Recent Posts in venues

November 18, 2009

Jelly asking for help to ensure future of Pool Parties

Chuck Schumer @ the Williamsburg Waterfront, Summer 09 (more by Bao Nguyen)

JELLY's Pool Parties are a business - not a charity, but they have consistently provided great free concerts that support artists while doubling as a great place to hang out on Sundays during the summer. With that in mind, check out the press release they sent out below...

Continue reading "Jelly asking for help to ensure future of Pool Parties"

Posted by brooklynvegan at 3:36 PM | Comments (73)

November 6, 2009

Art D'Lugoff (Village Gate owner), RIP

Art D'Lugoff, the owner of The Village Gate nightclub located in the heart of Greenwich Village for over 40 years, died on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 in Riverdale, N.Y. D'Lugoff was 85 years old.

After producing concerts around New York City for several years, D'Lugoff and his brother Burt opened the Gate, as it was informally called, in 1958. He booked many of the greatest names in jazz, such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington. Located in the heart of the Village near the corner of Bleecker and Thompson Streets, the club also featured comedy and among the famous comedians who performed there, way before they became famous, were Bill Cosby, Woody Allen and Mort Sahl. Among the nearly apocryphal stories told about D'Lugoff were that he turned away Bob Dylan and that he fired Dustin Hoffman (as a waiter). Of course, many clubs and promoters rejected Dylan in his early years in New York City, but the story speaks as much about D'Lugoff's unique combination of self-confidence and humility. [Jazz Times]

The Village Gate is now (Le) Poisson Rouge. RIP Art. A video interview with Art below...

Continue reading "Art D'Lugoff (Village Gate owner), RIP "

Posted by brooklynvegan at 10:40 AM | Comments (6)

October 30, 2009

Knitting Factory is booking Brooklyn venue Warsaw now

Greenpoint Polish club turned concert venue Warsaw might start having concerts again thanks to Knitting Factory who recently reopened their own permanent space in the neighboring Williamsburg.

The addition of the Warsaw gives the East Coast Knitting Factory talent buying team the flexibility to present concerts in the more-intimate Knitting Factory Brooklyn (capacity approx. 300) or the more expansive Warsaw, a 1,000-capacity showroom.

It'll be like the Union Hall / Bell House of Williamsburg, though with more competition in the same neighborhood. Check out the press release below...

Continue reading "Knitting Factory is booking Brooklyn venue Warsaw now"

Posted by brooklynvegan at 3:40 PM | Comments (29)

October 10, 2009

Bruce Springsteen @ Giants Stadium for the last time - pics

photos by Tim Griffin

"Giants Stadium heard its last sha-la-las -- at least, the amplified kind with tens of thousands of voices singing along -- on Friday night, when Bruce Springsteen played the final concert before the stadium is demolished. During the three-hour set, sha-la-las filled this year's "Working on a Dream," the 1984 song "Darlington County" and Tom Waits' "Jersey Girl," the finale that Mr. Springsteen called the stadium's "last dance." It was Mr. Springsteen's 24th performance, dating back to 1985, at Giants Stadium, where the audiences are his most fervent fans: fellow New Jerseyans.

So in a way, Mr. Springsteen could identify with the place, and he did -- at least half-seriously -- in "Wrecking Ball," a robust, guitar-strumming song he wrote to start off each of his five final concerts at the stadium. (A video performance is at brucespringsteen.net.)

It may be the only song ever to make Giants Stadium itself the narrator, "raised out of steel in the swamps of Jersey." It remembers games played and blood spilled, and envisions the stadium's fate, when "all this steel and these stories, they drift away to rust/and all our youth and beauty's been given to the dust." Typically, Mr. Springsteen was thinking about work, mortality, and a sense of place, on his way to a chorus where everyone could join in.

He wasn't overly sentimental. Later, he pointedly called Giants Stadium "the last bastion of affordable sports seating."

At each of the Giants Stadium concerts, Mr. Springsteen played one of his albums all the way through, and the one he chose for Friday was his 1984 blockbuster, "Born in the U.S.A." Before he started the title track, he said it was "the song we started out with the first time we entered this arena."... [NY Times]

I already posted all five Giants Stadium setlists (first four shows & Friday night). More pictures from the final show, below...

Continue reading "Bruce Springsteen @ Giants Stadium for the last time - pics"

Posted by brooklynvegan at 5:22 PM | Comments (22)

October 7, 2009

Suzanne Fiol (ISSUE Project Room), RIP

The sad letter Brooklyn venue ISSUE Project Room sent out, below...

Continue reading "Suzanne Fiol (ISSUE Project Room), RIP "

Posted by brooklynvegan at 12:59 AM | Comments (8)

September 30, 2009

in case anyone was wondering, The Annex is closed

I just got an email asking if there was any truth to my post about LES club the Annex closing. That reminded me that I did leave that one with a "?" on it. So just to confirm, the venue closed on September 12th.

Ruff Club held their final party there on September 11th. On September 17th, DJ & promoter Spencer Product wrote:

As we close in on the one week anniversary of the end of three and a half years of Ruff Club..and the Annex, I think (as I speak for myself) recovery has been reached. It was an epic evening. Men were great live ! The A.R.E. Weapons kicked ass as usual and everyone who came made this night amazing ! Thank YOU, New York ! Stay tuned to this website for new events, projects, ideas, thoughts, pictures ...and whatever the hell else we decide to put up! Love, Product

Ruff Club's Danny Le Nimh then posted a video of his final walk through of the club on September 16th. You can watch that below...

