The Loser’s Lounge is a phrase you may have heard of if you have been around the city since the early nineties when the concept was born. The prime mover is Joe McGinty who was coming off a five year gig playing keyboards with The Psychedelic Furs. He explained that the name was self-deprecating as in we are the struggling artists paying tribute to our heroes who have made indelible marks with their music. The series has achieved great success; somewhere along the line becoming a New York institution in its own right. The Loser’s Lounge has played all around the city while while tipping their hats to over thirty different artists across genres. The artists Joe chooses tend to be great songwriters that have bodies of work that encompass different decades and eras so he and the band, including over twenty different singers, have plenty of material to interpret. That’s Royce Peterson (who knows something about tributes as his main gig is leading a band that does metal versions of Bee Gees songs) in the video singing Changes, Ereni Sevasti (whose activities include performing a Joni Mitchell show) doing The Man Who Sold The World, and Connie Petruk (who worked with DB himself) was featured on vocals for Life On Mars.
It was a natural for the music of David Bowie to be celebrated following his recent and unexpected death. The Loser’s Lounge had tackled him before including – intensely, in what was the first night out after 9/11 for many New Yorkers, in September of 2001. It was a different kind of strong feeling at Joe’s Pub on February 18th, 2016 as fans as well as the musicians on stage had a chance to immerse themselves in Bowie’s songs and reflect on not only the artist but perhaps their own lives too in the context of the soundtrack he provided.
Joe McGinty by the way, in addition to leading The Loser’s Lounge, also is the proprietor of the Carousel Vintage Keyboard Studio and recently opened up his own bar in Chelsea called Sid Gold’s Request Room.
