Die-hard emos can relive the early 2000s with a “MySpace-themed” emo and pop-punk music video party for the price of just $1.
Tony Pitkin, the creator of Emo vs. Pop-Punk, said the event’s anniversary party will happen on Aug. 17 at Madrone Art Bar at the corner of Fell and Divisadero streets.
What makes the emo music party a little different from others is that the event plays music videos from the era while blasting early 2000s emo and pop-punk hits. The playlist includes bangers from My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Fall Out Boy.
“There’s no other event in the country—that I know of—that’s doing an emo music video party,” Pitkin said.
Pitkin, a DJ known for events like the Emo Night Tour, said other shows where videos are played at inspired him to put on his own.
“Seeing the video they saw on TV [when they were younger] kicks the nostalgia into hyperdrive,” Pitkin said.
Emo vs. Pop-Punk typically happens the third Thursday of each month at Madrone Art Bar and costs $5 at the door or online.
Emo music is defined by lyrics that are emotional, even confessional, and center on themes of social isolation or failed romance.
The anniversary party will be MySpace-themed, with cheeky signage hinting at the early social media platform’s heyday.
“MySpace defines the subspace of the music we’re playing,” Pitkin said. “When I think of the MySpace era, two genres of music stood out, emo and pop-punk.”
As part of the anniversary event that night, Pitkin will be giving out eight free concert tickets: four tickets to see Head Automatica at the Regency Ballroom on Sept. 9 at 8:30 p.m. and four tickets to All Time Low at the Warfield on Oct. 14 at 6:30 p.m.
There will also be between five and six drink specials at the anniversary party, including a shot of tequila dyed black called the “Divisademo” and a Paloma drink called “Dear Tequila, Count Me In,” playing off the All Time Low song titled “Dear Maria, Count Me In.”
Pitkin said pop-punk music has some roots in the Bay Area, naming the Walnut Creek band the Story So Far as influential and calling the East Bay’s hitmaking group Green Day the “gateway drug” for him and other fans into emo and pop-punk music.
The anniversary party will happen Aug. 17 from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m. at Madrone Art Bar at 500 Divisadero St.