Brooklyn’s Beloved Saint Vitus Bar Needs Your Help
Yesterday marked the ninth anniversary of the opening of Brooklyn’s own Saint Vitus Bar. In that relatively short amount of time, Saint Vitus has become the premiere heavy metal hang spot in New York City, and hosted unforgettable shows by pretty much any band you can think of. The back room, where concerts are hosted, only holds 250 people, which has lead to some truly historic, gloriously intimate performances. This blogger alone — who isn’t even much of a social animal! — has seen acts like Gojira, Killswitch Engage, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Pig Destroyer, Municipal Waste, Kvelertak, Gatecreeper, and Wormrot tear the place up with once-in-a-lifetime concerts (and that’s just off the top of my head). In 2014, the surviving members of Nirvana played with a host of all-star stand-ins for Kurt Cobain, including Joan Jett, Kim Gordon, and St. Vincent. MetalSucks was lucky enough to have our tenth anniversary show there back in 2017. And that’s to say nothing of the countless local and underground bands that have played Saint Vitus over the years, or Two Minutes to Late Night, the truly unique heavy metal talk show filmed there, or any number of other special events I’m forgetting right now.
The point is, Saint Vitus is a really, really special place. And like a lot of bars and music venues, its inability to open its doors right now is really hurting it.
To that end, today Saint Vitus has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money so that it doesn’t become yet another victim of COVID-19. According to an official press release…
“The Brooklyn mainstay and renowned metal venue has reached out to their large community to secure some pretty amazing rewards for contributors, including limited edition merch, stickers, access to livestreams, and tickets. Also, on Tuesdays and Fridays they are rolling out unique rewards that will include everything from video music lessons from some of your favorite musicians to signed memorabilia from Vitus shows, photos, posters, and even a musical score for your favorite cute animal video from a bonafide NYC metal legend!”
You can learn more and donate here. Current rewards include limited edition merch, free live streams of future shows, and “golden tickets” that allow you entry to any gig even if it’s already sold out. More will presumably be added soon; be sure to follow #vituskickstarter to make sure you don’t miss an update!!! (Of course, you can also just donate out of the goodness of your heart.)
