(Photo: Mirrorball’s Instagram.)
We were kind of amazed to see this tweet from Jack Daniel’s on Wednesday: “Noise complaints are guaranteed when you book a night at the Jack Daniel’s #MotelNo7.”
“Noise complaints… Guaranteed,” the company rammed home in two other tweets promoting a pair of massive parties it was throwing in a 60,000-square-foot Huron Street warehouse on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Um. Was Jack blissfully unaware of the shit that hit the fan last time someone tried to rave in Greenpoint? Or did it figure its massive banger was safe because, you know, it was a good five blocks from the Superfund site?
According to the city’s 311 map, there were indeed four noise complaints in the immediate vicinity of the two-night party. Most were on a quiet block of Huron Street where attendees, sloshed on the free drinks they got by RSVPing to a website, stumbled to the subway. When we approached the “motel” shortly before its 1 a.m. closing time last night, cops were cruising by with sirens on as crowds poured out of the venue on the corner of West Street. But, regardless, the party seems to have gone off without a hitch.
The producers, Mirrorball, converted the cavernous, bi-level warehouse space (previously host to the big anniversary party that Refinery29 threw during Fashion Week) into something resembling a Key West motel during Fantasy Fest, complete with a check-in counter, a small pool fit for cannonballs, maids in PVC bustiers, a game room, a beauty salon where you could spin a wheel and get a random style of haircut, a portrait studio, and a Vegas-style wedding chapel where our own Andrew WK was marrying (hopefully sober) people.
On stage when we arrived were the Cloud Nothings (T-Pain headlined the first night, and Hotelier, Heems, and Skaters also played), but that was just the start of the music. The real action was upstairs, in a series of offices that had been converted into “motel” rooms, complete with lumpy beds. It was kind of like a tripped-out vision of the old Chelsea Hotel. A different band or DJ (or, in the case of the “Bachelorette Party” room, a karaoke host) held court in each room, appointed with vintage phones and clapboard furniture.
In Room 19, producer/DJ Anthony “The Twilite Tone” Khan was spinning some serious deep house (he’s at Bossa Nova Civic Club tonight), while next door “Brooklyn soul” nine-piece Phony Ppl laid down some laid-back R&B. In another smoke-filled, blacklit room, BangOn!NYC enacted a mini version of one of its epic warehouse raves. There was a room full of pillows, another full of old-school boom boxes, a Victorian-styled speakeasy, and even a gallery, complete with security guard, displaying Jim Marshall’s black-and-white photos of rock legends like the Grateful Dead and Mick Jagger.
Sure, it was corporate-sponsored, manufactured fun, but hey, this part of Greenpoint used to be all about manufacturing.
Needless to say it was also Instagram bait. Here are some of the best shots.