Shows/1987-05-02b

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They Might Be Giants
Darinka in New York, NY
May 2, 1987 at 12:00 AM

Larry Lamé of The Jickets onstage at Darinka, possibly on this date

Fan Recaps and Comments:

This was the closing night of Darinka, a small East Village performance space where They Might Be Giants had been regular performers. Over the three years since the venue opened, they had played dozens of shows there and came to be regarded as the house band. They were the headlining act on this night and performed two shows, at 10 p.m. and 12 a.m. In 2020 interview with the Don't Let's Start fan podcast, Darinka owner Gary Ray recalled:

In the beginning, They Might Be Giants might have had an audience of 10, 15 people. They built it up by the end, 1987, when we had two shows [the final] night — we packed the place with 350 people each show, and really our capacity was about 99. [...]
It was bittersweet, of course. Because a lot of people came that loved the club, that loved They Might Be Giants too. I just remember it was a huge night. They did two shows and we told everybody to leave after the first show, and there was a big line out front! Y'know, a huge line waiting for the second show, and this is like a club nobody even knows is there. Rarely did we have a line outside. Usually people just came right in, but that night we had a gigantic line. But it was the last night so we weren't gonna get busted for anything.

Preview from The New York Times, May 2, 1987:

They Might Be Giants will perform at Darinka, 118 East First Street, near Avenue A (598-0157), at 10 P.M. and midnight tonight. Admission is $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers.

Excerpt from "What's Goin' On?" by Cynthia Carr,
The Village Voice, May 5, 1987:

Darinka will close on May 2, and it's more than a story of someone's gentrification dollars at work. For a while, the East Village clubs were like burnt-out rec rooms where first artists and soon everyone wanted to hang out. Now everybody seems to stay home unless there's something they specifically want to see.

In the Spring of '85, The Drama Review published its "East Village Performance" issue — just moments before the scene began to collapse, as it turned out. Gone are 8BC, Club Chandalier, Limbo Lounge, the Shuttle, and the old WOW Cafe. Darinka, meanwhile, closed for ten months after founder/manager Gary Ray was fined for operating without a liquor license. Ray reopened the space about a year ago as a private club, hiring John Gernand to do the bookings. They never made enough to live on. Gernand told me they scraped every month just to pay the rent, and now the rent was going up.