Let’s Get Intimate: Sampling Brooklyn’s Smaller Music Venues

Annie Keating On The Stoop / photo by Ehud Lazin / courtesy of Sideways-Media

Brooklyn has a great number of what singer-songwriter Annie Keating, a lifelong Brooklynite ,calls our borough’s “mighty little music venues.” Here’s a sampling of some of the more intimate, seated spaces, ranging in capacity from a couple of dozen seats to just over 100. Some of our other featured artists also offer their impressions of these venues.

At the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival in 2017/ photo by B.L.Howard

Redhook’s Jalopy Theatre is folk central in Brooklyn. Its’ Wednesday night “Roots and Ruckus” series, for example, has become a gathering place for folk musicians from all over the world. Jalopy also hosts the opening night gala for the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival every September, as well as being the hub of the Brooklyn International Music Festival and the Brooklyn Folk Festival in June and November, respectively. In addition to regularly hosting numerous local musicians, visiting artists such as Deni Bonet, Abby Gardner and The Kennedys have also played there.

The Owl Music Parlor in Prospect Lefferts Gardens is aptly named; seeing a show there is like hosting a concert in your living room. It’s owned and operated by local musicians Oren Bloedow and Jennfier Charles, co-founders of the band Elysian Fields. Among Owl’s fans and frequent guests is critically acclaimed, award winning Brooklyn singer-songwriter Jean Rohe.

One of Brooklyn’s smallest venues, Barbès in South Slope has presented more than 18,000 events since it opened in May of 2002. Hosting both local and international artists, it’s a place Sari Schorr told Brooklyn Roads she likes to go “to catch an astonishing variety of eclectic music.” That variety includes jazz and world music, among other genres. Among local artists who have monthly residencies there are Tamar Korn, Stephanie Wremble, Andy Statman Trio and Slavic Soul Party.

Bodega/ photo by Mert Gafuroglu / courtesy of Pitch Perfect PR

Ben Hozie of the punk-rock band Bodega told us that Elsewhere in Bushwick “is fun because there are two sound stages and also a labyrinth of various rooms and hallways where you could hang out.” Among these spaces is Zone One, an intimate, seated room dedicated to emerging artists, in line with the venue’s overall stated focus on “underground and unbound music presented with love.”

Mariela Flor Olivo / photo by Michael Phillip Geffner, Inspired Word NYC / courtesy of the artist

Also in Bushwick, the five-year-old, state-of-the-art Sultan Room has a smattering of permanent seats for early arrivers with a potential seating capacity of 115, although most shows are primarily standing. Mariela Flor Olivo of the band Camp Bedford tells us that she likes that the venue can “provide both an intimate setting and all-out rock n’ roll vibe completely dependent on the artist present.”

While its bar and restaurant give Williamsburg’s less-than-a-year-old Brooklyn Art Haus a larger footprint than the aforementioned venues, it’s home to an ultra-intimate, 24-seat performing space, which currently hosts the every-third-Thursday Folkus NYC series, as well as a somewhat larger second room and a lounge/reception area, which recently hosted a CD release party for local singer-songwriter Brianna Lowe’s I’m Here Already. For musicians, rehearsal studios are also on site.