With the closure of Market Hotel a few weeks ago, the future of DIY venues across Brooklyn is now under greater scrutiny. What will happen with other artist-friendly spaces? Will they be able to pick up the slack? Will Market Hotel reopen as discussed as a “spiritual home for indie rock”?
With so much talk of this recently, it’s even more important to draw greater attention to the venues and promoters that are flourishing, one of which is a small loft space called Fort Useless, run by the tireless Jeremiah McVay, who also has been heading up the music website StereoactiveNYC.com for years.
Fort Useless is a much smaller space than Market Hotel and many other venues Todd P has put on shows, but that hasn’t stopped McVay from hosting a variety of well-put together events, including such bands as Mama Bear, Pow Wow, and Dinosaur Feathers. McVay has been an outspoken supporter of bands he believes in, especially when those bands are way under the radar of other NYC-center music publications.
This weekend Fort Useless hosts a pair of noteworthy events:
Friday, April 30 // 8:30pm
Spit-take Friday
stand-up and sketch comedy hosted by George Flanagan
performers, starting at 9pm:
Stephanie Holmes
Vince Averill
Sara Schaefer
I’m particularly excited about the show on Saturday night:
DOORS (8pm)
Magnetic Island (former Renminbi) (9:30pm)
http://www.myspace.com/magneticislandband
The Binary Marketing Show (10:30pm)
http://www.myspace.com/thebinarymarketingshow
Presented by StereoactiveNYC
The Binary Marketing Show is a band not afraid to step away from the usual indie rock instrumentation, mixing drum samples with extremely effected vocals and twisting song structures. They’ve gotten the standard Animal Collective comparisons, but they are really doing their own take on post-pop that has a more shambolic edge to it. Their set should be a joy to see in such an intimate setting, so come check it out and support the DIY spaces we do still have!
