The Manhattan Beat: Wendy Scripps Birthday Bash 2018 at the Bowery Electric

Wendy Scripps has deep roots in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Her great-grandfather, Samuel Gompers, was an immigrant who grew up in the Lower East Side, became a union organizer and helped found Labor Day; a housing project in the neighborhood is named after him. Scripps was born and raised in Northern California, but she settled in the Lower East Side in 1982, when she was in her early 20s. She started working as a bartender and worked security in illegal after-hours clubs. Scripps now owns the Art on A Gallery and is the multi-tattooed CEO of Wendigo Productions, which underwrites underground films and local rock concerts. Scripps has been called the Godmother of the Lower East Side.

Wendigo Productions presented the annual Wendy Scripps Birthday Bash on both floors of the Bowery Electric on July 18. Scripps focuses on straight-ahead rock and roll; no art rock, indie experimental or hip hop is on her radar. On this night she booked the Shrine from Los Angeles, California, the Tip from Nashville, Tennessee, and the Heartless Devils from Long Island, New York, but otherwise the night was a showcase for many of the neighborhood's hottest unsigned rock and roll bands: the Liza Colby Sound, the Sweet Things, the Hipp Pipps, and Love Pirates.