For the last five years, Seattle’s Shameless crew has been throwing
My Bloody Valentine, and far from its shoegazey moniker, the
annual party is a celebration of debauchery, where music, booze, and
lowered inhibitions leave more than the lovestruck with a smile on
their face at the end of the night.
My Bloody Valentine combines
the costumery of
Halloween
with hints of Mardi Gras’s crazed atmosphere, all for an audience
that’s usually as excited for the abundance of fake blood as for
the sex toy–filled piñata. It’s a party for all
types, with some there for the spectacle, others there for the
headliners.
“It’s kind of a goth-meets–Valentine’s Day adventure,”
says Shameless’s DJ Recess before a recent gig. “When people get
dressed up for things like Halloween, it lowers their guard. It just
helps people relax a bit. It’s something that needs to happen more,
especially in Seattle this time of year.”
Giving the event sentimental importance is that it acts as an
unofficial anniversary for Shameless, which started in earnest just
months before the first My Bloody Valentine party at the Alibi Room.
Since then, the party’s transformed into the centerpiece of the group’s
annual calendar. “We never really planned for this to be our
anniversary or anything; it just sort of turned into our big
hootenanny.”
This year, Shameless is bringing in Passions and Star
Eyes of NYC’s Trouble & Bass crew, whom Shameless introduced to
Seattle last year with Drop the Lime’s headlining slot at Re-bar. The
low end–centric crew have become infamous over the last
few years for their loud, genre-spanning events—rave-infused
parties for post-ravers, an aesthetic not entirely dissimilar from
Shameless’s own. Novatron, Eva, Naha, and a slew of other locals round
out a bill that willfully matches DJs from different segments of
Seattle’s scene.
It’s a lineup indicative of the relationships Shameless has built
over the years. In 2007, Shameless scaled back on doing its own events
in favor of collaborating with other groups on Broken Disco and a few
other one-off events. Far from stepping away from the spotlight,
Shameless sees the shift as part of a bigger picture.
“Our MO for the last year has been about getting people connected,
building something greater than the sum of our parts,” says Recess. “My
Bloody Valentine is a chance for us to do our own thing.”
My Bloody Valentine is Fri Feb 1 at Hengst Studios, 9 pm–6
am, $12, 21+.
Also inspired by Valentine’s Day: The Baltic Room’s Sunday biweekly
Oi Vay! has dedicated February as “couples’ month.” Beyond being
a cute gimmick, the concept allows for some notable artistic pairings,
with techno heavyweights Nordic Soul and Kristina Childs playing
Sunday, February 3, and Saigon and Justin Byrnes crossing genres with a
rare appearance as Lab-77 on Sunday, February 17. As always, the night
is free, so you have no excuse to not show up. 