Night Club 101 opened on NYE w/ a surprise MJ Lenderman set & more (pics, video)

Night Club 101, the new venue in the old Pyramid space on Avenue A from the people behind Baby’s All Right in collaboration with Knitting Factory Entertainment, rang in the new year by holding its first show. Their “New Year’s Rocking Eve” was billed as Water From Your Eyes “+all our friends live and DJ (TBA),” and those friends wound up being Voyeur, Amiture, Toast, and MJ Lenderman, who had just made a surprise appearance at Yo La Tengo’s night 5 Hanukkah show at Bowery Ballroom a few nights earlier. Lenderman’s set included covers of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” George Strait’s “Amarillo By Morning,” Neil Young’s “Lotta Love,” and America’s “Sister Golden Hair,” and you can watch video of those, and see pictures from the show by Caroline Safran, below.

Night Club 101 was initially scheduled to open for a “preview” club night with a Pitchfork and AdHoc event on December 19, but that was moved to Paragon because the sound system wasn’t ready in time. Also coming up there are two shows with Los Angeles artist Daryl Johns, who released his self-titled debut album via Mac DeMarco’s Mac’s Recrord Label in November, on January 9 and January 12. Stay tuned for more.

Lenderman, whose 2024 album Manning Fireworks is one of our favorites of the year, will be back in NYC for some bigger shows at Brooklyn Steel on April 28, 29, and 30. Night one is with Joanna Sternberg, night two is with This is Lorelei (whose Nate Amos also played with Lenderman as part of Water From Your Eyes), and night three is with Nap Eyes.