We received our smiley-face laden wristbands so that we may gain entry to the Vice 15th Anniversary + Halloween party this past Saturday — but around 11 p.m. that night we were already hearing that the 1994-themed extravaganza was total mayhem, so we took our flannel elsewhere.
The party cost the magazine about $250,000 and was being held in a giant warehouse on North 10th Street in Williamsburg. There were performances from Bad Brains, Jesus Lizard and Titus Andronicus, as well as lots of free Colt 45 and tequila. And a skate ramp, obviously. You aren't just going to throw a party and not have a skate ramp — that would be an amateur move, and we all know Vice is 15 years old now. Some of the quarter million went to less fun things, however, like a company called Tight Security — and that seems to be where things went terribly wrong.
There has been a lot of noise about the way the security treated revelers, and even a Vice employee who claimed to have organized the shindig says she was kicked out (and manhandled) by midnight. For a real, detailed rant you'll have to read this post from Titus Andronicus's Patrick, who ends his ode to the evening by saying, "Tight Security Inc is raking in the big dollars by pointing fallen high school football superstars in the direction of easy targets. We are being choked and beaten and sexually assaulted, and all the while, my peers dance and snort cheap coke and photograph each other for the hundreth time. I scoff at it all now from atop my high horse, but I was there too, because I am poor and when people want to give me money to play my guitar, I can't ever say no. Kids, we are blowing it. Everything they say about us is true." Is death rattle the new glockenspiel? One commenter agreed, "Fuck this shit, I'm as big a hipster douchebag as the next gal, but I'm getting fucking sick of this shit."
We're waiting to hear back from Vice about whether or not they'll be suing the security company.
