7 Reasons To Go To Magic Monday

Back in October, we published an article about a then young Lower East Side weekday phenomenon known as Magic Monday. The Monday night festivities, held at St Jerome’s on Rivington, and brought to life by an exciting group of people, from bar regulars to DJs to singers and dancers, have grown from intimate to out of control in a very short amount of time. After spending about nine more months frequenting Magic Mondays, I’ve realized that there’s much, much more to talk about. So here it is, 7 Reasons To Go To Magic Monday, an article where I will name-drop my best friends and brag about my favorite local dive bar.

1. Breedlove

The first thing you need to know is this: “Magic Monday” is, at its core, a long-term weekly residency for New York City singer-songwriter Breedlove to “sing karaoke to his own songs”, as he calls it. Magic Monday exists for and because of him.

If you don’t know Breedlove, he is the guy with the big “HIPSTER” stamp across his picture on the front-page of Cracked.com, but he also writes delightful pop songs about love, New York, beer, loneliness, and a certain blonde rock-star ex-wife that shall remain nameless. Breed is the whole package: an endearing self-deprecating sense of humor, tracks produced by remix master and St Jerome’s semi-regular, Chew Fu, a wide variety of colorful and humorous sweatshirt/sweat-pant outfits (one even lights up), and the ability to perform on point while pushing through crowds of sweaty, dancing drunks while they scream and throw beers at each other.

If there would be any reason at all to visit St Jerome’s for Magic Monday, make it for Breedlove.

2. St Jerome’s Is The Best Damn Bar On The Planet

In what other bar will the patrons, bartenders, DJs, and performers all throw a going-away party (complete with Pizza, home made cake, and gifts) for a regular who is moving out of state? It’s like Cheers… but more rock n’ roll.

For us, those who pledge our loyalty to our friends at Magic Monday, and vow to pretty much never do anything else on a Monday night for fear of missing out on the crazy, St Jerome’s is essentially our second home. You’ll run into most of us from Sound System, tons of cool musicians (including a near permanent fixture on the place, our own Dirty Pearls), Rich, the best doorguy ever to work in New York City, and all of our favorite Lower East Side friends. Under the disco ball hanging in the window, you’ll find the place where everyone knows your name. Get wasted and dance on the stage, no one will remember tomorrow anyway. Just don’t take your shoes off in there. I did that once… sticky.

We even love Magic Monday enough that we pretend “Monday at Midnight” isn’t actually Tuesday…

3. Great Music, Great DJ’s

This one is pretty simple. Come as you are, rock n’ roll fans of all shapes and styles, because there’s something for everyone. Throw on your leather jackets and get down with the Heartbreakers’ “Pirate Love” or The Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, rip the sleeves off of your old Dead Boys t-shirt and rock out to punk anthem “Sonic Reducer”, get your “Teenage Kicks” (21+, of course), or have some “Sympathy For The Devil”. Whatever, enough with the puns, St Jerome’s has the best DJ’s, and that’s that. Go from “Twist and Shout” and “Rollover Beethoven”, to “Cherry Bomb” and “Personality Crisis”, to “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”, all within the hour.

Get into it.

4. B-Movies and Concert DVDs

Personally, one of my favorite things about St. Jerome’s and Magic Mondays are the obscure films and rock documentaries shown up on the screen. See, St Jerome’s is pretty much the size of my bedroom, but next to the bar, there’s a big white screen where bizarre cult films are silently projected. It seems like the bar has an endless collection of everything from concert documentaries (Ladies & Gentlemen The Rolling Stones, Sympathy For The Devil 1968, Ziggy Stardust: The Motion Picture) to goofy Rock N’ Roll High School style B-movies starring famous rock stars (Get Crazy with Lou Reed and Malcolm McDowell), to campy (but also creepy) 60s horror flicks that you’d find in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. There’s also one that Breedlove digs for obvious reasons, a ridiculously 80’s Magician special.

5. Cheap Drinks

$2 Buds before midnight. What’s not to love? Find a deal better than that in New York City! You won’t. Have fun paying the cost of 4 subway rides for your warm beer at a hip café on Ludlow Street while you’re judged by patrons with gender-ambiguous haircuts, owl tattoos, and “ironically ugly” American Apparel get-ups.

Also, there’s a terrifying “Champagne In a Can” deal, which comes also with a shot of vodka, all for $10. I don’t know whom that deal is for, or why it exists, but I salute you.

6. The Official “Best Bartender in New York City”

It’s true. And make sure you give Dustan a big fat tip for all of those generously poured shots of Jameson.

7. Interesting, Drunk, And Sexy People

Have you ever seen an Albanian girl chase a double shot of Tequila with Champagne? Have you ever seen bar patrons participating in choreographed dance moves based around pink bejeweled hand mirrors? Have you ever seen two women get in a full-blown physical fight after one was called out for wearing a shirt from Forever 21? Have you ever seen a fully tattooed punk kid crowd surf in a dive bar to live pop music from a guy with a in rhinestone sweater?

Mondays at Midnight, you know where to be. St. Jerome’s on the Lower East Side, 155 Rivington Street between Clinton and Suffolk. Think you have what it takes to make it through a Magic Monday? If this list doesn’t persuade you to come check it out or at least make you a little bit jealous that you don’t live in New York, you’re dead inside and don’t like fun and hate freedom.