At Night (formerly known as "Waiting For The Countdown") is a formerly unidentified new wave/synthpop song by New Jersey based band Strike. It was recorded by WatZatSong users Guglielm and Kenny Cathead, likely off of the same 1983 WFMU broadcast.
Search History
2010s
The song was first posted to the New Wave Outpost forums by user Guglielm on August 23rd, 2012 along with multiple other unknown songs. He didn’t provide any information about the songs.
On April 20th, 2013, Guglielm commented on the WFMU.org page for a playlist made by user Bob Brainen, saying the songs were recorded sometime between 1981-1984 or 1991-1993 off of WFMU.
On July 16th, 2013, Guglielm reposted the song onto WatZatSong. The song was most likely recorded from 1981-1984, and was theorized to be a cassette release or demo.
On August 6th, 2014, Guglielm reposted the song to WatZatSong again, adding that the title was possibly “Waiting For A Come Down (or Calm Down)”.
2020s
On March 26th, 2023, Guglielm confirmed that he digitized all of his cassette tapes with the songs on them in the early 90s, and no longer had any of them anymore.
On June 10th, 2023, the song was discovered to be in NY80sTapes’ video containing unknown songs posted on June 10th, 2023, at approximately 19 minutes and 13 seconds in. Both recordings of this song are presumed to be from the same 1983 WFMU broadcast.
On December 6th, 2024, user rocketballboi discovered a Facebook page that helped solve two other Guglielm songs and had the Facebook profile of Pat Duncan, a DJ at WFMU which Guglielm regularly listened to. While scrolling through Pat Duncan's Facebook images for more leads, user aidnic found an image of a tape for a band named "Strike" then found audio of them from a 2006 WFMU show, recorded live at the Dirt Club (a rock venue in Bloomfield, New Jersey) in 1981 and the vocalist of the song sounded similar. Guglielm also had a "Strike" as a tag for one of his unknown tracks.
On December 8th, 2024, Discord users aidnic and AzureBlast contacted the band members and the guitarist , John Costa, who said that it is their song, and it is titled "At Night". But due to lack of HQ audio the song was in verification needed.
Later that day, Guglielm confirmed the "Strike" tag was indeed for this song, resulting in the song being fully identified. High quality audio is yet to be discovered, but the bassist of the band, Chris Micca has confirmed he's currently trying to find a copy.
Presumed lyrics
[Intro]
Go!
[Verse 1]
We start to shake, we feel the change from the inside
We concentrate, we shoot for stars after midnight
Back to the park once again, in go-go land
Took a swing at the talking kings once again
And then down beep blast
[Pre-Chorus]
We're looking for a new example
We know it cannot change your world
The walls outside can tumble but I
I don't think we care!
[Chorus]
Everybody's looking for the in-crowd (At night)
Everyone is waiting for the countdown (At night)
[Verse 2]
Spin out, we're party boys again
Like a team, we play the scene again
[Pre-Chorus]
Following an activе fashion
Dancing in a jagged line
Pretty, painted poison with a
A synthetic mind
I get confused
[Chorus]
Everybody's looking for the in-crowd (At night)
Everyone is waiting for the countdown
[Bridge]
Waiting, waiting
Waiting, waiting
Waiting
At night
At night
[Outro]
Everybody's looking for the in-crowd (At night)
Everyone is waiting for the countdown
Everybody's looking for the in-crowd (At night)
Everyone is waiting for the countdown (At night)
Everybody's looking for the in-crowd (At night)
Everyone is (At night) waiting for the countdown (At night)
Everybody's looking for the in-crowd
Everyone is waiting for the countdown
Everybody's looking for the in-crowd
Strike
Strike was a new wave and post-punk band from New Jersey, USA.
The band consisted of Ted Clift (keyboard & vocals), John Costa (guitar), Harold Visser (drums), and Chris Micca (bass and guitar).
TBA
Gallery
External links
- New Wave Outpost Forum Post
- Guglielm’s original WatZatSong post.
- Vocaroo link with a slightly longer splice. This was taken from Kenny Cathead’s video.
- Kenny Cathead’s YouTube video, with the timestamp where the song is played.
- Live performance.
- Lyrics on Genius.com.