via Yelp

That is some parking lot.

​About two weeks after playing a sold-out show at Terminal 5, one of the city's biggest venues that doesn't also double as a sports arena, the rollicking indiepop bands Real Estate has a show lined up in the back room of a Chinese buffet in Queens. Who else could be behind this but Todd P.?

The event, happening tomorrow at Ridgewood's K&K Super Buffet, also has Black Dice, The Babies, Dogleather—and DJ sets from Oneohtrix Point Never and Ducktails—on the bill. It also serves as a sort of rebirth/rebranding for longtime D.I.Y. impresario Todd "Todd P." Patrick. He spent a good chunk of the last decade building an off-the-grid concert empire in New York, only to see much of his work undone in the past year or two as the city began to rein in semi-illegal spaces. Venues in which he had varying degrees of emotional, legal, and financial stakes—Monster Island Basement, Market Hotel, and Silent Barn—have either shut their doors or been forced to relocate. This didn't leave Patrick with a lot of options. "For things to keep growing," he told SOTC earlier this week, "doing things outside of the concert industry, it has to... go legit."

"But 'legit' doesn't mean working within the monopoly control of the concert industry," he was quick to add. "It just means being more creative and utilitizing the dozens, hundreds, thousands of spaces in the city that work as venues but go unutilized."

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District 36, exterior, daylight. All photos by Puja Patel.

​In this time of venue and general nightlife uncertainty in NYC, we'll take what we can get, and so it is with some happiness that we hail the opening of District 36, a new club opening this weekend at 29 W. 36th Street. An SOTC operative who has visited the place already tells us the concept is pretty much old-school NYC nightlife, but with a really super epic soundsystem and minimal pretension (no strict dress code, bottle service frowned upon though still sorta extant, and art installations from Mint & Serf, the same people who did the Ace Hotel). 14,000 square feet, 900 person capacity; local promoters Blkmarket seem to handling most of the booking so far, and local house music OG Victor Calderone will have a monthly residency. Check it out in person this Saturday, when Blkmarket presents a grand opening party with Lee Burridge vs. Danny Howells and Taimur & Fahad:

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Way Station interior image via

​Well, assuming they get their liquor license--a big if. Washington Avenue's Way Station is poised to open as a regular music venue in the largely venue-less Prospect Heights zone, reports the Brooklyn Paper, but basically can't until the city grants the bar a liquor license, the road unto which owner Andy Heidel describes as "Kafka meets Catch 22." At the moment, the bar is limiting itself to one-offs, like a New Year's Eve party this Thursday. But Heidel does have a tentative start date: March, 2010. It's then that he expects to get a full liquor license, and thus begin regularly featuring live music. What kind? Unclear. Thursday features "the funk, pop, disco stylings of Discovery," according to the paper. Despite the aptness of the description, it seems unlikely that the non-show playing, Vampire Weekend-affiliated XL band Discovery is the act in question here, since those two guys really don't play out. But maybe not? [Brooklyn Paper]

Photo via Bowery Boogie

​We were not the only ones to grumble about the Annex, whose off-brand booking practices and sullen bouncers never quite coalesced into a place in which you might actually want to spend any time. But at least it was a venue, that booked bands on occasion. As opposed to what it is now: The Doghouse Saloon, elegantly summed here by Bowery Boogie:

Proclaiming themselves "drinking consultants," this new frat-hole replacement allegedly has ten TVs, free hot dogs until 4 am, and holds regular beer pong tournaments. And of course, lest we forget, the monthly "Bikini Beach Party."

The logo for the new spot is pretty immortal too:

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Todd P is riding for 171 Lombardy St., which seems to have no name as yet, just an appealing description: "171 LOMBARDY ST @ VARICK AVE is a wonderful, big (but cozy) new space in a dramatic location w/ a beautiful roof patio overlooking the Midtown skyline, the Greenpoint industrial district & the Kosciusko Bridge -PLUS- it's air conditioned & heated & has a killer soundsystem & good acoustics & great dance floor lights & no neighbors." The mind sort of boggles at what this space was being used for prior to September, when it quietly began hosting rock shows--MNDR and Lemonade played the venue a few Fridays ago, and on Saturday, 171 will host Ian Svenonius' Chain and the Gang, Fiasco, and Preacher and the Knife, whose tribally fucked "Ghost House" we posted a couple hours ago. The whole thing's meant to go till late--the New York Night Train dance party will take over when the bands finish up--which should test that whole no neighbors assertion. But who could turn down a great view of the Greenpoint industrial district?

​New store, looks a lot like the old store. Sound Fix, the Williamsburg institution founded in 2004, upped and moved--"like Fitzcarraldo hauling that ship over the mountain"--from Bedford Avenue to 44 Berry Street, in a renovated factory near North 11th. The store just reopened its doors. Indications are they brought their distinctive orange shelves with them, though the floors are thus far a bit matte compared to the old place. Though it's not listed on the store's site yet, they're apparently hosting the new space's inaugural in-store this Saturday at 2pm with dream-masters Damon & Naomi. The Mountain Goats broke in the last space, incidentally--real recognize real.

​Not sure what the "life and teachings of Michael Jackson" were, exactly, but the Cult of Michael Jackson--a shadowy organization whose first commandment is "You shall have no other pop Gods or Kings before MJ"--promises to reveal them at a chapel they're opening in Williamsburg. The artist Rusel Parish has drawn appropriately ecclesiastical renderings of Jackson for worship; as for the rest of it, well, the thing opens tomorrow at 6 p.m. at Figureworks, at 168 North 6th Street, and you can go find out for yourself. Catching a faint whiff of naked exploitation? Ahem: "Originally planned around Jackson's concerts, the group has decided that it will move forward with plans that have been in the works since early 2008. In light of recent tragic events, the chapel will be a place for fans to gather, pay their respects, and worship the artistry of Michael Jackson." So there you have it. Also, "You shall not stop until you get enough." [h/t Free Williamsburg]

At Brooklyn Bowl's inaugural concert this past Friday, local country/punk boys O' Death were, as usual, 3/5ths shirtless, though the nudity was perhaps unnecessary given the new Williamsburg/Greenpoint entertainment complex's four massive, overly compensatory ceiling fans. Along with the multi-purpose space's handsome leather sofas, dark wooden tables, full DJ booth, Blue Ribbon food menu, and myriad giant television high-def screens, the venue's dauntingly massive cooling system perhaps helps explain the 16-lane alley and 594-capacity music venue's long gestation and $50/hour "premium" lane pricing. (As in: you pay extra to bowl during show times, even though you've already shelled out for a ticket just to get in).

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