Results tagged “websterhall”

   

Click on the images for more about this Week in Rock; this week features Kanye at Webster Hallt, Spank Rock at Siren and on the Williamsburg Bridge, and a Gothamist House (at CMJ) announcement!

This weekend marks the 2nd annual All Points West festival, and Jay-Z (filling in for the Beastie Boys) is set to headline the first night at the Liberty State Park venue. What's the best way to warm up for a mostly indie crowd? Secretly join the lineup tonight for the pre-APW Diesel party going down at Webster Hall; the lineup features The Roots, Passion Pit and Drake. Blackbook says they have it on good authority this rumor's got legs, providing a detailed list as to why (Lykke Li fans, they also say she'll be stopping by)—#5 on that list claims, "an unnamed source close to the event says that Hov’s showing up to jam on a few songs at the end of The Roots’ set.“ Oh, and his sister-in-law, Solange Knowles, was already announced as a special guest. And a quick note for those heading to APW this weekend: the Observer talked to organizer Paul Tollet, who says the kinks should all be worked out this year—regarding the lines, he told them, “We felt there were a lot of things we didn’t like about last year. I walked around as a fan and stood in those lines, and when you go stand in that line, you get mad."

You'd think over-charging for drinks (including water) for all these years would have given them a nice financial cushion...but allegedly Webster Hall is in debt and in danger of closing. DBTH reports that "the club is in serious arrears to the City, State and vendors, and may be on the verge of declaring bankruptcy." It's the usual story of overdue rent, bounced checks, back taxes, bills piling up and creditors knocking on the door. "They are looking for some kind of bail out from the state (for the taxes issues) and the landlord (apparently they would like their rent lowered by half until things "get better")." Guess their new Studio venture hasn't been bringing in the cash, but maybe the bridge & tunnel crowd that pack into the place on club nights can help bring in the $600K they need. Nightclub shenanigans aside, it would be a shame to see the place shutter, considering it's been open since the late 1800s and hosting music since the 1950s.

It used to be that only Phish and Dead fans got to hear live recordings of the shows they attended, thanks to the band's many taping fans. Now the NY Times reports that, following building a recording studio downstairs, Webster Hall will give fans the option to buy a freshly pressed CD of a show after the curtains are drawn. "This downtown New York club, a haven for indie rock bands, has reached an agreement with Best Buy to sell recordings of live shows at the chain’s stores in the New York area. Performances will also be available through iTunes and Webster Hall’s own Web site. Bands that choose to take part will receive half the revenue from the recordings and be exempted from the cost of recording and producing discs, with the right to pull out if they don’t like the way they sound." Could this kind of idea save the sinking music industry?

After recent renovations, the rock club Webster Hall is attempting to bring more rock to counterbalance its heavy "club" reputation. The Times takes a peek at the new look of the 123-year-old club trying to span the gamut of musical genres in the same way that big music festivals around the country have been able to succeed in the iPod era. One fellow club owner said, “It’s not an easy transition to become a rock club, and they’re not necessarily going after the same audience...But they have a great location, and...they should do fine.” The Times went to a recent CSS show at Webster and noted how "cheesy dance tunes" like Marky Mark's "Good Vibrations" served as house music before the band hit the stage. A 22-year-old woman in attendance said, "When I was 10 and listening to Z100, they would keep saying, ‘Come hear the beats at Webster Hall.' I guess I finally did.”

Recently landmarked Webster Hall is undergoing some renovations, building a venue inside the venue called The Studio. The new downstairs performance space will hold around 275 people, and is set to open just in time for CMJ (around October 21st). A venue rep tells us that they plan on having shows "every night of the week" but would like to include a party night on Mondays and a comedy night on Sundays. Don't fear, B&T crew, the club nights upstairs will still go on.

A tipster points out that after 90-minutes of playing Webster Hall last night, "Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes got into a disagreement with the sound man over the volume of the monitor. The next thing we knew he was being escorted off the stage. We all stood around yelling obscenities at the management and throwing plastic cups at security. This lasted for about an hour until we were slowly corralled onto the street." The crowd eventually left what this tipster calls a "rotten facist venue." Whoa there, let's fill in the gaps.

Staten Island singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson found fame through the small screen before hitting airwaves nationwide. Last year one of her songs was featured in the season finale of Grey's Anatomy (video), only to be followed by another one of her songs being picked up for an Old Navy ad (video). Needless to say she went from getting write-ups in the Staten Island Advance, to getting them in the NY Times.

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist.

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist.

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist.

Kevin Drew (myspace) is one of the founding members by the wildly successful Canadian art-rock collective Broken Social Scene. The daring, inventive band boasts a fluctuating roster of artists who shift in and out of the line-up depending on their various other musical pursuits; another BSS member, Leslie Feist, is currently absorbed with her suddenly massive solo career, which exploded into mainstream America after her song “1 2 3 4” became an iPod commercial. As...

EVENT: Tonight Duncan Sheik (ah, we still remember when he sang "Barely Breathing" at the Peach Pit After Dark) and Steven Sater pair up for a Spring Awakening book signing. They will be joined from 5–5:30pm by Spring Awakening cast members Jennifer Damiano and John Gallagher, Jr., who will perform acoustic versions of two song selections from the show at the signing. 5 to 7pm // Drama Book Shop [250 W 40th St] // Free...

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EVENT: Berlin takes over New York this month with the Berlin in Lights Festival. Through the 18th you can soak up the German city through film, music, art, architecture and more. This evening you can check out a couple of Berlin-esque events. First up is the "Urban Design and Memorials" dialogue. A panel discussion which will touch on the "challenges of integrating memorials into the urban fabric, and how Berlin and New York address issues...

