ABOUT THE BOOK

SAINT VITUS BAR: THE FIRST 10 YEARS, AN ORAL AND VISUAL HISTORY, written and pieced together by esteemed photographer, director and Saint Vitus colleague, Nathaniel Shannon, is a massive 346-page deep dive, collaged archive, exploring the origins, early foundation, and legacy of the first decade of the four black walls of 1120 Manhattan Avenue. With over 150 contributors, The First Ten Years presents interviews, stories, photographs, posters, and tons of other never before seen documents from the bars history, including a foreword by hometown hero Walter Schreifels of Quicksand fame, and also featuring tidbits from Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Jeff Walker of Carcass, Saint Vitus (band), The Descendents, Anthrax, Against Me! Eyehategod, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Armed, Neurosis, Hum, Chelsea Wolfe, Weedeater, Snapcase, Chuck Klosterman, and many many many more.

The history of this book, Saint Vitus Bar: The First 10 Years, An Oral and Visual History, dates back to a simpler time, in early 2019 when Nathaniel was working with Saint Vitus Bar to start presenting gallery shows in the Greenpoint area, to showcase art made by the souls trapsing through the ominous black door of 1120 Manhattan Ave. March of 2020 hit, and we all know what happened. Lack of ability to showcase work relating to Vitus took a hard left turn, and rather than be on the walls of a gallery, were collected and put together for fans to hold in their hands in the gallery of their own homes and minds. Nathaniel presented the bar with a win win idea of putting together an archive book immortalizing how far the bar had come from the early late night bar riffs between owners George Souleidis and Arty Shepherd, to have the whos who of metal grace their stage. Who knew a book would take so long to get together?

Nathaniel Shannon is an artist hailing from the mean streets of Ypsilanti, MI. Nathaniel cut his teeth photographing the underbelly of Detroit’s punk, hardcore and metal and hiphop scenes, before relocating to New York, where he ultimately landed at the doorsteps of an infant Saint Vitus Bar. As a freelancer, his photographs have appeared in just about every music magazine imaginable, as well as graced countless album covers, and every other media you can think of. After years of dabbling, directing the occasional music video, 2020 saw Nathaniel producing and co-shooting the “Deadguy: Killing Music” documentary with Fourth.Media. Nathaniel currently is hiding out in the woods, bathing in peanut butter, painting aliens and listening to 90s rap cassette tapes.Saint Vitus Bar: The First Ten Years, and Oral and Visual History, is his first book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nathaniel Shannon is an artist hailing from the mean streets of Ypsilanti, MI. Nathaniel cut his teeth photographing the underbelly of Detroit’s punk, hardcore and metal scenes, before relocating to New York, where he ultimately landed at the doorsteps of an infant Saint Vitus Bar. As a freelancer, his photographs have appeared in just about every music magazine imaginable, as well as graced countless album covers, and every other media you can think of. After years of dabbling, directing the occasional music video, 2020 saw Nathaniel producing and co-directing the “Deadguy: Killing Music” documentary with Fourth.Media. Nathaniel currently is hiding out in the woods, bathing in peanut butter, painting aliens and listening to 90s rap cassette tapes.  Saint Vitus Bar: The First Ten Years, an Oral and Visual History is his first book.