In the late 1980s and early 1990s New Yorks Nightingales Bar served as an incubator for countless second generation jambands, including Blues Traveler, the Spin Doctors, God Street Wine, The Authority, Jono Manson, The Other Half, Xanax25, the Dreier Bros., First House and Choosy Mothers. moe. once opened for The Authority at the club and God Street Wine even immortalized the bar with the song Nightingale off their 1994 Geffen album, $1.99 Romances.
Though the club has long since aged into a swanky East Village watering whole, the room still occasionally hosts live music and, last night, a number of former Nightingales denizens hosted a pre-Christmas reunion at the space. Several musicians were also on hand and took the stage at various points throughout the night, including Chris Barron (Spin Doctors), Cosmos Sunshine (Cherokee Sex Workshop) and Jaik Miller (Xanax25), the latter of whom led an ad hoc group through favorites like Neil Youngs Cortez the Killer and Janes Addictions Janes Says (For his part, Barron offered Gorilla Boy, a tune the Spin Doctors played regularly in the Nightingale days and later abandoned, but which the singer has recently revived with his solo band the Time Bandits). A number of other familiar faces were also in the house, including The Authoritys Dave Masucci, photographer Steve Eichner and countless others who once helped make the room more than an average bar.