are some images I loved that Vice didn’t run that I will.  Check out the original article here on Vice or just keep reading…

During the last time slot of the last night of South By Southwest, Death From Above 1979 reunited for the first time in several years. They were playing the Undocumented Management showcase at Beauty Bar in Austin. I knew I couldn’t make it there in time for their 1am set, but the owners of Beauty Bar NYC were in town and I knew they could sneak me in the show, even if just for the last few songs. I texted Jessie Keeler from DFA about trying to make it and his foreboding response was simply “Gonna be a shitshow.” He was not wrong.

By the time I made it down to Beauty Bar, DFA was well into their set. I was coming down an alley that leads to the back stage at Beauty Bar and I could hear them playing. When I got closer, I saw hundreds of people just standing outside pressed up to the gate trying to watch the show. These kids were clapping and dancing and moshing and having a party in the alley behind the club. As I tried to push my way towards the gate, someone suddenly tried to climb the fence. There were security guards waiting for him so he didn’t get very far, but as he climbed a few other people attempted the same move and the fence came down. Several off duty cops were standing on the other side of the fence armed with TASERs and pepper spray. I was about 10 feet away at this point and I could hear the sound of TASERs zapping the shit out of people. I got closer despite the SXSW staff trying to keep me away.

I pulled out my camera and started shooting. So did 100 other people armed with camera phones and video cameras. Unfortunately, I had been shooting for more than 12 hours and my flash batteries were almost completely kicked. I fired off a few underexposed shots of people getting hit in the face with pepper spray and sparked by the stun gun type TASERs the off-duties were using liberally. I saw at least one zapper get shot randomly into the crowd, but the sound was a more effective deterrent than anything else. Meanwhile the band just kept playing.

Eventually the fence was put back up and held in place by Beauty Bar staff and security guards. The kids outside were even more riled up by this point and just started moshing in the alley. After a few minutes two uniformed cops finally showed up, a bit taken aback at the shit show they had just walked in to. As the police moved through the crowd people cursed and threw shit at them. The two officers warned us that crowd control horses were not far behind.

When the riot cops on horseback came through the alley, the DFA fans just moved out of the way. People started throwing empty beer cans at the horses, which caused them to start spinning around and freaking out. I can’t imagine the Austin Mounties get a lot of practice. As the horses passed, everyone in the alley just went back to the fence and started dancing.

By this point I had given up on my flash and started shooting portraits of the crowd, the horses, and the police with natural light. The cops finally got DFA to stop playing long enough to tell everyone that the band couldn’t finish their set until the alley party dispersed. Then the cops sort of huddled in front of the gate for a while as the crowd stood their ground waiting to see what would happen. Then, out of nowhere, the cops left, the show started back up, and the crowd started dancing like the police were never there.

When they finished playing everyone left peacefully and without any problems. The only trace of the mini-riot/party was a few beer cans and the thousands of camera phone pictures and videos that were already on YouTube by the time I got back to my hotel.

Click here to see all the photos from The Death From Above 1979 riot at Beauty Bar Austin.

After the National Book Awards party last night I headed over to Beauty Bar to help celebrate Beauty Bar’s quinceañera. I have only been around for the last 4 years or so of Beauty Bar’s existence but the place means a lot to me. I have had some amazing times at that bar and some crazy times in their back bathroom. I am not at Beauty Bar as much as I used to be but I tend to stop in Sunday nights still. Hollis James DJ’s old punk and rock and roll on Sundays and there’s only a handful of people in there and it’s my favorite night to just have really good conversations and listen to amazing music. But Beauty Bar gets crazy too and there have been some epic parties there over the years.  Just click here to do a search of Driven By Boredom for Beauty Bar to see all the good times.

Also the Beauty Bar NYC managing owner Mike Stewart is one of my favorite people in NYC.  Last night he told me he was glad I came and that I was part of the family. That meant a lot. I really love that place.

Last night was just a bunch of old friends getting together. It was a ton of fun and I can’t say much else about the night. I had to leave early because I had a deadline for my book award pictures and I had been out since 4pm and had to get home, but there were a lot of people I love there last night and I wouldn’t have missed that for the world.

