Haute Date: Respectable’s Fetes 30 Years With Indie Music Block Party

Respectable Street Café Marks Anniversary With Live Performances By Millionyoung, She Wants Revenge, And Others

Where: Respectable Street Café, Subculture Coffee, and Voltaire
When: Saturday, Sept. 23,  8:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.
$$$: Free
411: In Frank Capra’s holiday classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a work-torn businessman, husband, and father named George Banks learns the myriad ways his life has affected others. Like Banks, a similar comparison can be made for Rodney Mayo, a South Florida entertainment impresario who took a chance on Clematis Street when he opened Respectable Street Café, a mixed-use venue that houses a bar and a nightclub, in 1977. Named after a song by the cult British rock band, XTC, Respectable’s remains a West Palm mainstay of West Palm who presence created ripple effect on the area’s music, culinary, and vibrant street art scene. Each year, Mayo honors Respectable’s 1977 opening with an all-night, rock-steady block party showcasing some of the best bands in South Florida you’ve never heard of. In honor of the venue’s pearl anniversary, 30 bands, ranging from indie-pop to folk-punk, will take guests on a six-hour, indie rock-studded odyssey.

Here are five bands worth checking out:

Astari Nite: Good friends of Mayo’s and one of his favorite groups, this Miami post-punk, goth-rock band waxes inspiration from The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, and “Fashionista,” a now-defunct band who helped to jumpstart Miami’s indie music scene.

Dead and Loving It: Another Lake Worth band, Dead comprises two other bands, Chaucer and Problem Child. The art-punk band, who hosted its album release party at Voltaire last month, is heating up South Florida’s music scene with stealth rhythms reminiscent of bands like Devo and Gang of Four.

Photo Credit: Monica McGivernEverymen: This Lake Worth band spends most of their time touring. A regular at the country’s top indie festivals, the band’s shows are fun and messy and guests are typically riddled with confetti, pool noodles, and water balloons. Sounds like a bikini and ripped jean evening.

Lindsey Mills and The Lazy Lovers: When she’s not touring with Surfer Blood, bassist Lindsey Mills plays with her own indie-pop band, Lindsey Mills and The Lazy Lovers. The dishwater blonde-haired songbird also organizes “Salon,” a monthly, all-female musical showcase at Voltaire.

Millionyoung: Mike Diaz, a Miami vocalist and electronic producer who goes by the pseudonym Millionyoung and, if two names weren’t confusing enough, the nickname “chillwave” which is a musical sub-genre characterized by dreamlike tempos and psychedelic lyrics about oceanfront locales. While waiting out Hurricane Irma, he wrote “Huracán” and is donating monies from the release to All Hands Volunteers and ASPCA.

Tonight’s musical lineup include: 

MAIN STAGE

8:15 p.m.: Private School

9 p.m.: The Pauses

9:45 p.m.: Everymen

10:30 p.m.: Astari Nite

11:15 p.m.: She Wants Revenge

RESPECTABLE STREET CAFE (INSIDE)

8 p.m.: Anastasia Max

8:45 p.m.: Grumps

9:30 p.m.: Lindsey Mills and The Lazy Lovers

10:15 p.m.: Ace Skully

11 p.m.: Lavola

11:45 p.m.: Million Young

12:30 a.m.: Dead and Loving it

RESPECTABLE STREET CAFE (PATIO)

8:15 p.m.: Skoros

9 p.m.: Shadow Reborn

9:45 p.m.: Yung Tarzan

10:30 p.m.: The Muggles

11:15 p.m.: Church Girls

12 a.m.: Old Habits

SUBCULTURE COFFEE

8:15 p.m.: Narvee

9 p.m.: Takers and Leavers

9:45 p.m.: Static Momentum

10:30 p.m.: Sada

11:15 p.m.: Octo Gato

12 a.m.: The Watercolors

VOLTAIRE

8:15 p.m.: Symbols

9 p.m.: Boxwood

9:45 p.m.: Herns

10:30 p.m.: Backpage Escort

11:15 p.m.: Dunudes

12 a.m.: Milkspot