New York in February: there’s a blizzard outside and the streets of New York’s East Village are lined with great mounds of pure white snow, but Jesse Malin’s devout fans remain undeterred. They gather in Malin’s basement club- ‘Bowery Electric’- for a night of the rocker’s distinct form of punk rock.
Malin is a showman. Taking the microphone, he interacts with the crowd telling stories and anecdotes from his many tours. His band, the St. Mark’s Social, hangs back on the amplifiers. His matted hair sticks to his beads of sweat on his face and the snow begins to melt on his sneakers. “Thank you all so much for coming out tonight,” he yells in introduction. He knocks back a shot of something, smashing the glass against the wall and launches into his first set. The crowd are eating it up.
Born in Queens New York, he has been playing since he was twelve, starting out in hardcore band Heart Attack and later forming bands like ‘D Generation” and ‘PCP Highway.” He has gone through many musical evolutions and collaborated with artists such as Hughie Pyro, Ryan Adams and Bruce Springsteen.
Fast forward to June and Malin is in Edinburgh on another European tour. “It’s been a high-enegy blast with the St. Mark’s Social shakin’ it up with me. It’s been a lot of fun playing new and old material,” he says. This will be his third tour, the first being with Gogol Bordello, the second a US west coast run with Chris Shifflet of the Foo Fighters.
He loves playing Europe: the audiences are extremely dedicated to the music. “I’d have to say the most amazing performance of my life was headlining my first London shows during the Fine Art of Self-Destruction,” he says. Although opening for Kiss at Madison Square Garden, playing with Ryan Adams at the Usher Hall or his first time onstage at the infamous CBGBs came close second and third. “Smelling the old alcohol, piss, spray paint, and sweat.”
Malin says he feels greatful to have had so many music careers and so many lives under these skies. His own city, New York, has gone through many phases and changes. “I was lucky enough as a kid to be part of the hardcore punk scene to play and see the Dead Kennedys, Cromags, early Black Flag, and the Misfits in tiny venues. As well as see the glory days come for me with my old band D Generation and then again for the Strokes and many others.”
What makes a city great, he says, is great culture and art. “ A city where artists can afford to live. A mix of different faces and races jammed together and finding ways to deal and survive.”
“I’ve been to Belfast many times,” he says, in anticipation of play Auntie Annie’s on 3rd July. “It was the first city over the pond that I ever played: opening for Green Day in ’98 on the Nimrod tour. It even ended up in a D Gen song “Jackie went to Belfast, got us on the plane.” The audiences get almost as revved up as I do.”
Malin will play Belfast’s Auntie Annie’s on 3rd July, and Dublin’s Academy 2 on the 4th July.