SHAPES & Jangula Played Shea Stadium

Once a month the band SHAPES throws a party called Personality Crisis at Shea Stadium, which is a DIY venue hidden away in the Williamsburg Industrial Park. Fanelli, who is the singer for SHAPES and the promoter of the party, invited us to out. We love SHAPES and I've been wanting to see Jangula (also on the bill) so we made a point to stop by. Plus Fanelli cooked up a batch of homemade Four Loko and there was no way I was missing out on that (Fanelli's Four Loko recipe coming soon to BSC).

Shea Stadium is in my neighborhood so we all met up at Lady Jay's, the best bar in Brooklyn, for a few drinks before the show. After a couple of cans we hiked up Grand and through the desolate blocks of the industrial park to Shea.

When we got to the show some band called Night Eyes (I think) were about to go on. We went over to the home brew table and Fanelli hooked us up with a sample. It wasn't so bad but I'm pretty sure it was at least semi-poisonous, I guess all booze is to some extent. Night Eyes got started while I was sippin' on my bathtub Loko. They played some sort of dark techno synth music. Not my cup of tea but the kids were dancing around like crazy so hey, that's cool.

Did I mention the kids? Personality Crisis brings in an extremely young crowd. If you're over 25 they probably think you're a
NARC or a drug dealer. That said, they're still in that pre-jaded stage of life and lose their shit when the bands play. As an old DIY punk show dude, it's refreshing to see young kids dancing around and jumping off of shit.

Next up was a filler band who played just to kill some time since one of the bands cancelled. They played a few 70's punk rock classics and called it a night after 15 minutes or so. I was outside for most of their set trying to escape the cloud of cigarette smoke inside. Air!

Jangula took the stage and I took a deep breath of crisp, cool industrial park air and headed back inside. The crowd seemed to have doubled since I went outside. Where did all these fuckers come from?

I've been waiting to see Jangula since August. Their recordings led me to believe that they would either be crazy party music or kinda mellow and boring live. Luckily it turns out they're god damn amazing live! How are all you hip blogger people not all over this band?

Within 30 seconds of Jangula's first set it was obvious things were going to get crazy. The crowd started out bopping up and down and after about three songs it was a full on riot - the fun kind. Kids were stage diving and crowd surfing and just getting crazy. It was one of my favorite sets I've seen in awhile and I can't wait to see Jangula again. Oh and have you ever seen the movie The Sasquatch Gang? Well, the singer of Jangula looks just like Justin Long's character in it and that's totally awesome.

After Jangula, the party masters themselves, SHAPES, took the stage. The first couple of songs were slightly marred by technical difficulties but once they got the sound sorted out it was a killer punk show. Even during the first couple of songs when the sound was screwy it had no effect on the reaction from the crowd. The kids were dancing, stage-diving and crowd surfing the whole set. Fanelli got in on the action at one point and jumped off the stage into the crowd.

Personality Crisis is one of the best montly parties in NYC and really captures what the DIY scene is all about. The next one is going to be the 2-year anniversary so make sure to attend. But to recap: Jangula & SHAPES killed it, as they always do, and we all had a hell of a good time but maybe I shouldn't have went back for seconds on the mock Loko.

Sorry for the shitty video, I forgot my camera and had to iPhone it.

SHAPES

Jangula