By New Wave Editorial 
A personal essay headlined “Saint Vitus Bar Dances Again” looks back at the original Saint Vitus Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and the role the venue played in one writer’s move to New York. The piece appears in the Breaking The Oath: The Month In Metal column. The excerpt available does not say what the headline’s “dances again” refers to, so this report covers only the details it provides.
A metal venue with a fast-growing reputation
The essay places the original Vitus at 1120 Manhattan Ave. in Greenpoint. According to the author, the bar opened in 2011 and was quickly considered one of the best metal venues in the country. That reputation, the writer says, spread well beyond the neighborhood.
The author describes learning about the club from afar. Photo slideshows on Brooklyn Vegan and messages from friends who were already living in the city kept its name in circulation. The writer says this made them increasingly jealous of people who could attend shows there.
Moving to New York
The writer moved to New York in the summer of 2013, leaving a Midwestern college town and a first post-graduation job for a studio apartment in deep Queens. The essay says Vitus was not the only reason for the move, but it was a major draw. After arriving, the author folded the club into daily life.
The author cannot recall the first visit to the bar. The essay suggests this is because the club never felt like a landmark moment. Instead, the transition felt abrupt and natural. One day the writer lived in Indiana, and the next they were at Vitus all the time.
Why it matters
The essay is a personal account rather than a news report, but it offers a snapshot of how word of a venue spread in the early 2010s, through music blogs and friends’ dispatches. It also shows how a single club could shape a young fan’s decision to relocate to a new city.
Readers who want to know what the headline signals about the bar’s current status will need to consult the full Breaking The Oath column, since the excerpt shared here focuses on the writer’s early memories of the venue.
Source: stereogum.com
Image: Mikeyfrecks / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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