Volume 78 / Number 9 - July 30 - August 5, 2008
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933

Villager photos by Nick Brooks

A riotously good time as punk concerts kick off

East Villager John Penley, above, was pumped up at last Sunday’s kickoff concert for the 20th anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park riots. Below, a young boy got his face painted as police were right on the scene. Although rain put a damper on part of the afternoon, the bands eventually got to perform. “It was one of the best times I’ve ever had in the park,” Penley said later. In the photo above, Penley held aloft a placard with a flier attached for David Peel’s birthday concert on Sun., Aug. 3, to be held outside the Christodora House at Ninth St. and Avenue B. Christodora, a former “vertical” settlement house, was converted to residential condos in the 1980s, when it became a lightning rod for anti-gentrification protesters. This coming weekend will see two more days of punk bands playing in the park.