Ariel Panero, doing what he did. Photo via Facebook.

​The news began to circulate on Tuesday--Ariel Panero, the audacious NYC promoter behind Less Artists More Condos, had passed away suddenly, at the age of 25. Two days later, the details of what exactly happened are still in part unknown. But the farewells have already begun. (A service, set for Sunday, will be held at the Montauk Club in Park Slope.) The Brooklyn-born Panero, young as he was, had fashioned himself into a New York institution, a bold promoter and a hard worker, a guy who in life earned the trust of both former Roc-a-Fella mogul Damon Dash and Brooklyn DIY institutions ranging from Death By Audio to Showpaper to Jelly NYC.

I didn't know him well, but I did know him--every once in while my phone would ring and it would be Ariel, calling either to castigate me for getting another outlandish show of his inadvertently shut down, or, more frequently, to tell me about the next one. The last time we spoke it was when he phoned to tell me that he had somehow persuaded Dipset's Jim Jones to make the trek over the East River to perform at Death By Audio with Philly art-rockers Snakes Say Hisss and Panero's own band, Tough Knuckles.

It was this kind of spectacle that he was best at. He managed the band Grooms. He helped out with the label Famous Class. He booked shows in Damon Dash's Tribeca basement, in parking lots and on boats, in churches, under bridges, and in condos in the West Village. Sometimes, his parents would come to his events. "If you told me two years ago that I would be doing this," he told Ben Westhoff last year. "I wouldn't have believed you." But he did it, and did it well, and over the past couple years, few in the DIY community have done more memorable things in New York City. Below, we've asked some friends of his--Dame Dash, members of These Are Powers, Cyrus from Famous Class, and others--to remember him. Their recollections of Ariel are below:

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Under 100, still the most secret and ridiculous rock club in NYC. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne

​Alright. Let the record show that for once in our miserable, venue-destroying lives, we kept a secret show secret, sending house photographer Rebecca Smeyne to Friday's hush-hush Under 100-hosted prequel to Saturday's loudly-promoted Erykah Badu release party (where, intrepid photog that she is, Smeyne also managed to surface), and not saying word one about it in public until the show was safely in Dame Dash and the gang's collective rearview mirror. Compassion? Getting soft in our old age? Who knows. It would've been a shame for them to have painted this fancy new mural on the back wall, only to have to cancel the damn thing again:

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​Also on the bill? Spank Rock, MNDR, and the Tony Castles, as presented by our old friends Less Artists More Condos, their Damon Dash-assisted alter ego Under 100, Under 100's more politically correct cover name--The Dash Gallery--and the Giant Step dudes. 9pm--tickets are only available in advance, and not at the door. Good Units is an enormous and essentially vacant space beneath the Hudson Hotel that hosted a few things back in February and during fashion week; right now the gist seems to be that there's no cell phone service down there, which people complained about during an Interview Magazine party last month but actually is probably an asset if you're trying to make some cool new semi-covert space pop off. Otherwise it's just Twitpics for days, right?

Look, OK, we've done our share of Dame Dash shaming--probably more than our share, if we're being honest--but can we just kind of all make a pact to let dude live? You know your hustle is a wrap when the three talking heads on Good Day New York are making fun of your divorce and your tragic estrangement from the artist who made you famous. Worse, they sent Julie Chang down to DD172, the gallery-cum-illegal-performance-space-cum-goofy-artless-takeoff-on-Warhol's-Factory space Dash runs in TriBeCa, to ask the tough questions. Like does Dame own any art? Or rather, "What's the most expensive piece of art you own?"

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These Are Powers play in the basement. Maybe. Who knows, really. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.

​Truth is an ever-shifting creature in the confines of Damon Dash's infamous 172 Duane Street Tribeca loft. The venue began as Under 100, before we got the place (allegedly) shut down; shortly after that, it reared its majestic head once more in an article in the Observer, this time going by the name DD172, and marketing itself as a Warhol-esque hipster factory hosting everything from art collectives to hot blondes. Then it turned out Under 100 was actually alive and well as a venue--until it wasn't, anyway, and so the cycle of confusion continued. Now, no less a persona than Mos Def has chimed in, calling the Observer out for lying about his role in the place.

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Less Artists More Condos promoter Ariel Panero brings word: tonight's Ava Luna show with Suckers and Marnie Stern, heralded here just hours ago as the epic return of Damon Dash's Under 100 wonderland, has been shut down. Like we say around here, mea culpa.

[Update: Silent Barn picked this one up. See below.]

We will all live to play more Big Buck Hunter in this space, guys. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.

​They told us we'd gotten it shut down. They told us that it was called DD172, and that it had become a "hippie art collective right smack in the middle of one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Manhattan." They told us that Less Artists More Condos had left the building. But Under 100, the concert venue hosted deep in the bowels of rap mogul Damon Dash's personal Tribeca townhouse, is officially back! That's right: Tuesday's YIMBY faves and most exciting new band (so far) of 2010 Ava Luna are having their record release there tonight with Suckers and Marnie Stern. There's even an email address for RSVPs: under100nyc@gmail.com. Never let it be said that we murdered the last DIY venue in Manhattan. 9pm, $10, all ages. Holler at them.

St. James Church. Photo via

​It was Ariel Panero's Less Artists More Condos that was putting on the shows down in Damon Dash's Under 100 basement, at least until Dame shut everything down and rebranded the entire enterprise as DD172. Before that, LAMC called an actual West Village condo on West 3rd Street home--there, Panero et al booked High Places, Wavves, Crystal Stilts, etc. until problems with neighbors, cops, and too much press got that place shut down as well. Between the two venues, LAMC did shows at the ill-fated Shank, on a old pirate ship, and in Chelsea, beneath the renovated High Line. Now, Panero and crew seem to be trying their hand at this Manhattan DIY thing once more, surfacing at Chinatown's St. James Church, where Brooklyn Vegan points out they have a show booked this Friday with the Beets, Tony Castles, Beach Fossils, and Total Slacker.

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The Under 100 office, not to be confused with this new DD172 thing. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.

​Under 100, the DIY showspace run out of rap mogul Dame Dash's basement, may have disappeared into a December maelstrom of unwanted publicity, never to be spoken of again. But DD172--the suspiciously similar sounding enterprise being run out of the exact same Tribeca loft--apparently lives on. "People come and go at all hours," writes the Observer. "A thick cloud of pot smoke makes you think you've wandered into a building on fire." Wait, what?

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Well, probably the final show, anyway. [Update: Guess not. Word we just got says there was a Grooms, Ducktails, Talk Normal, and Marnie Stern show there last Saturday night. Has Dame changed his mind about shutting things down?] This These Are Powers/Cool Kids/Jay Electronica footage (not all from the same night) was filmed in the now infamous Dame Dash basement spot in the two weeks before undue press attention (ahem) got the place shut down, likely for good. But video survives--even Dame looks like he's having fun. Ah well. [Street Logik/Creative Control]