2.5 Hours at NOTS 20
By John Russell
On the train heading into the city from Brooklyn, I realized that this would be my fifth year attending Night of a Thousand Stevies. And since this year was the 20th anniversary of this epic Stevie Nicks fan party, that meant that I’d been to exactly one quarter of the total NOTS events since 1990. Not bad for someone who was in the first grade when the party started at Jackie 60 two decades ago.
I actually arrived at Highline Ballroom a little late, already a bit drunk on two martinis, and missed the first set of performers. From the upstairs bar, my buddy and I watched the second set kick off: onstage, a queen recreated the iconic image from the cover of Stevie Nicks’ first solo album, Bella Donna, while lip synching the title track.
Drinks and tambourines in hand, we headed downstairs—past Project Runway contestant Chris March and a couple Stevies complaining about their corsets and platform heals—into the thick of the crowd. Hundreds of people dressed in Stevie drag or Stevie suggestive drag. Tasseled shawls, capes, chiffon scarves, top hats, bat-wing sleeves.
And just about everyone had a tambourine.
“Do you want to tie some ribbon to yours?” this nice girl asked me. “I have some extra!”
The crowd went wild for Justin Bond, who brought a full band to perform “Rhiannon.” Velocity Chylde’s version of “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” reinterpreted the Stevie/Tom Petty duet as a much darker song—quite a change from Corey TuT and Paddy Boom’s funked up performance last year, and Jonny Tingle’s acoustic take the year before. And in five years of seeing her perform at NOTS, I don’t think Heather Litteer (a.k.a. Jessica Rabbit Domination) has ever sounded better than she did singing “Talk to Me” with Jonny Tingle this year.
We moved through the crowd, shaking our tambourines, kiss-kissing old friends, singing along to songs we know by heart. At one point my buddy pointed out how amazing and rare it is to go to a party in New York that’s about something more than selling booze. And he’s right: everyone at NOTS was there because they love Stevie Nicks. It’s not just another party; it’s not just something to do on a Friday night. Everyone there was excited about the same thing, projecting and sharing that excitement. It was palpable, unavoidable, infectious.
The performances continued—Sweetie’s legendary lip synching; Jasmine Flowers’ version of “Sisters of the Moon”; Erica Toure Aviance’s NOTS debut—right up until NOTS’s grand finale: The Battle. Every year, the party closes with “Edge of Seventeen” when hostess Chi Chi Valenti invites all the Stevies onstage to “battle” it out.
We stumbled out of Highline, high on vodka and Redbull and enchantment, just as the stage was filling with blond wigs and lace. Until next year…