You should click here to see all the pictures from last night’s 15th anniversary party for Beauty Bar.

Beauty Bar had a friends and family pre opening tonight for their new Brooklyn location. They have opening parties available to the public tonight and tomorow, but clearly you can’t make it tonight because you will be at my party at Webster Hall. The new Beauty Bar is in Bushwick, just 3 stops away from me on the JMZ. It is right by the Myrtle stop. Fortunately it is really close, because it is not the safest hood. I am sure it will be fine, but just be safe about it.

So last night they had an open vodka and beer bar all night and Jon Spencer’s amazing Rockabilly band Heavy Trash played. They were fucking awesome, but more on them, and the shots from their set tomorrow (assuming I am not in jail after tonight). Last night was really fun and the place was packed. At midnight I had a BIG shot of grape vodka and danced to James Brown for a bit. I am not really a dancer, but with soul music playing all night I had to get into it. There were some fun appearances last night like Andy Rourke from the Smith’s and the worlds second hottest photographer (Clearly I am #1) Ellen Stagg. All the Beauty Bar regulars were there as were several other down town bar owners. It was just a great party. And the best part is that the new Beauty Bar is a block away from a 24 Hour Popeyes so after I finished dancing and taking photos I got a 2 piece and a Mardi Gras cheese cake from a dude named Balla. Unfortunately he forgot my Red Beans & Rice, but I will let that slide this once.

Okay, here are the shots from the party last night. And like I said, shots of Heavy Trash will be up tomorrow. See a lot of you guys tonight.

The fifth annual Drop Dead Gorgeous zombie beauty pageant was held at Beauty Bar on Sunday but this year it was holiday themed. Professional zombie wrangler Doug Sakmann hosted dressed as a zombie elf and Michael T co-hosted using his normal holiday cheer. Evidently the blood wet t-shirt part of the contest was canceled due to them still trying to clean blood off the walls at Beauty Bar after last year’s total fucking insanity, but there was still a lot of gore to go around.

The contest involves three parts. There is a question and answer part to introduce the girls followed by a kinda underwhelming lingerie contest. The contest then ends with a brain eating contest of course. Each round is scored out of a total of 5 points by a four person panel of judges.  The judges were my friend and dominatrix Goddess Shay, Our Lady of Perpetual PMS from the Gorgeous Ladies of Blood Wrestling, Jessica Rajs from Gorgeous and Gory and Steve Dash who played Jason in Friday The 13th 2.

Wait a second… can we talk about how this event is called Drop Dead Gorgeous and features two judges that run things involving the word gorgeous?  There is absolutely nothing gorgeous about anything going on with this event… Also I have no idea how to spell the word gorgeous so I have to spell check it every single time. Just typing this all is very trying. Moving on…

Anyway, this green chick with giant boobs won and everyone went home bloody. Huzzah.

Click here to see the horrific and mildly sexy Drop Dead Gorgeous Holiday Zombie Beauty Pageant at Beauty Bar. Oh yeah, these pics are NSFW for more than one reason.

I cover most of the NYC Zombie Crawl events because my buddy Doug Sakmann runs the things. He also does Strip For Pain, makes porn with Burning Angel and then does totally legit shit like film festivals and commercials. It’s been well documented that I love the dude, but sometimes his events can be a bit much for me.

I hate being sticky and he always smells like fake blood. It’s made with syrup and every time I smell pancakes I think of Doug and his blood. After the Dolphins lost on Sunday I had no interest in doing ANYTHING much less going to Beauty Bar to get covered in fake blood for some sort of insane beauty pageant.  But Doug and his right hand woman Autumn yelled at me for not coming and then my friend Darenzia was hosting and she gave me shit and I hadn’t seen Beauty Bar owner Mike Stewart in ages and Michael T was MCing and Erica Starr produced the whole thing and I knew I would get crazy pictures so the pressures over came me and I relented and got in my borrowed car and I drove to the East Village and pulled my camera out. (How’s that for a run on sentence?)

