TDA ushers in a new era at Night Club 101

Photos and interview by Stacie Joy 

Hours before the city’s first significant snowfall in years, TDA (aka Total Display of Affection) took the stage at Night Club 101 on Avenue A on Saturday, Jan. 24 — loud, hypnotic and very much reborn. 

The local band, which began as a trio and built a following with EV shows in Tompkins Square Park, Berlin, and Baker Falls, has entered a new phase: a new name, a new lineup and a shift toward heavier, more ritualistic soundscapes. 

We caught up with bandleader Julia Pierce (below), a onetime East Village resident, after the show to talk about the evolution of TDA, the meaning behind the name change and what comes next.

About the new band name: 

We're introducing a new era of the band under the name Total Display of Affection — a clean slate and a shift toward hypnotic, groove-driven drone rock. It's about embracing intoxicating rhythms and a fresh sonic palette while still acknowledging where we came from. 

Even when we were billed as "Tits Dick Ass," we were technically always "TDA" first, which allowed the meaning to evolve. Right now, Total Display of Affection feels like a maturation — a collective approach to writing, recording and performing that lets the project grow without being trapped by the past. The name can keep shifting as we do.

On why the original name mattered: 

The old name was abrasive on purpose. Punk thrives on confrontation, and we wanted to mirror discomfort back at the audience the way our music did. But it also came from something more personal. 

Conversations around trans people are often reduced to body parts. We are so much more than that. We have souls, thoughts and love to share, yet society politicizes our bodies and overlooks our humanity. The name acted like a mirror reflecting that tension. Using our platform to spark that conversation mattered to me. 

Over time, I noticed people became desensitized to it, which I see as progress. It opened space for other artists to take risks with language. There's something profound in the profane, and that contradiction perfectly captured what we were trying to say. 

On the new TDA: 

Previously, the band leaned into fast, abrasive punk — big noise, speed, and turbulence. We made that statement already. Now I’m drawn toward something slower, heavier, and more spiritual. It feels ritualistic, hypnotic and intentional. 

We’re building on no-wave roots while bridging psych traditions: Public Image Ltd., Lydia Lunch, Sonic Youth, Psychic TV, Rowland S. Howard, Spacemen 3. We’re exploring Eastern guitar scales, alternate tuni,ngs and the mystical side of sound. It’s still noisy, but the noise has shape. 

Is having a punk band still considered punk? Once you reach that status, how long can you maintain it before it feels redundant? I believe we made our statement in that era. Now I find myself in a different phase of life. Expressing existential frustrations through music feels lower frequency compared to the direction TDA is pursuing — something more spiritual and ritualistic, blending musicality and mysticism.

Rather than let the project fade away, I want TDA to reclaim its status as a New York institution while advancing my musical career as a guitarist. I’m trying to break free from tradition while still honoring it. Turns out we're not The Ramones — sorry. There’s still so much space for us to grow as a band. 

On the new lineup: 

The original members moved on to other projects after we were named New York’s Hardest Working Band by Oh My Rockness in 2023. We tried recreating that version, but I learned that replicating the past can stifle creativity. Now we’re embracing a new chapter — and we love Bob Bert. [The veteran drummer has played in Pussy Galore, Sonic Youth and the Chrome Cranks, among others.] We're recording our debut EP, Snake Pit, in Hoboken in the same building that once housed Sonic Youth's Echo Canyon West, where Yo La Tengo still works and where Bob has been a fixture since 1981. 

Mark C. from Live Skull will be engineering the recording session at Deep Sea Studios. We plan to release the EP (tentatively) through Boycott Sleep [an artist-led collective creating spaces for live music outside the existing venues], making it our first official project and debuting as a New York label! 

Jesse Sattler on bass...

DethRok on theremin and shaker...

Bob Bert on drums...

On the past year and what's ahead: 

I spent a year traveling with just a suitcase and a guitar — Australia, Bali, Mexico City, Los Angeles — playing almost every day and making occasional trips back to NYC, which I've called home for more than a decade. That distance helped me imagine a more sustainable direction for the band. 

As we move into 2026, I'm focused less on identity politics and more on musicianship. This phase is about growth, discipline and building something that can last.

Follow TDA on Instagram here.

Bands we like: Homade

Photos and interview by Stacie Joy 

We finally caught Homade live last month, catching an early set at the Mercury Lounge on Dec. 17 — and it was well worth the wait.

We've featured the band here before in our weekly Friday at 5 video posts this past year ... "New Girl" and "Blue Fish." 

However, seeing them in person added another layer. Their sound leans punky alt-rock with a strong quiet-loud dynamic (especially on "New Girl"). 

Homade is made up of Lola Daehler (lead vocals, bass)...

Maya Ruth (guitar, vocals)...

