Relive the glory days of loud-ass live music via video footage from simpler times—more specifically, July 19, 2019, a sweaty summer evening captured on the upcoming record Brooklyn Drum Collective Presents… Live at Our Wicked Lady
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The last live music I experienced before the world came crashing down was an Estrella-soaked show indoors at Our Wicked Lady, celebrating the Shadow Year EP release with a killer Bloodless bill also featuring big faves Grace Ludmila, Shred Flintstone and Been Stellar. It got rowdy. It got sweaty. I got drunk. And mid-way through the show, someone on stage announced that Tom Hanks had coronavirus. A few weeks later, everything was closed.
Fast forward six months, and live music has sort of returned, though in a limited capacity and a very different format, At “incidental” shows— “sidewalk surprises,” if you will—outside of Our Wicked Lady, I’ve recently seen Ashjesus, Extra Special, Color Tongue, New Myths, Nevva and more perform in a majorly stripped-down fashion, the bands doing their best to project over the motorcycles gunning down Morgan and the dump trucks rumbling down Meserole while the seated crowd of fans, friends and OWL regulars cheer them on, the artists and the audience having no choice but to laugh at the absolute absurdity of the situation.
These shows have been amazing. They’ve scratched a BIG itch, they’ve been a blast and they’ve truly brought me life.
But damn, I still really, really miss the rowdy, crowded, sweaty insanity that is a packed rock show // shit show. And while experiencing that isn’t a possibility right now (for good reason, to be sure), well, I’m excited to share that there is one way we can all be transported, at least in the sonic sense, to those glory days for a bit.
ENTER: Brooklyn Drum Collective Presents… Live at Our Wicked Lady, a new live record recorded on the OWL rooftop last summer and set to be released on October 16th through Brooklyn Drum Collective, “an organization that brings aspiring and working musicians together to share valuable experience and knowledge.” (Pre-order here!)
“Brooklyn Drum Collective Presents… Live at Our Wicked Lady captures the talent and excitement of four incredible Brooklyn bands as they light up the stage of one of New York’s best underground venues,” Brooklyn Drum Collective founder and director Carlo Minchillo told me over email. “When you hear these recordings from this magical night, you’ll feel like you’ve been transported to the front of the audience, reliving the fun and excitement of a Brooklyn rock show.”
The record—proceeds from which go to OWL and the Black Lives Matter movement— features songs from True Dreams, Catty, PowerSnap and Bizarre Sharks, and I’m super stoked here to premiere some accompanying content and a sneak preview of the album via an exclusive live video of Bizarre Sharks performing “She’s a Cult” that evening last summer.
“‘She’s A Cult’ is a song about infatuation – when you’re beyond into someone, you worship them and build them up into some sort of mythical figure,” Bizarre Sharks told us of the track. “It’s not a particularly healthy emotion and the structure of the song is meant to reflect the power and chaos of those feelings.”
The band also filled us in on what it was like to be a part of this project:
“Bizarre Sharks is really thrilled to be a part of the Brooklyn Drum Collective’s first live album. When we played the show, we didn’t know it was being recorded. Then, with live music and shows completely absent in the midst of the quarantine, hearing these recordings felt like a reunion with a close friend. What a wonderful surprise to find out that Carlo had captured this moment to share it with the world. We know that nothing compares to seeing music in person but we think this record has bottled some of that lightning and will help you feel a bit of that feeling. We hope it helps you ride out quarantine with a smile until live music triumphantly returns.”
I agree with it all. And I can’t fucking wait.
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Pre-order the EP now at brooklyndrumcollective.bandcamp.com. Follow Bizarre Sharks at @bizarresharks and Brooklyn Drum Collective at @brooklyndrumcollective.
Feature image: Mike Petzinger Photography
Video edited by Manny Nomikos