Continue reading "in case anyone was wondering, The Annex is closed "

Posted by brooklynvegan at 1:26 PM | Comments (23)

September 29, 2009

Knitting Factory in LA closing, eventually moving +++++++++ Neil Hamburger playing Knitting Factory in Brooklyn

Neil Hamburger @ Knitting Factory in Manhattan in 2008 (more by Lori Baily)

The days are officially numbered for Hollywood's Knitting Factory. The club, says a spokesman, will host its last show on Oct. 25, with pop-punk band Hit the Lights currently booked on the venue's final day.

Pop & Hiss reported in July that the Knitting Factory intended to leave its current location at 7021 Hollywood Blvd. at the end of October. The club's lease is up Oct. 31, and there were no last-minute changes of heart.

"We are definitely not staying here," says the club's head of promotion and publicity, Bruce Duff, via email.

The Knitting Factory's flier for its final Hollywood shows teases a new venue opening in 2010. Duff says nothing has yet been finalized on a new locale, although "several are in the running."
[LA Times]

Here in NY our Knitting Factory went through something similar with the location switching from Manhattan to Brooklyn where funnyman Neil Hamburger is performing on November 11th! JP Incorporated and Jonny Corndawg open the show. Tickets are on sale.

Posted by brooklynvegan at 10:48 AM | Comments (6)

September 16, 2009

Kutschers Resort and Country Club is for sale

Established full service Resort in the Catskill Mountains in continuous business for over 100 years; 18 hole golf course and clubhouse, min convention center with auditorium and/or nightclub which seats over 1,700. Dining room with full service kitchen seats 1,200+. see brochure of full list of amenities.

Located in Sullivan County, New York, close to Route 17 (future IS 86), 88 miles to NYC metro market and GWB

Own a piece of the Borscht Belt. Kutschers can be yours for just $12,000,000. If you get it though, just make sure you keep having ATP there. In fact, just turn it into a year-round, music fantasy weekend getaway.

Posted by brooklynvegan at 9:47 PM | Comments (24)

Sound Fix is open -- Damon & Naomi are playing an in-store

Sound Fix Records is open at their new Brooklyn location. The address is 44 Berry Street, on the corner of N. 11th. It's just one block from their old store, and they're hosting in-stores again. The first will be this Saturday (9/19) at 2pm with Damon & Naomi who are also playing Le Poisson Rouge with A Hawk and a Hacksaw that same night.

D & N have a new DVD coming out called "1001 Nights". It isn't released until September 29th, but you'll be able to pick one up at both shows if you go.

Posted by brooklynvegan at 12:42 PM | Comments (5)

September 14, 2009

Herc & Love Affair/Fischerspooner playing MoMA, Jessica 6 playing w/ Yura Yura Teikoku & New Languages Fest (lineup)

by Andrew Frisicano

Hercules & Love Affair @ MHOW in August (more by Sara Skolnick)

Hercules & Love Affair's Andy Butler was one of the many DJs at the Electric Zoo Festival that happened over Labor Day weekend. At the fest he was billed as himself, but on September 26th he'll be DJing as H&LA at MoMA MiXX, a new series of dance parties at the museum.

MoMA MiXX uniquely pairs together major artists with world-renowned musicians or DJs, with each featured performer spinning a set of music that night. The Agnes Gund Garden Lobby will be transformed into a dance floor, and MoMA's Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium will serve as a lounge area complete with bars. The money raised benefits the exhibition programming for The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.

Opening up the first night will be DJ sets by Justin Carter and Eamon Harkin (of the Mister Saturday Night series among other things). The paired artists are Mickalene Thomas and Derrick Adams. Tickets are on sale, though they're not cheap...

Tickets for each event are $75 per person (or $200 for the first three events), and include an open bar.

The next two events in the series are planned for January and April 2010.

Also on the way, the museum is hosting Between Worlds, an evening-length "pop spectacle" performance by Fischerspooner on November 1st. Tickets TBA. (MoMA is also still running Looking at Music: Side 2, and will be showing a Spike Jonze retrospective with No Age in October.)

Hercules & Love Affair played two live shows in NYC in August. At them, they debuted their new current (but probably not permanent) lineup of Shaun Wright, Aerea Negrot, Kim Ann Foxman, Mark Pistel and Andy Butler.

In the past, Hercules & Love Affair's lineup prominently featured singer Nomi Ruiz. More recently, she's been playing with Jessica 6. They opened for CocoRosie's return-to-NYC show at the beginning of September. Coming up, they're opening for Japanese psych rock band Yura Yura Teikoku at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on September 18th. Then the next night (Sept. 19th), they play as part of the New Languages Festival, which runs for six nights (starting Thursday, Sept. 17th) on two weekends at McCarren Hall in Brooklyn (on 98 Bayard St, an address that might sound familiar). Tickets are available at the door only.

For Japan's Yura Yura Teikoku, the MHOW is one of three upcoming US dates they have scheduled. The other two are opening for Yo La Tengo on Tuesday (9/15) and Wednesday in Vermont and Boston. Their new album "Hollow Me", which includes their recent EP "Beautiful", is out September 14, 2009 on DFA's Death From Abroad label (which helps explain the Jessica 6 connection). Album tracklist and NYC show flyer below.

The whole lineup for the jazz-based New Languages Festival, which "attempts to provide a panoramic view of 21st century jazz in New York City," is pretty diverse and spectacular. It includes Akoya Afrobeat, which matches the sound of Fela Kuti almost note for note (and integrates some of his songs into their rep), drummer Mike Pride's From Bacteria to Boys combo (who recorded a live session for WFMU in April), a set led by noted improviser and avant-jazz composer Tim Berne, and an opening night performance by Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, whose debut, Infernal Machines, came out in May on New Amsterdam Records.

The full schedule of shows and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Herc & Love Affair/Fischerspooner playing MoMA, Jessica 6 playing w/ Yura Yura Teikoku & New Languages Fest (lineup)"

Posted by brooklynvegan at 1:17 PM | Comments (6)