East Village resident Laurie Olinder created these for the bar's interior... she recalled painting every wall inside the place in a course of a few days...
If you're on Facebook, then you can see more ephemeral on the King Tut's Wah Wah Hut group page right here ... such as photos of the front entrance at Seventh Street and Avenue A...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Blue Man Group and King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
There used to be interesting musical events there - I saw Elliott Sharp leading an amazing funk band once - thats history. The kids don't care about music anymore, they have their cell phones.
ReplyDeleteCool!
ReplyDeleteLove its look inside and out! How come things look so polished and same-same now?
ReplyDeleteWhen Avenue A was still interesting and relevant.
ReplyDelete"The kids don't care about music anymore, they have their cell phones"
ReplyDeleteI never saw any music at King Tut's but I do remember going there a bunch of times. In fact I probably *don't* remember going there a few times as well.
As far as kids and music these days, I find it quite amazing that there's less of a scene if any amongst 20-somethings. Music had always been central to the younger generations especially in the post war days and New York City always had something to offer the rest of the world. Any real serious commitment to music seems to have fizzled at the end of the 90s. In fact the days of any kind of creative movement coming out of New York are now a thing of the past. 30-40 years from now no one will be revisiting the history of the great art and creative scenes in New York of the 2000s and 2010s. What they will be talking about though will be reduced to a few small words: 'real estate' and 'redevelopment'. How droll and boring.
The owners was a former NYPD guy. He also owned the Aztec Lounge on 9th street, which I frequented many times to see my good buddy Richie. Also to hung out with John Spacely a few times. as far as kids today, they more interested in what restaurant to go to than music!
ReplyDeleteOh man, Spacely - I miss his mural on St. Mark's Place, still look up for it sometimes just out of habit.
ReplyDeleteLaurie Olinder is one of the greatest!!!
ReplyDeleteI miss this place more than anything else in the EV.
ReplyDeleteSaw Wendy Wild's oompa-oompa polka band, Das Furlines, here a few times. Wendy used to do coat check at Pyramid and was John Sex's girlfriend. She passed away in 1996.
I also saw Ethyl Eichelberger do a very madcap performance with an accordion here on New Year's Eve 1987.
Brian Butterick aka Hattie Hathaway hosted a reading series here in '88 or '89. The most memorable ones were Suhkreet (sp?) Gable and Ultra Violet from the Warhol Factory.
It was also fun to come here for a drink during the day. Or we would begin our night here with drinks before going over to Pyramid for shows and dancing. The Wah Wah Hut was always great!
Is that Sal's pizza I see next to the bar? Man that place was awesome when it was there but really went down hill when it moved across the street a few years ago.
ReplyDeletethe original owners when all that stuff was happening were cafe orlin flotsam... 2 ex-waitstaff and the 2 cafe owners. Don't know anything about that exterior though.. that might be from the folks who took it over and screwed it up.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember the attractive hermaphrodite who was the front door person at Coney Island High? What ever happened to her/him?
ReplyDelete@nygrump - "The kids don't care about music anymore, they have their cell phones."
ReplyDeleteAu contraire, monsieur Grump!
My teenage girls are all OVER the music scene -- it just might be a music scene of which we older-somethings are just not aware.
And yeah, their cell phones never leave their hands but often that is because they are LISTENING TO MUSIC! YAY!
I gave them liberal usage of the iTunes password and in exchange I see my own library filling up with artists I might never have heard of before now.
Vampire Weekend and Arctic Monkeys go without saying but what about their affection for:
Grimes
Crystal Castles
Sleigh Bells
Alabama Shakes
The Shins
The White Stripes
The Black Keys
Best Coast
Hot Chip
The XX
Palma Violets
Swim Deep
And the list goes on and on. Also sprinkled amongst their purchases are a great respect for "old timers" such as:
The Beatles
Velvet Underground
Joy Division
Bowie
Queen
The Clash
Blondie
The Runaways
Weezer
Radiohead
Not to mention our home-town favorites, THE STROKES!
etc etc etc.
Don't despair - the youth are ROCKING OUT!
I lived above that bar in 1996-1997. What I remember most was the pool table thanks to the crack of the balls that kept me awake at night.
ReplyDeleteI loved this place so much. Watched some of the Thompson Sq. Riot get started on that fateful night, right outside the window. Saw every major artist of the time there and the music and atmosphere was pure bliss. Long live the "Hut". Great memories.
ReplyDelete