What a year for the bowery! Manilow, Meatloaf and now patti smith! the 70's are back!

sounds like it was modeled exactly like the bowery. although i'll miss N6, the bleachers and their cheap bottled beer, this, at least, is great news.

too bad they didn't work as hard to create a decent moniker - "music hall of williamsburg" is awful.

hmmm..methinks lou reed, david byrne or elvis costello were busy this night ...patti smith is worth 300 tickets. maybe 50% off for students?

So I guess they are implying that Warsaw is a "2nd-rate" mid-size venue.

That really do need to reconsider that name. Bad bad bad

Sounds like they striped N6 of all it's character. What a shame.

I never really thought of northsix or warsaw or bowery as mid size venues. I guess when put up next to say mercury lounge maybe but i think of mid size as webster or irving

Wow. This just in and already the kiddie haters have started dogpiling on Patti. How banal and predictable.

what does patti smith have to do with williamsburg?

dark hair and bangs.

Dirty and never showering?

wait, this is only her 5th show this year in new york....

Bowery is Live Nation.

"Bowery is Live Nation"

You my friend are a misinformed idiot

well actually bowery is worse than live nation because live nation doesn't pretend they are not evil whereas the bowery does.

Not the best name in the world, but a nice touch of class for Williamsburg.

The destruction of Northsix is a godsend. That place had herpes, bad sound, and a staff so unfriendly and self important, it was amazing that people ever went back, even for the cheap beer.

Bowery Presents is who you SHOULD be cheering for, if you must. Look into the story. Pretty easy to research...like maybe even check out the large article on them in a local paper called the New York Times.

Good people...and good shows. That's right.

wtf @ bowery and live nation comments.

Bowery Presents is owned by a dude. Dude lives in NYC. Dude is fucking rich, yes, but dude built said Empire himself. No evil coporations at work here. A little bar called 2A then..-> MHW up next.

srsly why do you people bitch like "oh fuck the big man, fuk teh LiveNation and Ticketmaster and Metalicca etc etc" \

like yr ever gonna get off yr computer and do anything? if you knew what to do. what is there to do? u just want yr fiest mp3s. quit down now kids, a.c.'s bout to leak any day now then something knew to chew on...

Anon. 4:57 PM: Three new tracks from Animal Collective leaked last week:
http://idolator.com/tunes/advance-warning/record-label-freaks-over-leaks-270095.php

patti smith sux so bad... i don't know what ounce of energy should be put into a live show of hers. I am sorry, but she is just one of the worst singers EVER. I am not a hipster, hippie or music guru. I have seen alot of music and I don't know why she thinks she can sing.
- cracker jack

"The destruction of Northsix is a godsend. That place had herpes, bad sound, and a staff so unfriendly and self important, it was amazing that people ever went back, even for the cheap beer."

sounds like someone who probably found themselves thrown out of the place for acting like an idiot. I've always had great experiences at Northsix. It was the first place I ever saw Lightning Bolt, Fiery Furnaces, Franz Ferdinand, Deerhoof, Kooks, Rakes, Elliot Smith, High on Fire, Kaiser Cheifs, Mars Volta, Hold Steady, Yeah yeah Yeahs, Liars, TV On the Radio, Battles

Patti Smith really seems like a poor choice for opening night.

Apparently the "Music Hall of Williamsburg" has its box office at the Mercury Lounge in Manhattan, so ya have to go into Manhattan to get non-Ticketmaster tix. Hope they change that (eg: The Warsaw sells tix at the venue, plus at Earwax Records on Bedford).

it actually makes sense, marlon. that's where all "bowery presents" tickets are handled, in person.

Northsix was the best venue in town, not sure how this is supposed to be an improvement... the name and logo and press release are all nonpromising, as is the involvement of ticketweb (all the hassle of ticketmaster MINUS the service) but I'm looking forward to checking it out. (Black Lips!) I hope they kept the aquarium but I'll settle for the hot bartender they had in the lobby.

Patti's gonna be 61 this year, guess this venue is looking to bring in the geriatric crowd...

You hipsters better bring your grandparents.

I am 33 years old, but since I go to Patti Smith concerts, I must be geriatric.

Her show on closing night at CBGB almost brought me to tears. Some around me were crying. The woman has tons of passion. Welcome Patti to Brooklyn.

