photos by Vincent Cornelli

"1st free show this summer included: scary Drake fans, chairs flying, mase, riots, & scared cops. Should have went to Dan Deacon." - Sasha Camacho

"Dan Deacon Ensemble was truly amazing. Such a great show
and intense audience." - Nick Helderman

While Drake (and Hanson) was causing chaos at South Street Seaport, Dan Deacon was leading group activities over in Red Hook Park. More pictures (though none of opener Lower Dens) and some videos from the free Brooklyn Summerstage show, below...

Continue reading "Dan Deacon Ensemble played Red Hook Park (pics & video) "

Continue reading "Jenny went on a date w/ Pavement to Red Hook IKEA (video)"

Down Home Radio is proud to announce the 1st annual Brooklyn Folk Festival, Friday, May 15th - Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at the Jalopy Theater. This festival will feature the best in old-time music, blues, pre-blues, jug band music, New Orleans jazz, folk style songwriting, African folk music and Mexican folk music and dance. Come down and check it out, its gonna be fun!

Continue reading "1st annual Brooklyn Folk Festival - lineup & schedule"

Hello Brooklyn? No comment on the name. More details on the new Red Hook Brooklyn venue below...

Continue reading "'Hello Brooklyn' = The Hook renovated -- reopening tonight"

MTV isn't talking about where it will film the 21st season of its "Real World" reality show, but in Red Hook, everyone knows the real deal.

The hardscrabble home of Fairway and the hot new Ikea is clearly ready for its close up now that MTV has confirmed that it had abandoned the BellTel Lofts building Downtown.

As The Brooklyn Paper reported last Thursday, sluggish renovations of the luxury condo led MTV to seek a new spot, this one on Pier 41 at Van Dyke Street. Greg O'Connell who owns Pier 41 admitted that he had "signed some papers," but wouldn't say more.

Others in the neighborhood gave far juicier details.

"They came in to ask us to sign a waiver last night," said barista Claire Moore from the popular coffee hangout, Baked, on Van Brunt Street, adding that the producer was excited to find such a "cute" place to set a scene for laid-back Red Hook life...
[The Brooklyn Paper]

Santogold video shoot in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY - June 18, 2008

Gothamist stopped by that Santogold video shoot in Red Hook Yesterday, possibly on their way to the opening of the new IKEA.

Amy spotted the above sign in Red Hook today.

You probably already heard that Converse is giving away a song written by Pharrell Williams, N.E.R.D., Santogold and Julian Casablancas "as part of the brand's Century celebration". I put the whole press release for that one below....

Continue reading "Converse recording artist Santogold filming in Red Hook"

Red Hook Park & Rec Center
Bay St. btwn. Henry St. & Clinton St.
Tuesday, August 5th: Jungle Brothers
Tuesday, August 12th: BT Express
Tuesday, August 19th: Michael Stuart

The barge’s historical mission and the popular “Circus Sundays” will continue, but the concerts, which have encompassed almost every form of music from a swing-era revival big band to a Southern solo blues guitarist, are now a thing of the past.

So says Capt. David Sharps, president of the historic former railroad barge, which is docked at Red Hook.

The reason, he says, is that he has been asked not to serve liquor at his concerts, due to liability concerns, by Greg O’Connell, the Red Hook developer who gives him space to dock his barge for free. Even if the concerts went on without liquor, he said, they would degenerate into a “BYOB [bring your own bottle] type of affair,” Sharps fears. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

Someone from The Hook got in touch to let me know that they're not going out just like that. There will be one final party at the closing venue on October 27th, and strangely - it will be a Halloween party called "The Death of Astroland" - "a laying rest of the Coney Island we all once knew". So basically the final party at the Red Hook venue will be in honor of the closing of Astroland in Coney Island. I guess, why not? More details below....

Continue reading "The Hook - not totally closed just yet"

This past Saturday August 25th, 2007, a bunch of bands from Ohio played The Hook in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, and they called it ClevelandFest. Nate from The Apiary (who happens to be from Cleveland) was there.....

"You better watch out with that shirt around these parts, you could get yourself hurt," the big galoot of a doorman at The Hook lazily slurred. You mean here? At ClevelandFest? I am wearing a Cleveland Indians tee (Grady Sizemore). "It's you who better watch out, you dildo," I say internally. For tonight, the spirit of Ohio shimmers like the golden sands of a Lake Erie beach on one of the 40 days a year they're not issued biohazardous swimming advisories. Midwestern ex-pats from across NYC have assembled into this desolate and grey strip of Red Hook to see the first ever ClevelandFest, a rock show celebration/mill-about featuring 15 bands, all from Cleveland, Ohio.

I slink into the bar expecting to see Big Chuck and Lil' John mosh dancing to Mushroomhead while a perky Romona Robinson works the merch booth, pushing hoodies, Terminal Tower trinkets, and Malley's chocolates. Maybe there'd be an area where we can take virtual reality tours of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Or get free copies of The Plain Dealer? There wasn't any of that. I was however greeted warmly by two ticket-takers who looked like somebody's mom and dad. These people turned out to be the parents of the dude who organized this thing: Alex Lombardo - an upbeat former Cleveland native and current designer at Rolling Stone. I grabbed a beer, checked to see if Derek Hess was lingering about, then watched Roger Hoover and the Whiskyhounds' boot stomping set before I ventured into the venue's courtyard....

Continue reading "Nate went to ClevelandFEST 2007 @ The Hook, Brooklyn, NY"