Modeled after the Rolling Stones’ 1968 happening of the same name, the Rock & Roll Circus takes place tonight (1/3) and tomorrow (1/4) at Lincoln Center. The event, produced under the umbrella of the Big Apple Circus, includes performances from Ariel Pink, Amazing Baby, Japanther, Nick Zinner, etc., along with food trucks and for tomorrow, some full-on circus acts (e.g. “How can we integrate the Mongolian contortionists with Nick Zinner’s group?“). If you have energy left after the holidays, get ticket info at rockandrollcircusparty.com. And, speaking of circuses and Ariel Pink, the man behind Pitchfork’s favorite track of 2010 reportedly turned in a depressing, night killing solo performance at the Inverted Cosmos New Years party, although since the event itself is being tagged “the worst NYE event ever” (aka THANKS FOR A HORRIBLE NEW YEAR, etc.), it might’ve already been broken when Pink reportedly decided folks weren’t paying attention and went into anti-hipster rant mode. Anybody in attendance care to share?
You Might Also Like
 Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – “Witchhunt Suite For WWIII”… |  Ariel Pink & R. Stevie Moore – “Dutch Me” |  Pitchfork Festival 2011: Sunday Recap |  Horrorcore Band Samples Ariel Pink |
 |
 |
The Titus Andronicus/Real Estate show was fun, they had Four Loko and a (belated) countdown and balloon drop.
IM SO HAPPY THIS WAS TOO EXPENSIVE FOR ME
i was at the circus tonight and it was FREE and it was still too expensive for me.
sheeeeeeeeeit.
Sounds like someone’s got the BUSHWICK BLUES? Delta Spirit, anyone?! No? Ok.
event was a total amateur hour clusterf**k.
no nye countdown (organizers didn’t even have a proper watch), security was awful, line outside was a mob, advertised lasers were seriously lacking and the “open bar” (beer and $15 bottles of Andre were all that was available throughout the course of the night) was fictional. also, Ariel Pink can f’realsies s a d. everyone in the crowd shilled out $30 to see him and he started his awful set by mumbling over his cd from behind the dj booth hidden from view. when he finally came out he just stumbled around the stage and cursed the crowd out. in a perfect world everyone would get their money back because there’s no way that event cost more than $5 to string together.
this description is exactly what his album sounds like to me. exact representation.
I would mostly agree…
My ticket cost me $5 more than it should have… and as a ticket holder, I stood on line for about two hours… The happy hour, fortunately for the organizers, only lasted about 30 minutes, and was poorly attended, because 95% of their customers were stuck outside (But I managed to get three free beers).
Pink’s performance was on par, for his solo performances. Unfortunately, I think most people in attendance were expecting a repeat of his recent showing at Webster Hall, perhaps more tracks from ‘Before Today’… Seeing the crowd’s ugly reaction, I bailed before Ferraro and Big Troubles went on… Did they effectively boo them off too?
Title led me to think this was going to be a post about a showdown between Ariel Pink and the dwarf guy from the Geto Boys. That’s a New Year’s show I’d pay to see…
what people are saying is true…
we got there at 8 and had to wait in a line that didn’t move at all for 2 hours, they had one door open and one line for will call and non-ticket holders. after about an hour and a half they took all will call people two another line, which still led into the same narrow door… they finally had the smarts to open this HUGE garage door (WOW! what a concept!) to let will call in. security was CHEAP and they looked scared. they had two guys in a row check ID, then another guy who put an X on your hand then another who put a wrist band on… once you got in you were in, they didn’t allow return entry.
the scene inside OK, they had porta potties and no heat. the open bar was a lie. the crowd was unruly and the majority of them didn’t seem to be there for the music AT ALL.
once the place filled up Autre Ne Veut came on and his set was AWESOME. best of the night IMHO…
(BTW this AMAZING sound system they trumped up suddenly sounded like shit when the live bands went on. the sound system was really loud for the opening DJs… really loud, almost painfully unbearable at some points. also, the laser show and visuals was CRAP)
Outer Limits Recordings came on second and did the best they could, again the crowd just wasn’t paying attention and these guys sounded great, even though you couldn’t hear the vocals… (we were right next to the stage so we heard a little)
after OLR all these stupid ass drink people took the stage while a DJ played, they were very disrespectful, started playing OLR drum set, grabbing the mics screaming “are you ready for ariel fucking pink!?!” — it was embarrassing for Humans everywhere
you could tell right off the bat that ariel was not into it as he started his set from behind the turntables (where Sam Mehran of OLR was spinning various vinyl from AP’s collection) — AP basically did really shitty karaoke over his own music which this god awful effect on his vocals the whole time… it was quite trancey actually
at some point people bum rushed the turntables, almost knocking them over, everyone started throwing bottles and cans at ariel
that’s when ariel threw down the mic after saying “aw fuck it” and walked off the stage
we left immediately after that, apparently right before the cops came
i flew out from Denver to see this and was massively disappointed
i would NEVER recommend a Weird Magic event again
What’s new about this? I love Ariel’s music and artwork (curated some of his work when he was just Ariel Rosenberg), but his performances have always been kind of a mess, as if he were on 12 tabs of LSD and oblivious that there was an audience. At least that’s the way it was the few times I’ve seen him. Making a great track is not the same as making a great rock show. Still love what he does, sounds funny…