It’s that time of year again. Cold weather, warm clothing, an effigy of Santa Claus with a strap-on dildo flying through the air.
Wait. What?
“The whole vibe of the night gets weirder every year,” Limousines frontman Eric Victorino says of the San Jose electro-pop duo’s annual Christmas bash. He can’t quite recall which year the strap-on-equipped Santa was flung out into the crowd, but he remembers that last year “some girl showed up almost naked.”
(Check out the pics from this year’s party here.)
Considering The Blank Club’s penchant for serving cheap, strong drinks, it isn’t surprising that all of the shows might blend together in Victorino’s mind. However, he does seem to remember how the event took on its naughty over nice aesthetic (each year, clips of Christmas-themed pornography have been projected on the wall next to the stage, interspersed with tamer cartoons).
“I think it was just because Corey allowed us to do whatever we want,” Victorino says, referring to Blank Club owner, Corey O’Brien. The singer asked if he could put a Christmas tree onstage; O’Brien didn’t blink. So he decided to up the ante. “I thought, if it’s gonna be the Limos, it’s probably gonna be kinda pervy too.”
Plus, the flier for the inaugural show billed the concert as an “XXXmas” party. “It just snowballed form there.” Each year the clips of cartoons dwindled and the porn clips increased. “It’s kind of fun to push that limit to where the even the people who are hard to offend are kind of offended.”
This year marks the fifth installment of the holiday party, and the last time it will be held at The Blank Club, as O’Brien plans to allow the venue’s lease to expire at the end of January. He’ll be opening a new, larger spot, in the building that used to house F/X The Club and was most recently Angels.
“It’s just crazy to think that this is the last time we’ll ever play there,” Victorino says, noting that he has a lot of great memories of playing at the Blank—both in The Limousines and in Strata, his previous alt-rock project, which brought him his first taste of fame.
Victorino remembers a show at the Blank many years back. Strata was about to embark on a huge tour in support of their breakout record Strata Presents the End of the World. “It was a big moment for us,” he says. Their label, Wind-up Records was pumping them up, and he thought that the next time the band played in San Jose, they’d be too big for the Blank. “I remember this crazy feeling of not knowing what would happen over the next couple of years.”
Of course, things didn’t quite go that way. Strata ended up disbanding, only to reunite earlier this year for a show at—where else?—the Blank.
“It’s going to be interesting to not have a small club like that in SJ anymore,” he says, noting that he is happy for O’Brien but also sad to see the end of this era. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet.”
The Limousines play The Blank Club on Friday, Dec. 19. Tickets are $15-$20. More info.
