Sup Doc: A Documentary Podcast · Sup Doc

MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM w Daniel Gill

·1 hr 3 min·1 clip

James Murphy's 'Losing My Edge' was cringy and vulnerable, but that exposed rawness became the era's aesthetic.

The Smell starts this one at an angle. George has seen Daniel Gill more recently than Paco, because they were both there the night before and George may or may not make it through a third straight show. That is the right runway. Being old at rock shows slides naturally into Meet Me in the Bathroom, the 2022 documentary from Will Loveless and Dylan Southern. The LCD connection gets remembered out loud. Daniel and George place the movie near Shut Up and Play the Hits, then move on before the thought gets too tidy. Karen gives the conversation its weight. The excerpt focuses on her stage presence, the press's male gaze, and the strange loneliness of being fetishized while her bandmates were not dealing with the same pressure. It sounds draining, not glamorous. Daniel and George treat that scrutiny as part of the cost of touring, attention, and having everything pushed into your face. The band history stays messy. They talk through breakups and reunions happening again and again, with George reaching back through interviews to keep the facts straight. Then the college trail takes over for a while. Brian and Karen went to Oberlin, Nick arrived after New York, and Bard, Wesleyan, Ivy League schools, Luke, Vito, and The Rapture keep circling the conversation. Nobody acts like this is clean scholarship. It is two documentary fans digging through scene memory, correcting themselves as they go, and still landing on something sharp about class, access, and who got filmed. The pile of details gets funnier as it grows. An accordion, saxophone, and drum trio called ABCs turns up somewhere near The Rapture, which feels like exactly the kind of half-lost band fact this episode wants to rescue. By the end, the mood softens. Daniel gets called George's indie rock Paco, steps back from angering Paco, accepts the revised title, and the show returns to its handmade doc fan rhythm.

As heard by us

A scene-specific hangout that makes the early-2000s rock world feel lived in.

Meet Me in the Bathroom keeps things loose and scene-minded, using the 2022 documentary as a way into Lizzie Goodman's oral history instead of turning it into a lecture.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For anyone still thinking about Meet Me in the Bathroom and the early-aughts New York rock scene.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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