Show Rundown: Italiano Tenth Anniversary Party 03.23.12

Our big thanks to everyone who came out for the Italiano Tenth Anniversary show at Radio last Friday.

The Beatings released Italiano in February 2002, giving birth to Midriff Records and beginning our voyage in the world of independent music. Italiano was picked as the fifth best record of 2002 by the Washington Post, and was received incredibly well nationally as we crisscrossed the country touring in support. Ten years and one month later, we took the stage at Radio to perform the album in its entirety. To the best we can recollect, it was a first.

The night was kicked off with a tremendous set by Louder My Dear, with frontman Dave multi-tasking the night away with DJ sets under his Celebrity Handjob moniker. Following LMD was NYC’s Relations, whose post-punk set blew us away. Keep an eye on those kids, won’t you?

Image gallery after the jump…

Friend of the band Ashley Willard gave a heartfelt introduction before we took the stage. For the next hour-plus the songs seemed to flow into each other seamlessly, with Celebrity Handjob mixing in the interstitial four-track recordings that held everything together in a weird dreamlike trance. It was pretty much exactly the way we intended Italiano to be heard. It’s a wonder we never did it before.

As you can see from the photo gallery below, the crowd gave better than they got, singing along in unison to “New Destroyer” and taking the mic during the penultimate “Heavy Metal.” It was an amazing show of support and love for our band and this album, and we are incredibly grateful to all of you who came to the show, and especially to the people at Radio, who gave us the entire night to do with their club as we wished.