When my grandmother sings it brings me to tears also.

"Jenny Was A Black Sheep, Jenny Was A Whore!' Take that TVOTR...

i've quickly come to realize that a good portion of people that comment on this website are douchebags

^^must be over 40.

either that or I'm not a whiny asshole who has no appreciation for good music

Where is the Patti Smith love people? Yeesh.

Patti Smith is great. I'm all for Patti Smith playing CBGB and Bowery Ballroom 5 times a year, but she just doesn't seem right for the opening of a new venue in Williamsburg. It's boring, and the people who aren't press who go to this show will probably never go back there again unless Patti plays there again.

I bet that the name becomes "the Hall" within six months.
As far as the whole Bowery = Live Nation thing goes.

Wake up and smell the PBR hipsters.

They just overtook a great independent venue!
They force local bands into outrageous agreements where you can play nowhere else for like a month.
They tell bands that if they play other venues they will be blacklisted from the Bowery and Webster.

Can you say ANTITRUST?

I bet that the name becomes "the Hall" within six months.
As far as the whole Bowery = Live Nation thing goes.

Wake up and smell the PBR hipsters.

They just overtook a great independent venue!
They force local bands into outrageous agreements where you can play nowhere else for like a month.
They tell bands that if they play other venues they will be blacklisted from the Bowery and Webster.

Can you say ANTITRUST?

fuck williamsburgh. get over it.

N6th ruled. I could always go to see or play punk, hardcore and grindcore shows there and that's gone forever. Do you really think smaller bands have a chance to play this place? Highly unlikely. Just another corporate giant taking over music for the masses.

"They just overtook a great independent venue!"

It's sad that most people missed this important fact. Northsix was an independant venue, but is now run by a corporation. Bowery Presents didn't start up just to be a pain in the ass to Ticketmaster, they started to make money. Now all ticket prices will be higher to pay for all the Bowery Presents owners and middle-men. They are better than Live Nation, but they did take control of a real independant venue.

i've said since the beginning of the year that people will learn to hate the bowery presents by year end - i hope all their new venues fail - those greedy fucks. i've already been noticing price increases at many shows. too bad.

I take it the fish tank in the basement was 86'd?

easy on the Bowery Presents bashing. They're probably paying for this site with their nifty little AD above.

yeah, is the basement still intact?
'Music Hall Of Williamsburg'
goddamn, it's a good thing but it's shit thing at the same time.

Williamsburg is becoming a dollar sign of a town.
i grew up there and seriously miss when people who lived in Ohio didn't even know it existed.
i'll seriously go as far as to say the only non asshole people that can bad mouth the town are the natives.
i can't fuckin' stand people who don't live or never have lived there that say shit about it.
you can't comment on the town's massive gentrification because you didn't/don't live it.
you're not the one who was kicked out of your house because of raised rent.

Funny to see all the bitching. I don't understand what the problem is with taking a so-so venue and turning it into a nicer one resembling the Bowery Ballroom? Where is the issue in that? I don't see how that hurts anything. And in terms how how they book...it makes sense to not play multiple shows every month. If you keep doing that you'll end up playing to your same 20 friends at every gig...perhaps thats why you're so bitter to begin with.

telling a local band (national band understood) that they can never play any of the 18 venues you own again because they play a show in 50 mile radius within 4 weeks is straight up bullshit.

telling a local band (national band understood) that they can never play any of the 18 venues you own again because they play a show in 50 mile radius within 4 weeks is straight up bullshit.

why are the tickets on sale at ticketmaster?

ticketmaster owns ticketweb.. so maybe they want to slowly integrate typical ticketweb venues/companies (bowery) into ticketmaster. but who knows.

one of the best things about the "new york punk/new music scene" in the 70's was that there was appreciation and respect for anyone that was trying something new. There were no categories or labels for music. Often times it was difficult to describe a band's music to friends. But marketing required labels and categories and some of that inclusive atmosphere soon changed. Who the hell cares if someone is from Brooklyn, the Bronx or Queens? as long as the music has a good beat and you can dance to it:) ... and age? ... just wait and see you little "whipper-snappers" ... when you become grandparents, do you believe that your musical preferences will change dramatically or that you will like music any less than you do now? just wait and see ...