Around two weeks ago, The Fun House concert venue released a statement following the shutdown of their venue. In efforts to keep the music alive, the venue co-hosted a show with another concert venue, The Abyss, from Elmer, NJ. 

“This past weekend was a sad one for our house and many others.” stated The Fun House via their Instagram. “While the house is out of commission, the community we’ve built is unbreakable, and the show WILL go on.” 

On March 9, The Fun House along with The Abyss, worked with each other to hold a night of dancing, music, and talent. The Fun House was able to aid in setting up the sound equipment for The Abyss. The show was open to all ages, and the public, doors also opened at 6:30 p.m. 

The show was held in The Abyss’s basement, a fairly new concert venue to the South Jersey community, the owner Kay Martinez, hopes to bring fans from all around the region. She started this venue last year when she was planning what to do for her birthday. Her main goal was to uplift other artists and give them space to perform their art. 

“I have a bunch of friends and bands and I decided why not give them a platform to share their art?” said Martinez. “Yeah, and not charge them money because there’s a lot of places and venues that take advantage of them, because they’re smaller bands.” 

She also expressed her thoughts on the collaboration between The Abyss and The Fun House. She believes that working together, whether in small or large concert venues, is important to create more spaces where bands and fans can have fun. 

The space at her concert venue encourages moshing, “2 stepping” a dance popular in punk music, and also people to not restrict themselves, be who they are, and a safe space for all. 

The concert lasted till after midnight, with performances from bands, Father Before Me, Jamurai Sack, Vicious Cycle, and finally, Funeral Doors. 

Father Before Me had an electric performance with the lead singer showcasing powerful vocals that captivated the attention of the audience. Attendees gathered around in a circle when the performances started around 8:30 p.m. 

Jamurai Sack, a band that has performed all around the South Jersey area, performed one of their first releases since the band formed, “Don’t Take This Personal,” at the venue, accompanied by other songs from their EP, “Snail.” 

This was Vicious Cycle’s first time performing at The Abyss venue, playing one of their songs, “No More Mind Games.” 

“We mostly focus on punk and hardcore-leaning music, but we all have a million different influences from a million different genres, so writing can get pretty complex. We always try to bring it back down to what feels like “us” at its core, though.” stated Vicious Cycle. 

This won’t be the last time that they are seen at The Abyss, the band hopes to come by and perform whenever they are in the area or get asked to again. 

The night ended with a dynamic performance from Funeral Doors, a band that started two years ago, after Juni Purr, the vocalist and guitarist from the band, had begun writing acoustic songs and centering the genre of soft indie. They identify themselves as a queercore band with emo roots and have gained fans from consistently performing in the tri-state area. 

“This was our first time at the Abyss. It was cool seeing a new house pop up in an area we haven’t seen a whole lot of shows going on, great vibes and everyone went super hard!” stated Purr. 

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