8pm doors. $10 adv/door. Rocknroll and soul deejay dance contest with $100 cash prize, plus special guest live band, The Okmoniks!
The New York Night Train Soul Clap and Dance-Off is the 21st Century’s most popular and prolific soul party - by far playing to more people in more places than any other. Occurring hundreds of nights around the world since 2007, the Clap features hours of dancing to the rare original soul 45s of NYC DJ legend Jonathan Toubin and includes a dance contest in the middle determined by a panel of local celebrity judges. The iconic party isn’t only one of New York’s most notable, popular, and enduring recurring events, but, in addition to appearing at a spectrum of major music festivals and special events worldwide, the Clap is the first dance party with its own night at Lincoln Center’s prestigious Midsummer Night’s Swing, the first dance party with an entire dedicated night at South By Southwest (becoming the festival’s official annual closing party for nearly a decade), and the only party with compilations on the classic Norton Records imprint - with five sold-out internationally released volumes of the “Souvenirs of the Soul Clap” LP series. The city of New York has put on a number of free outdoor editions of the party - including 2019’s Summerstage presents Soul Clap and Dance-Off Live Revue at Coney Island’s 5,000-capacity Ford Amphitheater live performances by Irma Thomas, Archie Bell, Joe Bataan, Betty Harris, and Ronaldo Domino accompanied by a full live band and of course Toubin’s dance contest!
Persistently throwing some of the world’s most distinctive parties since 2006, and juxtaposing raw, wild, and uncommon original 7-inch vinyl sides by unsung artists on the beat for today's dance floor, Jonathan Toubin's idiosyncratic nightly approach to vintage rock and soul music has carved out a unique space in contemporary culture and influenced scores of DJs and dance parties everywhere. Though best known internationally for throwing the 21st Century’s most popular soul vinyl party Soul Clap and Dance-Off, and NYC’s biggest and longest-running weekly rock’n’roll dance, Shakin' All Over Under Sideways Down!, he’s also spent the last fifteen years turning over 2500 gigs at hundreds of nightclubs, art spaces, all-ages warehouses, afterhours, rock concerts, and dozens of major music festivals on five continents – from Bonnaroo to Benicassim. His revolutionary New York Night Train dance parties don’t only feature his own DJing but also often include live performances by the likes of Shannon and The Clams, Roky Erickson, Thee Oh Sees, Big Freedia, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Sun Ra Arkestra, Kool Keith, David Johansen, and hundreds more. Toubin has turned platters at live concerts by everyone from Jack White to Kendrick Lamar to LCD Soundsystems to Patti Smith. He’s currently also an owner/operator of New York’s TV Eye night club and Shady Spex sunglasses.
The Okmoniks are Helene 33 and three guys, usually — it’s kind of a Bonnie St. Claire & Unit Gloria look. In the current, but ever-changing lineup, Helene plays organ and sings, Sammy plays guitar, Jason plays bass, and Will plays drums. They describe their sound as DMZ meets Lyres, and think that’s a very funny joke. The OKs, as they are known in text messages to each other, formed in Tucson in 2000 and relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009, where they love playing The Knockout, shopping at Thrillhouse Records, and playing pinball at Free Gold Watch. The OKs have three self-released EPs and one LP on Slovenly Records (that they know of). For further reading, here’s a fake description they cribbed and barely altered from the back of a Paul Revere and the Raiders Record:
“ROCK AND ROLL BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY” – The Oks