Suzie Ciftcikal (guitar)

... and Addie Vogt (drums) ...

While only Daehler currently lives in the East Village, the neighborhood remains central to the band's story. 

Before the show, Daehler talked about rehearsing at 6/8 Studios on Second Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Streets. 

"We started playing at Mr. Barnes' studio, down the blue staircase," she said. "It was exciting because Sonic Youth used to play there. We played in the Sonic Youth Room always! You may get electrocuted, but it's totally worth it. And Mr. Barnes is the best."

The band has been rehearsing there since its early days and even filmed the "New Girl" video there. 

"Anytime we're in the East Village playing, it's at Mr. Barnes'. So shout out, Mr. Barnes — 6/8 Studios!"

Homade says new music is on the way in 2026 — an EP for sure, and possibly an LP — with a noticeable shift in direction. 

"We're heading in a much shoegazier direction," Daehler said. "Out of alt-rock and into doomy shoegaze." 

Based on this set, that evolution sounds like one to keep an ear on.

Keep tabs on the band via Instagram.

Signage alert: Kalsang Pottery on 10th Street

Signage is up for Kalsang Pottery at 241 E. 10th Street on the NW corner of First Avenue.

This will be the first retail outlet for Kalsang Pottery, which has been selling its wares at various city markets for the past few years. 

Here's more about the owner, Kalsang Chomphel, who runs the business with his wife Tenzin Tseyang: 

I am a Tibetan Potter/Ceramicist based in Woodside, New York City. Having worked for many years as a jewelry maker for high-end jewelry brands in New York City, I finally found my calling in making and designing pottery. Kalsang Pottery products are all hand-thrown at potter's wheel and crafted in New York City in my small Woodside home studio. 

I make high-quality functional art pieces that can be used for everyday gastronomic pleasures and decorative home decor items that are visually pleasing and artfully therapeutic. 

He explains more about the evolution of Kalsang Pottery in this Instagram post...

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by རྫ་བཟོའི་ལག་རྩལ། Artisan craft (@kalsangpottery)

The retail space was previously HeadQuarters, a smoke shop that sold things like magic mushroom candy bars.

Hello Mary headlines Bowery Ballroom

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

This past Thursday, local trio Hello Mary headlined the Bowery Ballroom for the first time in support of their recently released second full-length album, Emita Ox. 

We've enjoyed watching the band's evolution, from almost-shows in Tompkins Square Park to Nublu ... and Webster Hall and now Bowery Ballroom. Following openers Bleary Eyed and Starcleaner Reunion, the hour-long set spotlighted Hello Mary's take on '90s alt-rock, blending raw energy with emotional intensity.

We caught up with the band before the show backstage — (from left) drummer/vocalist Stella Wave, Guitarist/vocalist Helena Straight and bassist Mikaela Oppenheimer ...

Backstage is calm and relaxed, with an air of happiness and playfulness. The trio, energized by the presence of friends, family, and even a few parents in the audience, laugh and joke together. Before stepping on stage, they run through a warm-up song and vocal exercises, finishing with a lively dance to stretch, loosen up, and keep the mood light.

Hello Mary has been on a U.S. tour, their first time as a headliner.

Said Wave, "We've never headlined a full U.S. tour before, so it feels very exciting — especially to play in our hometown and headline a venue like Bowery Ballroom, where we've attended so many shows."

Keep tabs on the band via Instagram.

Celebrating the life and work of longtime East Village artist Anton van Dalen

Anton van Dalen with his pigeons from the documentary "Anton: Circling Home." 

 Photo by Anthony Lindsey. 

Longtime East Village-based artist Anton van Dalen died in his home on June 25. He was 86.

P·P·O·W, the gallery that represented him over the years, is hosting a celebration of his life and work this Saturday afternoon from 2-4 at the SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St., between Eighth Avenue and Ninth Avenue.

Organizers encourage folks to RSVP, which you can do via this link. 

As P·P·O·W stated: 

Immigrant, humanist, artist, activist, educator, and lifelong pigeon keeper, Anton van Dalen dedicated his life to documenting the Lower East Side's evolution from dilapidation to gentrification in paintings, drawings and sculptures that, as the critic and poet John Yau states, "arose out of a meticulous draftsmanship in service of an idiosyncratic imagination merged with civic-mindedness."

RIP Anton van Dalen

Photo by Anthony Lindsey from the documentary, "Anton: Circling Home"

Longtime East Village-based artist Anton van Dalen passed away in his home on June 25. He was 86.

P·P·O·W, the gallery that had represented him over the years, announced that he died of natural causes in his sleep. 

Some background on his life and work:

Van Dalen was born in Amstelveen, Holland, in 1938 to a conservative Calvinist family during World War II. He began rearing pigeons at 12, seeking solace in the companionship of a community outside the instability around him. 

