Irving Plaza, NY, NY Halloween Show 10/31/92

A Halloween show shortly after the release of the masterful Mutiny album.

Coney Island High, NY, NY Listing 3/17/97

I took about thirty photos of the band at this show. I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed that afternoon and was heavily under the influence of Vicodin that night. I figured I wouldn't remember any of the show - so I should take a few photos.

Tim wore his red pants. The band completely flat-out rocked. It was a wonderful show.

First Avenue Club, Minneapolis, MN Show Flyer 10/22/91

Coney Island High ...finally Record Release Show 3/4/96

This was the record release show/party for ...finally. It was a great show and everyone was in very high spirits. If I remember correctly it was in the smaller room on the first floor. There was talk of some supposed local TV News being there (I think it was supposed to have been WWOR-TV Channel 9). But there were no such people there. The band played songs from the album ("Skyline", "How To Be Happy", etc) that were to be performed less and less over the coming months. The band had recently been interviewed on WDRE-FM and were enjoying a brief spell of some well-deserved publicity. They played NY about six more times that year.

This was the only time I ever saw the band billed under the "Discovery Records Presents/Recording Artists" banner.

Irving Plaza 4/21/95 opening for The Rake's Progress

This was during the band's unsigned period. It was a pretty groovy performance opening for a significantly lesser band. Aside from some dude who hopped on the stage and quickly dry-humped Tim (really), the band didn't get much of reaction. The crowd was largely there to see headliners The Rake's Progress. Who, by the way were very-nearly a forth-rate smirky version of TMJ, but not quite. Better times were just around the corner for TMJ though.

CBGB's, NY, NY 12/5/94 Shimmy-Disc Kramer benefit show

I saw TMJ at CBGB's the night of the Shimmy-Disc/Kramer benefit show. The venue was pretty empty, Jay was under-the-weather, Bill was still very new in the band and Tim was very loose. It was still a very enjoyable show. They played a few new songs - "Half Life", "A Texas Sunday", "I'm Your Wallet" and a song that bore more than a passing resemblance to The Kings' "Switchin' To Glide" - "Weak". I was able to obtain a soundboard copy of the show from a fan who got my attention as I filmed it. Granted I drank a bit too much, which affected my filming technique, as the band went on later than I'd anticipated.

Regardless, it's still one of my favorite TMJ concert experiences.

The photo of Bill, Tim & Penn Jillette performing the Bongos, Bass, & Bob hit "Clothes Of The Dead" was swiped from Joybuzzer (issue #7) and was taken by Emily Cameron. Pulse! Magazine (top), Good Times Newspaper (middle) and a listing for the show.

The Knitting Factory, NY, NY 5/4/07

It had been over ten-years since TMJ played NYC (not counting them as The Good Books). The last time they had played NY was in Spring of 1997 at Coney Island High. They opted to not to play NYC on the Crack Is Back tour that September as The Mekons were playing the night they would've booked a show, so they opted not to play NY and see the Mekons instead(!). Nor did a tour - or show - materialize for Gods & Sods either. So Tommy Vinton's retirement from the NYPD made for a perfect excuse to play again. Although they didn't play personal favorites like "Making Fun Of Buns" nor did they play "Starry Eyes", they did play such rare-items like "Map Like Mine" and lyrically-abundant "My Past Lives". It was a great show indeed.

Here's The Village Voice listing of the show.

Too Much Joy as The Good Books as The Its

In Spring of 1998 on a Friday night I was, of all crazy coincidences, bar-hopping with a few friends. Well, after several beers, we decided - on a whim - to end the night in considerable style at a local dive in our neighborhood called Fuzzy's. Fuzzy's is a dumpy biker bar with zero beer selection that we rarely ever went to in our hometown of Bellerose on Long Island, NY - so it was strange that we would choose this night of all nights to go there. We arrived shortly after 12:30 AM and there was still some stray gear in the back of the bar. I asked the bartender who played there that night. He pointed to the flyer posted above. My jaw dropped. I showed the flyer to my friends. Their jaws proceed to drop. Talk about bad luck. Too Much Joy - under their slightly more Power Pop persona The Good Books, later known as The It's - had just played there a few hours before. Ugh! All we could bring ourselves to do was proceed in drinking more beer. What were the chances that TMJ were to play in my small sleepy town a dozen or so miles from Manhattan? Talk about random. They opened for a former-police officer friend of Tommy's whom Tommy had played with in the mid 90's band Artists In Embryo. So it was cop-band night at Fuzzy's but all was left was this poorly-produced flyer.

A few weeks later The Good Books played at CD Warehouse in Huntington on Long Island (now known as CD Island). CD Warehouse (now CD Island) is owned by fellow TMJ fan Doug Mashkow. In fact it was Doug who introduced me to TMJ. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this show either. But, again, here's the flyer.

The Lion's Den, NY, NY November 4, 1993

This is a listing for one of the first TMJ shows I ever attended (I think it was my third). They had only just been dropped by Giant and this show was during the CMJ New Music Festival. It was a great, if brief show. Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller was to my immediate right, pogo-ing up and down the whole night. They performed a speedy cover of Tom Waits' "I Don't Want To Grow Up" (before The Ramones did) and the then-newish "Secret Handshake". I was seventeen and it was a school night.

Set List from Coney Island High, NY, NY 5/30/96

Swiped after a sweaty TMJ set by the ever-resourceful fanboy. In the thick of their 1996 ...finally Tour.