What goes on at one of Andrew W.K.'s parties?

March 5, 2008 4:30 PM

What goes on at one of Andrew W.K.'s parties?

Does he perform solo, or DJ, or something else entirely? There's one of these parties coming up soon at a nearby club, and I'm curious what the heck it is, exactly.

posted by freem to media & arts (9 comments total)

Or, you could be in for some motivational speaking!
posted by pullayup at 4:46 PM on March 5

From andrewwk.com:

"March 15th Party: Due to overwhelming demand, Andrew has added another party in Canada - it's a St. Patty's Day Bash! "

"It will be a St. Patrick's Day to remember, as Andrew W.K. puts on a special solo show celebration in Winnipeg's most legendary punk rock music hall!"

This is what I'm referring to, just so there's no confusion. This is the second time he's been in the city for one of these "parties", so I figured someone out there has to have gone to one of these before.
posted by freem at 4:58 PM on March 5

I don't know about the parties specifically, but he's been playing a lot of solo piano shows lately... he also DJs quite a bit. It's hard to imagine anything involve Andrew that isn't worth going to, though, that guy is like the kindness of Mr. Rogers combined with the rockingness of Metallica. One of the best guys ever.
posted by YoungAmerican at 5:08 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]

It'll be him playing the keyboard solo. He'll probably play some of his classics -- Party Hard, She is Beautiful, We Want Fun -- and he may or may not be singing. I would also assume he will do some classical music with his own experimental-style spin on it. Then some will be flat out experimental improvised piano solos. He'll also do some motivational speaking I'd guess. But more between songs, short little improv speeches. After the show, if he's still like he used to be, he'll stay after and sign anything anyone wants. Basically bend over backwards to please everyone.

I would say it would be fun. Maybe even life changing. His shows usually bring out the best in people, really.

My story:
I was really into Andrew's music for a long time, since before he was signed to Island. I've been to nearly 20 shows (w/ his band). His shows are a great experience, I've never seen a better live show. Afterwards, I've seen him sign things and hang out with fans until 4am before, he stayed until everyone had their fill. I started a file sharing site which was basically all of his bootlegs and all known videos of him that was really popular, I often pushed 200GB a month. He supported it wholeheartedly and sent me much of the content. At some point "fans" got a little too needy and would send me very rude emails when the site was down (bandwidth) and demand it be brought back up -- I paid for it completely and finally got sick of all the work and money I put in and the way around 20 or so persistent emailers/forum posters were. Anyway, after Andrew's second album didn't do very well he started to change some. Not sure why but he wasn't as personable. He started trying to put on weird internet viral marketing (for himself, not really a product). It was fun at first but then it just kept going and going. After a year it wasn't fun anymore and many long time fans were no longer frequenting boards or going to shows. It was like he was playing a practical joke on everyone that didn't have any point. I lost interest.

My handle comes from the name the first fan's dubbed them self Wolf Kult, WK, you get it.
posted by wolfkult at 5:17 PM on March 5

I went to an ASR party he played at a few years back. He was booked as a "DJ" and everyone was all, "WTF, he's a DJ?" We all thought it was because he was playing in a normally low-key jazz club, and figured they wouldn't let a rock band play there. But then his full band showed up with full gear and they rocked out hard. Sweaty balls rock. This was in a jazz club! It was fucking crazy and was a party in every sense of the word. This isn't my gallery, but there are some pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/drewvis/AndrewWK. I have no idea if all of his shows are like this as it was a "private" party, so who knows.
posted by afx114 at 6:08 PM on March 5

I've heard nothing but good things about him and his shows. So whatever it is, it'll probably be at the least an interesting experience and a good story.
posted by ohio at 6:57 PM on March 5

I saw him on Halloween once with Flogging Molly. He lifted 2 people up on his shoulders at the same time. Ask him to pick you up.
posted by baphomet at 9:14 PM on March 5

Thanks for the info, folks. If I end up going, I'll be sure to report back here.
posted by freem at 2:25 PM on March 6

The party was tonight. It was a 45 minute set of Andrew's tunes playing over the PA with Andrew singing along/playing keyboard. He basically tried to get as many people as possible up on stage and dancing. So, fun, but essentially Andrew W.K. karaoke, plus drunk people dancing. After wolfkult's comment, I had high hopes of being able to shake his hand and tell him how much I loved his albums, but he disappeared after his (pretty short-ish) set.

It was a fun time, but it didn't change my life. A friend of mine described it in one word as "silly", and that fits pretty well, but I would never discourage anyone from attending one.
posted by freem at 10:15 PM on March 16