There’s several different rooms of darkly-lit, spacious floors that are perfect for slip-sliding away on, and the place books a wide variety of ridiculously talented DJs and other purveyors of electronic music that will get your body moving. If you are trying to dance, go to Good Room. Again, you won’t find well-known names on any of the bills here, but you just might catch a nobody before they rise to the top.īest For: Enid’s across the street has great booths, too, but this place is… matchless. As for the music lineup, it goes from heavy metal karaoke to local indie rock and back again. It also opens at 3pm and has a decent happy hour, so keep that in mind for your day-drinking needs. This bar hosts everything from live comedy to screenings of important cultural events and the occasional live music show. (Fun fact: it’s also the place where one of our 9 NYC Bands You Need To hear, Ohal, made her live debut.) Don’t expect to see many familiar names on the bill, though, these bands are as experimental and obscure as they come.īest For: When you say you’re into experimental music (and you really mean it.) Bar Matchless The Gutter is still mostly a bowling alley, but their little spare room has been used by plenty of local and touring acts alike to give Brooklyn a little taste of live music for a cheap (read: almost always $5 cover) price. Here’s some of the best places to catch a live show in your neighborhood.įor some reason the bowling alleys in New York always tend to do double duty–just down the street Brooklyn Bowl does a triple play with fried chicken, lanes, and a venue space–but I digress. From underground and off-the-books communal gatherings, to those valiantly fighting to the good fight to keep their DIY spaces alive in the shadow of monolithic corporate takeovers (*continuously pours one out for Glasslands, 285 Kent and Death By Audio*), the borough of homes and churches has begun to flip both of those spaces into makeshift music venues just to house and display all the talent that’s nesting in this city. While Manhattan shoulders on with the ever-cramped City Winery, flashlight-toting waiters drilling their way through Le Poisson Rouge while your favorite band is reaching an emotional peak, and the (shudder) terrible sightlines and trek to Terminal 5, Brooklyn has taken things firmly into its own hands.
Live music is one of the hallmarks of New York City, and in more recent years, specifically our beloved borough of Brooklyn. Check out the Northside music lineup, and consider picking up a badge or some single-show tickets. We’ll be rolling out lots of great music-related content this week, including our picks for the 9 NYC bands you need to hear, a look at Brooklyn’s best recording studios, and much, much more.
By Caitlin White With this year’s Northside Festival fast approaching (June 6-12), we figured it was a good time to check in on the local music scene, to get more in tune with the community we’ll be celebrating come June.