Jens Lekman is one of our favorite songwriters, so any opportunity to see the funnyman crooner play is a treat, no matter the circumstances. The set at Webster Hall was generally excellent. Bordering on Magical, in fact, a perfect mix of his old and new -- mixing in Swedish deadpan quips and stories the whole time through. The only knock we had came from the venue, which we usually enjoy. The sound was fine, the site lines were good, the bands came out on time, but on this night, they started opening up the night club a little bit earlier. Around 30 minutes into his set, the thumping dance beats could be felt through the floor loud and strong enough that you could actually make out the song at times. It was distracting, to say the least, especially during the quieter songs. It even forced a puzzled Jens to ask what was going on during his encore, before attempting to play along to the beat. Webster Hall has taken giant strides over the last few years to become a perfectly good rock venue, but an extra layer of soundproofing would go a long way to remove the cheesy dance club stigma for the concert attendees. (pic via Ryan Dombal's flickr)

The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted yesterday to landmark eight new sites in four of the city's boroughs - the Bronx loses out. City Room details the new landmarks, which include the Lord & Taylor building, the white brick Manhattan House, two homes on Grand St., the Standard Varnish Works Factory building (its owner thinks the designation is bad for business) and the Greek-Revival style Fillette Tyler Mansion in Staten Island and the Voelker-Orth Museum, Bird Sanctuary and Victorian Garden in Queens. There's a more detailed account of LPC's hearing on Monday here. East Village institutions like Webster Hall and the brick and terra-cotta 11th St. bathhouse, among others, are proposed for designation. The Sun's Eliot Brown has more.

These days people tend to complain about Webster Hall more than they praise it. The drinks are expensive (even a water will set you back 4 bucks), the shows are too early and the nightclubs below the venue's main room are hopping with the B&T crowd. On the other hand, the stage has hosted some great bands, and the lighting always looks nice...so it may just be time to pay some respect to the place as it gets one step closer to being Landmarked.

FAIR: The International vintage poster fair has arrived. It's time to take that ironic velvet Elvis off the wall and class up your joint. The fair will include "over 25 international dealers with more than 10,000 original vintage posters." More info here.

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television:

When 9/11 hit, Jonah Ray was attending community college, but the catastrophe of that one September day made him drop out, move to LA, and pursue a career in comedy. Since then, he's become a fixture of the Los Angeles's alt comedy scene, appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Comedy Central's Live at Gotham, written for the Andy Milonakis Show, played the role of Clancy Mole Man on Adult Swim's Saul of the Molemen, and had a successful series on Turner Broadcasting's Superdeluxe.com . His off beat sensibility and personality is leading him down the path to comedy success and to Pianos on October 30th , opening for Man Man at Webster Hall on October 2nd , and the UCB Theater's Crash Test on October 1st.

After over eight years of relentless touring and quiet musical evolution, Austin-based indie-rockers Okkervil River broke out in 2004 with Black Sheep Boy, a captivating album fueled in no small part by front-man Will Sheff’s lacerating vocals and careening compositions that thrillingly threatened to fall apart at every turn. But on the band’s latest release, The Stage Names, Sheff finds a different source of musical propulsion with a more subdued approach; the lacerations are often eschewed for a gentler sort of lyrical storytelling. This slight change in tack has perhaps alienated some in the fan message board camp, but other newer listeners have found the band more accessible. And more significantly, Sheff has firmly demonstrated his determination to let the band musically meander any way they like. Gothamist recently spoke to Sheff via telephone from California, where Okkervil River is once again on a tour that rolls through Webster Hall on Friday. (Tickets.)

Those who missed out on getting tickets to the electrospazzy one-two punch of Dan Deacon and Girl Talk at Webster Hall last Saturday night fell into a bit of luck as the weekend approached. A last minute, late night show was announced for Bowery Ballroom that same night, and the formerly out of luck were now sitting pretty, seeing the two perform in a smaller room at a better hour and for less money. Great deal, right? Well, not so fast. By the time Dan Deacon came on around 12:45, the place was a total disaster. Puke in every sink, girls crying on the sofas and drunk kids getting hauled out of there so frequently by security it started looking like a WTO protest. While this didn't directly affect the music, Girl Talk in particular, who then followed Deacon's hypnotizing set, relies so much on the behavior and interactivity of the crowd that it really became quite a chore to enjoy. Far be it from us to tell the majority of the crowd at a concert they were behaving poorly, but surely we weren't the only ones who were distracted and annoyed my the amateur antics on display. Then again, maybe we've just outgrown the shtick. (pic via JKART's flickr)

Bebel Gilberto was born in New York City to legendary musicians João Gilberto and Miúcha. Raised in Brazil, she made frequent trips back to her hometown -- even performing at Carnegie Hall before her age was in the double digits. 13 years ago she made the move back here and has continued to create music on her own and with other musicians. Her latest album, Momento, is her first in three years and tomorrow night she'll be playing some of those new tunes at Webster Hall.

In their quest to take over New York, Bowery Presents is opening yet another venue! Ask just about anyone (and we have) and they'll say that the Bowery Ballroom is their favorite place to see and/or play music - so who better to open even more spaces than the creators of that one?

(pic via Muzikspy's Flickr)

(pic via Ear Farm)

Yesterday saw the release of The Walk, the 7th studio album from Hanson. Yes, that Hanson. Over a decade has passed since "MMMBop" hit the airwaves, and now the Hanson boys are all grown up into men. Men who rock!