Introducing The Night List, our new weekly planner of the best parties happening around the city. This week, A Beyoncé Baby Shower, a Freaks and Geeks marathon, a Goth Drag party at The Beaver, and more.
More Shit People Say, the dance party edition
With The Secret Models. Friday, January 13 at The Ossington, 61 Ossington Ave. ( #OSS) Free. 10 p.m.
This “Shit __ Say” is getting too viral and too silly for its own good. Basically, we all say dumb/funny/endearing/annoying/racist/(insert choice word here) shit. Okay? Still, The Secret Models are back to begin their 2012 residency with their own installment of the meme that won’t die—dance party styles. It’s okay to dig these girls, if only because they always bring out the boys. But please, stop requesting “N*ggas in Paris.” If you ask nicely, and enough, they’ll probably play stuff like “212” by Azealia Banks, the unsigned Harlem dance-rapper that needs to go viral instead. (Any day now.)
A Beyoncé Baby Shower
With DJ Alessandro. Saturday, January 14 at WAYLA, 996 Queen St. E. (#LES) $5 at the door. 10 p.m.
Doesn’t it feel like Beyoncé—who gave birth last week (erm, the natural way) to Blue Ivy Carter—was pregnant forever? Jay Z rapped about it on “Glory,” a track he released with Pharrell the day after, and now it’s your turn to throw down. Since B’s baby shower wasn’t splashed on the pages of US Weekly or anything, and people often complain about the lack of east end recognition, Queen East’s WAYLA Bar and DJ Alessandro—spinning “classics” from the R&B dynasty—implore you to dance in celebration of the child of destiny.
The Beaver goes Goth Drag
Saturday, January 14 at The Beaver, 1192 Queen St. W. (#WQW) $5 at the door. 10 p.m.
The first Goth Drag party hit The Beaver in January of last year. Since then, it’s become a regular favourite for new wave/industrial “dark dance” lovers—and a place to spot some of the best outfits that don’t consist of Hollister t-shirts or chinos and button-ups. It’s full of eccentrics, the type of people who would laugh in the face of pretty much every “hyper-masculine”-slash-“macho” menswear blogger in this recent, utterly irritating, New York Times style piece. Not your thing? To the west, Bitch Craft (a.k.a girls playin’ hip-hop) means you’ll hear—and dance to—“LOUD RAP MUSIC” in The Shop @ Parts & Labour.
Honourable mention: There’s a Spice Girls Tribute band—with a live band and choreography and everything—playing at El Mocambo. Tickets are $15 in advance at Soundscapes, and $17 at the door. Why yes, yes you should go.
Freaks and Geeks lives on, so watch it with strangers
Monday, January 16 at The Ossington, 61 Ossington Ave. (#OSS) Free. 7:30 p.m.
This is probably the only time I’d recommend going to The Ossington twice in one week. How could anyone not like Judd Apatow’s small screen flat-liner Freaks and Geeks, the 2000s dramedy about being an awkward punk teenager? Look back on your own experiences with now-famous James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Phillips et al.—and any other randoms who show up. Make a night of it. Three episodes are screening: “Pilot,” “Tests and Breasts,” and “We’ve Got Spirit.”
Descant launch, to cure the winter blues
Tuesday, January 17 at the Trane Studio, 964 Bathurst St. (#ANX) Free. 6:30 p.m.
We don’t support indie press enough. Period. Descant, the quarterly literary gem that’s been turning out works and words from talented young minds since 1970, is celebrating the launch of issue 155, titled “A Winter Reader.” If you’ve ever wanted to see what an “industry” party is like, this is your best bet because, well, it’s not a damn industry party. Expect: real talk about poetry and prose. Don’t expect: the place to be packed with air kisses. Readings by Angel Beyde, Ricardo Sternberg and Rosemary Sullivan. Cash bar, plein d’hors d’oeuvres, and a raffle.
