Former Glasslands Owners Will Open New Bushwick Venue This Fall
Two Octobers ago, the music venue Glasslands Gallery announced that its last day of operation would be New Years Eve 2014. The venue was helmed by Rami Haykal and Jake Rosenthal of PopGun Presents and undoubtedly changed the landscape of Williamsburg at the time by becoming hot spot for innovative, important artists like Blood Orange, Lana Del Rey, Charli XCX, Grimes, and FKA Twigs and many, many more.
Their final show, Lastlands boasted a lineup featuring DIIV, Sky Ferreira, The Smith Westerns, and Beverly–though these performers weren’t announced until the day of the event. Fast forward two years and the duo behind Glasslands’ heyday, PopGun Presents, has some exciting news for those of us still mourning the closure of Glasslands.
This fall the PopGun Presents Group–which now includes Dhruv Chopra, who advised at Glasslands as a member–will open the doors of a new venue in Bushwick called Elsewhere. The venue is a converted warehouse located at 599 Johnson Avenue, just a few blocks from the Jefferson L stop. This area has suddenly become a haven for music lovers, as there are several venues within walking distance like Our Wicked Lady, Shea Stadium, and Alphaville–to name a few.
Glasslands definitely had an expansive list of performers, but for the programming at Elsewhere, PopGun is planning to push the envelope even further. They still want to focus on emerging artists, but they’d like to better reflect the city’s broad range of taste nationalities and styles.
“I was actually living in Bushwick in the early days of booking Glasslands,” said Hayka, who will serve as the main curator of the space. “A big challenge was trying to convince national and international touring bands to come play Williamsburg for their US debut shows instead of the Lower East Side. Those venues were better facilities, but Brooklyn had energy. Bushwick reminds of that time, there’s a chance to give our artists and audiences a home again, more than just open another venue.”
With the experience of running Glasslands under their belt the group is well-versed on what it takes to make a venue run smoothly. They’re dedicated to making Elsewhere as desirable a location as will allow: the venue will be complete with “industrial air conditioning, a sizable coat-check area, multiple bars… and plentiful bathrooms” declared the New York Times piece on the venue. The listening experience will be far from average, too. Elsewhere will be equipped with a four point L-Acoustics sound system which can be heard from rooms across the venue, a feature that is geared toward the expansive nature of the space.
This venue isn’t at all a rushed venture to make up for the loss of Glasslands; the group has been searching for a new location since winter of 2013, before speculation about Glasslands’ closure even began. The space they’ve found for Elsewhere seems ideal–it houses five separate sections, including a 5,000 square foot performance hall that will be used primarily for live and dance music, as well as a space for multidisciplinary artists.
For emerging artists, the space will have a smaller performance space, and aside from performance spaces, there will be a large rooftop space called the Loft Bar that obviously, offers a full bar, and will serve as a space for film nights, parties, and open air art installations. Aside from these nighttime amenities, Elsewhere’s indoor bar will be open during the day serving coffee and a small food menu. But perhaps the most exciting element for the venue’s new plans is their Skybridge Gallery, a small art gallery that will float above the outdoor courtyard and be reserved for exhibiting artwork. The venue is slated to open this fall, so keep your eyes peeled for more information on exact dates and future shows.