Enraptured by the magic of their flight, van Dalen saw his own migration journey, from Holland to Canada and ultimately to the United States, reflected in the migratory nature of the birds.

After arriving in New York's Lower East Side in 1966, before ultimately settling in the East Village, van Dalen served as witness, storyteller, and documentarian of the dramatic cultural shifts in the neighborhood.

While active in the alternative art scene in the East Village during the 1980s, van Dalen began his career as a graphic designer. Working as a studio assistant to Saul Steinberg for over 30 years, van Dalen learned the stylization and design aesthetics that would ultimately ground the visual language he used to discuss the culture around him.

Van Dalen became known for his Night Street Drawings (1975–77), a monochrome series of graphite drawings documenting the surrounding Lower East Side with tenderness and empathy, including vignettes of car wrecks, sex workers, crumbling buildings, and more.

As poet and critic John Yau wrote, all of van Dalen's work arose "out of a meticulous draftsmanship in service of an idiosyncratic imagination merged with civic-mindedness."

Van Dalen lived at 166 Avenue A — the PEACE house — between 10th Street and 11th Street since 1971. He documented the changes there in this post for EVG. 

His flock of snow-white pigeons from his rooftop loft were a common site in the nearby skies. (Photo from 2015 by Grant Shaffer.)

We had the great pleasure of meeting van Dalen several times, first over a dinner at Odessa. We appreciated his kind, thoughtful manner and deep affinity for the East Village. He shared several dispatches with us over the years (see the end of this post for a selection). 

Van Dalen was especially upset about the 2013 demolition of the Mary Help of Christians church, school, and rectory on Avenue A between 11th Street and 12th Street, which made way for the block-long Steiner East Village condoplex. 

He shared this photo and sketch for a post in August 2013.

The  neighborhood's transformation was a common theme in his work, as seen in his one-man performance piece "Avenue A Cutout Theatre," which featured "a portable model of his house, which he uses as a staging ground for telling the story of the evolution of the East Village."

He first performed the Avenue A Cut-Out Theatre in 1995 at the University Settlement House on the Lower East Side. The performance has been shown at numerous institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and The New York Historical Society. 

As he wrote in a post for EVG in October 2020: 

I consider myself a documentarian of the East Village, yet I am a participant and spectator to its evolution. Began documenting my street surroundings in 1975, urged on by wanting to note and remember these lives. Came to realize I had to embrace wholeheartedly, with pencil in hand, my streets with its raw emotions.

Van Dalen is survived by his older brother, Leen van Dalen; his two children, Marinda and Jason; their spouses, René van Haaften and Ali Villagra; and three grandchildren, Cleo, Aster, and Diego.

P·P·O·W said that memorial service announcements will be forthcoming.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• One East Village family's protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine 

• Documenting 166 Avenue A through the years

• Anton van Dalen, drawing in isolation

• Anton van Dalen's Avenue A Cut-Out Theatre 

• Down On Avenue A, 1922 

 • On St. Mark's Place, 'this parable of neglect' 

• Anton van Dalen's pigeons, connecting us back to nature above Avenue A 

• The 'senseless shocking self-destruction' of Mary Help of Christians

A Luscious new market option on 2nd Avenue

Top photo by Stacie Joy

Luscious Market Deli has debuted at 68 Second Ave. on the SE corner of Fourth Street.

Signage for the market promises freshly prepared items for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

EVG reader Danimal, who shared the following two photos, offered a quick assessment: "It looks like a nice selection of hot food and pantry staples and NOT A SMOKE SHOP!" (Ed note: Woo.)

As we noted on Feb. 28, this arrival marks the end of the storefront's usage as a bar, often without success.

In 2021, the English-style pub Queen Vic became just Queen ... before evolving into Watering Hole. The for-rent sign showed up in September 2022. 

Queen Vic had a decent run, opening in September 2010. This ended the revolving door of bars here with awnings, including 2x4, Ambiance and Evolution. 

We don't know the etymology behind Luscious, a name not often associated with Boar's Head sandwiches. Maybe it's an homage to Luscious Jackson, whose members lived in the East Village back in the day.

The NYPL's archive of the legendary East Village Eye now available to the public

Images from the NYPL

The New York Public Library's extensive archive of the East Village Eye is now processed and available to researchers. 

In February 2023, the NYPL acquired the East Village Eye archive from founder and editor Leonard Abrams. The collection consists of documents, manuscripts, artworks, videos, ephemera, and a complete run of the original printed publication (72 issues in total), which was published from 1979 to 1987 and covered the neighborhood's arts, politics, and social currents during a transformative decade. 

