With the hubbub over 285 Kent’s closure still bubbling, another beloved venue, East Williamsburg’s Steel Drums, has been shut down until further notice. Aurora Halal, organizer of the underground Mutual Dreaming parties, tells us her annual PPU Visual Dreaming party, on Friday, got a surprise visit from the police.
Michael Potvin, the operator of the rave warehouse at 35 Beadel Street, posted the above photo to Facebook and Twitter, promising the venue, named after its former incarnation as a steel drum factory, would be back.
We haven’t been able to get more information from him, but Halal sent us the following statement.
Steel Drums was one of the best new venues, an intensely underground-feeling black box with ever evolving light installations and plenty of smoke machine. So many other DIY venues are rock venues repurposed for dance, but this place fully fit the bill for throwing a proper dance party. Mutual Dreaming did a party with acid legend JTC there, and when it got shut down it was during our annual PPU Video Party, we painted a wall for projections an hour before the doors opened, ha! Thats what i love about these kinds of places, a lot is possible for really creative environments. What NYC needs is a fully legal venue with this kind of attitude. We’re working to get a legalization process going for it soon.
Expect an IndieGogo campaign to launch in the next days.
Having seen Light Asylum and Dust (featuring John Barclay of Bossa Nova Civic Club) at a packed Goth Party (video above), we’re inclined to agree with @fysicaltherapy, who tweeted, “RIP @steeldrumsbk — u might not get nytimes articles about ur demise but u were the best damn warehouse in NYC.”
And speaking of Bossa Nova Civic Club, that venue is releasing a series of EPs titled Bushwick Is Melting. If you want to listen to good dance music these days, at least you can do it at home?