Gays love Hercules and Love Affair. Straights, too, and those in between. Moms and dads, bartenders, curmudgeonly friends, drunk Jews, women with pincurls, women with stringy hair, tall people with glasses, they all love Hercules and Love Affair. But mostly gays. They love Hercules and Love Affair the same way rabid Japanese teens must have loved Bruce Springsteen in 1986, crush the barricades and cry at the sight of an icon style love. Which is weird, because Andrew Butler is shy. Outfitted in shirts identifying all band members as “banjees”, (except Nomi, who identified herself as being really toned), his group jammed around him while he perfected tones on headphones. He kind of looked proud, but mostly he looked freaked out. It didn’t matter. In this video of “Blind” (for which we hoped Antony would show up and murder shit, which did not happen) you can see the crowd banana-ize themselves. We were all there for the same reason, group pride for what was happening onstage. That and to see the dudes from Horse Meat Disco DJ until 4AM.

Read FADER's extended coverage of the Hercules show after the jump, including a proclamation of sorts of the return of downtown New York.

ADDENDUM: Some FADER editors' favorite parts were the white-t-shirted and white-pantsted and Doc Martensed VOGUERS, both of whom we recognized from FADER TV as Shayne and Tigger from epic streetwear brand Hood by Air! Four words: ILL. BLEACHED. HI-TOP. FADE. Through the whole Herc show, the Vogueing did not stop and these cats looked like something straight from a C + C Music Factory video, signifying not only the imminent return of big room house (and hopefully more people who know how to do the real percolator), but also the hot resurgence of downtown gay house vanguard in the best years of NY, only exchange "downtown" for "Brooklyn." We are so so ready for this.