The collection also documents the daily workings of a small publication – advertising, correspondence, datebooks, financial records, and more. Contributors included resident advice columnist Cookie Mueller, Richard Hell, and David Wojnarowicz, and the newspaper featured images from dozens of acclaimed photographers early in their careers.

"The Library's acquisition of the East Village Eye archive is the perfect outcome of our years-long search for the best home for these materials," Abrams said upon the purchase last year. 

"We are looking forward to seeing the creative ways that the collection will be used by scholars, students, educators, artists, activists, and anyone passionate about the history and culture of downtown New York City,"  said Julie Golia, associate director, manuscripts, archives, and rare books and Charles J. Liebman curator of manuscripts, in a statement.

Highlights of the collection include: 

• A full print run of all 72 issues of the East Village Eye in pristine condition (no other public institution possesses a complete print run of the periodical)
• Extensive administrative records and founding business documents for the magazine, including correspondence with staff, contributors, advertisers, and readers throughout the Eye's eight-year run
• Abrams' handwritten pocket planners showing his relationship with artists, musicians, businesses, and writers across the neighborhood and beyond
• Promotional materials created by the Eye, including maps and guides of the East Village and invitations and flyers for Eye-affiliated parties, openings, and events
• A collection of photography of the downtown scene by a roster of acclaimed photographers employed or engaged by the Eye, including Marcia Resnick, Eric Kroll, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, and others
• Candid and behind-the-scenes snapshots of Abrams and the Eye staff and contributors at work and as participants in the neighborhood's vibrant nightlife

Per the NYPL: "The records of the Eye will be essential to researchers studying the evolution of the punk movement, the growth of hip-hop, the rise of HIV/AIDS, and the early careers of artists like Basquiat, Mapplethorpe and Fab Five Freddy."

Researchers can access the East Village Eye records in the Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room for Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 476 Fifth Ave. at 42nd St. (Find more info here.)

You can learn more about the East Village Eye records from the collection guide and this blog post by the NYPL's Golia.

Sadly, Abrams (above left with Fab Five Freddy) died suddenly last April, only a few months after the collection came to the NYPL. He was 68. 

The NYPL "is proud to provide access to the archive that represents Abrams' important cultural and journalistic legacy."

Previously on EVG:

• Q-and-A with Leonard Abrams, publisher of the East Village Eye

Deli marks the end of the revolving door of bars on the corner of 4th Street and 2nd Avenue

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

The long-vacant bar space on the SE corner of Second Avenue and Fourth Street is undergoing a gut renovation.

A worker at the scene told us that a deli-market is in the works for the storefront (an actual deli-market and not a smoke shop)...

The worker did not know about an opening date.

In 2021, the English-style pub Queen Vic became just Queen ... before evolving into Watering Hole. The for-rent sign showed up in September 2022. 

Queen Vic had a decent run, opening in September 2010,  which ended the revolving door of bars here with awnings, including 2x4, Ambiance and Evolution.

More about the return of Bereket to the Lower East Side

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Yesterday we had the scoop about the opening of Ankara Turkish Restaurant on Houston and Orchard ... from the owner of longtime LES favorite Bereket Turkish Kebab House.

After 19 years in service, Bereket was forced to close in June 2014 to make way for the new luxury condo via Ben Shaoul on the block. The property housed a single row of storefronts, including Bereket, Ray's Pizza and Lobster Joint — all demolished. (As Shaoul told the Times back in 2017, the small businesses that closed were "part of evolution ... You call it gentrification, I call it 'cleaning it up.'") 

EVG contributor Stacie Joy returned to the quick-serve restaurant, which debuted last week...

... and met with Ramazan Turgut, who owned Bereket and now Ankara Turkish Restaurant, which has two outposts in Brooklyn...

... and manager Aydın Günaydın...

Ramazan said that he always wanted to return to this neighborhood and that it wasn't his choice to leave. In the interim, he opened the two restaurants in Brooklyn under the Ankara name. When Bereket closed, he said he didn’t want to open a Brooklyn restaurant with the same name because it was special, and the name belonged to this area. 

He signed a lease when this space at 183 Houston St. (the former Dr Smood) became available directly across the street from the previous outpost. 

Since there are two other Ankara Turkish Restaurants, he decided to keep the name for continuity. Still, he wants people to know it's still Bereket (hence the "Bereket is Back" banners on the storefront). 

The menu items remain unchanged — including the famed vegetarian red lentil soup...

... and the variety of gyros (the chicken gyro option is new)...

There are also a variety of Turkish beverages (no alcohol!) ...

Ramazan said several former customers have come in and confessed how much they missed Bereket. One customer even started crying, which prompted tears from the staff too. 

During this soft-opening mode, the hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, with plans to expand to 4 a.m. soon.