The Beauty Pageant started out slow and I missed most of the first round so I don’t even really know what was going on but they narrowed the field down to a handful of girls.  They took a break in between rounds and I said hello to everyone and got pulled into the bathroom with my favorite fat naked chick Sammie Sprinkles. I don’t think I had ever seen boobs that big in real life, so I was pretty pumped to shoot them. Round two consisted of girls eating weird eyeball and intestine food and telling the crowd what their favorite zombie movie is. They were all wrong.  Let’s go to the list:

IGOR’s TOP 5 Zombie Movies:

1. Dawn Of The Dead
2. Wild Zero
3. The Evil Dead II
4. The Return Of The Living Dead
5. Dead Alive

I would have also accepted Night of the Living Dead, any of the Living Dead Films, and Zombi. Speaking of zombie movies… Check out this article I wrote a few years ago.

Moving on…

The third and final round of the Zombie Beauty Pageant was the bloody t-shirt contest. It was like a wet t-shirt contest except instead of water (or Faygo) the girls were covered in fake blood.  It was totally insane and horrific. It looked like their had been a mass execution. Beauty Bar will never be the same.

Ultimately, Suicide Girl and burlesque performer Bettina won and everyone went home completely fucking sticky and smelling like a Waffle House.  The end.

Click here to see all the insanely bloody, totally fucked up pictures from the Zombie Beauty Pageant at Beauty Bar.

Oh, and these photos are very obviously NSFW!

On Saturday I went to a party/show/classic motorcycle rally. My friends at Sailor Jerry were sponsoring the event in the Broadway Stages parkinglot in Greenpoint and asked me to come by. A bunch of bands were playing and there were some solid food trucks and a ton of vintage motorcycles. Seemed like a good time.

I got there pretty early so I was in time to see Julia Haltigan go on and then I photographed a bunch of the bikes and hung out with the Sailor Jerry crew. They were giving away a hand painted Harley and the had someone live painting a helmet with classic Sailor Jerry flash. I hung out with the homie & SJ brand ambassador Gravy Thomas who never stops moving throwing these SJ events across the country. Every time they do one of these motorcycle events I wanna buy a bike but am 100% sure I would wreck it in a week in NYC traffic.

As the sun started to go down Sharmuffin started playing and they were great. Their front woman got in the crowd and finally turned the block party into a rock show which I appreciated. I was actually supposed to be somewhere else after that but I wanted to stick around for Daddy Long Legs. I shot them at the Beauty Bar 20th anniversary party and they were really fun and I am glad I stuck around.

I did have to leave before Dirty Fences played but the party was 10 hours long and I had to get a bunch of stuff done by Monday (which is why these photos didn’t go up until today.) But I’ve shot them before too and they are really fun. Wish I could have stuck around.

Anyway check out these photos because even if you don’t care about old motorcycles and rock bands you will care about the photos of adorable dogs at the party.

Click here to see all the photos from The Lot vintage motorcycle party!

Another day another zombie crawl. I have been covering Doug Sakmann’s NYC and Brooklyn zombie crawls twice a year for nearly a decade and this year was no exception. I keep thinking all this is going to make for a good book that I can sell to nerds one day but I feel like by the time I ever do anything about it no one will care about zombies anymore… At least they keep making episodes of The Walking Dead…

This year the crawl started out at The Continental. I got there a bit late and they were already gone. I started walking towards Otto’s Shrunken Head (the first stop) and I ran into them about 6 blocks north of where they started. After a quick stop at Otto’s they crawled to Beauty Bar for the after party.

The after party featured music by J & The 9s and Skeletal Life, “undead burlesque” from Liberty Rose and some sideshow madness from Dr. Claw. Also a bunch of clowns showed up and some people from Troma including Will Keenan who played Tromeo in Tromeo and Juliet which if you haven’t seen it is maybe Troma’s best film and it was written (and maybe directed) by James Gunn who wrote Scooby Doo 2 (and also some other stuff Guardians of the Galaxy for example).

So go look at these photos if you feel like you need more zombie crawl photos in your life. These pics are kinda NSFW cause of the burlesque, the painful to look at sideshow stuff and one topless photo at the very end.

Click here to see all the photos from the 2016 NYC Zombie Crawl.