There was a day not long ago that I convinced myself that I’d never see a show in a classy Brooklyn joint like this. I used to see shows I wanted to attend listed online at places like North 6th and various other legit Williamsburg music venues (not the broom closets that almost every bar and Laundromat in the ‘burg seems to have) that just seemed beyond my reach. After all, there were plenty of places in Manhattan to see dudes with guitars and fancy hair flaunt their bad tattoos and tuneless tunes to the masses. I didn’t need to get on a damn subway across a river — but they had such good shows. And then some of the places started closing. And North 6 was no more. Or, more importantly, it became MHW (I can call it that; we’re that close). And this place became that place and things opened and closed and more wealthy white kids with trust funds and guitars on their backs moved into the ‘hood and things got all crazy and shit. And with all that, I got on a subway to see a free show through work at… a legit music hall in Brooklyn. The entry way is not the most regal thing in the world, but going downstairs to the bar gave me this soaring sense of déjà vu. If you had blindfolded me and dropped me at the bar, I would have sworn I was at the Bowery Ballroom. It makes sense, of course, with this being a Bowery Presents venue, but the similarities are uncanny (though the BB certainly has some more wear to it). And, as luck would have it, I love The Bowery Ballroom, with its square, wrap around bar and mellow atmosphere. The music space itself is a great size with decent site lines and a couple floors for lots of railing standing room around both floors. I happened to see Cults that night, whose sound has that kind of echoey thing, so it’s not necessarily a decent measure of the acoustics, but I stood along the raised side platform of the small-ish square space watching from beside a slightly nudgey dude who kept trying to move into my space along the railing. All in all I really liked this place, and someday I will again get my hipster passport stamped at this, the scene of my first ever legit Brooklyn music experience. [MF]
66 N 6th St., Brooklyn
718/486-5400
musichallofwilliamsburg.com
