Twenty years ago today, Yeah Yeah Yeahs played their first show. The gig went down at Mercury Lounge in New York, and as the band explains in a note on Facebook today, the bill was pretty stacked:

On this day in the year 2000 we made our debut performance at the Mercury Lounge on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, we celebrate the date as our official birthday so it’s our party we can cry if we want to! We shared the bill that night with local favorites Candy Darlings, Kid Congo Powers, and up and comers from Detroit The White Stripes.

Ten years ago, YYYs returned to the same venue — one they had outgrown by a wide margin — to commemorate a decade together as a band. Maybe they would have done the same today, but nobody’s been playing Mercury Lounge for a good long while now due to the pandemic. Instead, to celebrate the occasion, they’ve shared newly unearthed footage of their performance that night two decades ago. Specifically, the clip captures them playing “Our Time,” which would become the final track on their 2001 debut EP. Here’s more detail on the event:

Special thanks to Dave Burton for getting us our first NY gig! Jack Martin for being our guest guitarist! The bartender who was feeding us way too many margaritas! And to our dear friend Helen Park for documenting it, all 4 songs we played ha! This is OUR TIME, can’t hear shit but what a treasure. Stay tuned more birthday stuff to come!

Where were you when you first heard we existed?? Luv YYYs

Check it out below, and you might as well answer the band’s prompt in the comments section too.

I am intrigued by how much this sounds like Times New Viking, who wouldn’t form until three or four years later. Happy birthday, Yeah Yeah Yeahs!