I was first introduced to the Bronx Underground when I started college and made friends with some people who invited me up to a club in the Bronx. “What for?” I asked, innocent as Red Riding Hood trembling with fear and anticipation. “Well” they said, grinning like the savage wolves they were, “it’s a punk rock show”. It’s been a little while since then and I’ve met a ton of great people and seen a lot of great shows put on by the Bronx Underground. I’ve even helped out whenever I could at the doors. The brains behind it are Dave, Adam, and Anita, and I recently got a chance to talk to Anita about the highs and lows of running an all-ages DIY venue and collective in New York.

Alright, how long have you Dave and Adam been doing shows under the Bronx Underground moniker?

Seven years now, we started in October of 2000.

That’s cool. So what exactly did it stem from, the starting of this sort of collective?

Sure, basically, Dave, Adam and I were all in bands around that time, Adam and I were in a ska-punk band called What’s Your Problem Brian and Dave was in At A Loss. So we were playing all these shows all over the Tri-state area in places like CT that had teen centers and whatnot and I witnessed all these amazing DIY shows where bands would come to play in an empty space and tons of kids would come and rock out, have a good time, and stay for all the bands. It was also that the Bronx didn’t have anything like that. All we had at the time was this place called the Blackthorn where a lot of kids weren’t allowed to go because it was a bar, but more importantly, kids would just go for their friends’ bands and then leave. So, if you’re in a band the whole point is to play to new people, not to your friends, and it would just be the worst when like, you’re going on next and the whole audience would leave before you went on. So I said “Dave, you know the scene in the Bronx is pretty weak and I think there’s a lot of potential here and a lot of kids that want to see this kind of music, underground rock, punk, and ska.” I said we could do shows a lot better than what was going on now, let’s do it DIY style, let’s find an empty space and do it.

Pretty cool. So you guys run into unexpected issues while you were in the learning process or did you go in anticipating that there were gonna be problems?

Basically we went in without a whole lot of expectations, sort of “hey, let’s throw some shows!” So, throughout the years we’ve lost venues, but I think everyone goes through that. We were first at this place called City Island Teen Center but the neighborhood and the residents eventually didn’t want to have to deal with the teenagers hanging out all over the place near the venue. We did one show at this place called the Shannon Seaview which was alright but then the Blackthorn got raided for underage drinking and the Seaview, which was kind of basically a restaurant, also served alcohol. So even though they were very strict about not serving our underage crowd, they didn’t want to have shows there anymore. Then we were at the Manheim Beach Club for about two years and that was great, but it was the same kind of thing as City Island where there were a lot of people, a lot of kids, and the owners of the club just got nervous after awhile. People see a lot of teenagers and they don’t like what they see, they get nervous, they see kids dressing weird…

Right, that was a big place, I remember a lot of people at the Manheim Beach Club. It was bigger inside than it looked on the outside.

Right but also, we had a lot of people showing up. At our first show we had 150 people and we were like “what?” and couldn’t believe it. All we did was hand out some flyers, but the need was there. So at the Manheim we were in the 200’s, and now at FLC we more than that, so right now it’s going awesome. We’ve run into some issues and we have the cops (auxiliary volunteer police) come to check everything out, and the fire department comes to check that we’re under all our codes, which we are, and everything’s been fine. The other thing you gotta learn is that you have to have great security. A lot of venues today are shutting down and a lot of them it’s because the music’s gotten heavier, the dancing style has changed, and unfortunately a minority of the kids just don’t know how to act, and venues get shut down. So you gotta do everything you can as someone who runs shows to keep it going. We’ve got a great security staff who make sure kids aren’t bringing anything in they shouldn’t, and even if it means making the atmosphere “less cool” , in the long run it’s better for everybody & it keeps the shows going.

Right, makes sense. In general as of right now what’s probably the hardest part at FLC about running shows?

The situation that we’re in because our problem is that we’re drawing too many people at the shows. So for me the toughest part is finding a place to run (shows), because we’re selling out and having to turn away a hundred people just for local bands mostly.

How about the best? What’s the best part about it?

I’m at the door all night sometimes so it sucks, but there’s nothing like the feeling of going downstairs and seeing hundreds of people having an awesome time because of the scene that you had a big part in creating. There is nothing like it. It’s like knowing that you created this great night and these great memories that they’re gonna have and the scene that they grew up in, it’s amazing. And also, running a great place for bands to play is great because we’ve all been in bands and we’ve played to 10 people and we know that it sucks. To have touring bands or local bands be able to play to 300 people and say that this is the best show ever? That’s awesome.

So what do you think are some of the best tools the Bronx Underground has right now? Obviously DIY has come a long way since the 80’s and say, the Washington, DC Dischord House where it was basically just kids with flyers. What do you think is probably the best thing the Bronx Underground have going now for getting the word out?

It’s a lot of word of mouth but word of mouth has changed. It’s, you know, not to be cliché but Myspace is probably the best promotional tool, ever, for anyone’s who’s involved in music whether you’re in a band or a concert promoter or whatever because you get a lot of friends, like little profiles as opposed to “real friends” and you can promote to them there. We also have in our great street team, but it’s really the kids out there, whether they’re on the street team or not, spreading the word we’ll see a ton of Myspace bulletins after the shows saying “Oh my God FLC was amazing! I love Bronx Underground! The pit was the shit!” That’s the best advertisement we could have. Whether it’s on Myspace or in person that’s the best tool we have, people telling their friends about it and that makes sense.

Yeah, definitely. So I know you used to be in What’s Your Problem Brian, who I’ve seen several times and were very fun. Do you wish you had any of this, the Bronx Underground? When you guys were playing? Because I remember there were Temple shows (a venue and Brooklyn-based DIY all-ages booking collective) definitely, but other than that you don’t see that these days. It’s very small & very localized. I know there are house show scenes out in Long Island but I mean like, do you really with there had been BXU around when WYPB were around?

Oh my god, absolutely. We only played a couple of the first shows in City Island before the band broke up and those shows were the best shows, and that was just the infancy of the Bronx Underground. I mean, we played some great shows, but man we didn’t play local shows that had 300 people! It’s just an amazing way to be exposed to so many new fans. The kids in the Bronx are amazing. They will rock out to any band as long as the music’s quality no matter what the style, these kids get up and dance, even back then. I mean now we have pretentious scenesters standing there, saying “IMPRESS ME” with their arms folded but even then it was hard getting people to move. So I think The Bronx Underground would’ve been a great way to be successful in what’s a pretty big music scene. Yeah, it’s the Bronx but there’s people from Westchester from New Jersey who are here for these bands so I hope we can be a part of making bands get bigger in the tri-state area.

Alright. You got any advice for aspiring show promoters?

You know, I think a lot of it is about making your shows really fun for your audience. I find from being in a band, going to shows, running shows, and seeing other shows, if you expect the show to have a low turnout and you expect that the bands are not going be that good, then the show isn’t going to be fun and you’re going to build a reputation for having mediocre shows. If you can build up your reputation as an awesome promoter and an awesome scene, and really build up your own scene and not worry just about your shows but about your own scene, that’s gonna build something amazing and more people are gonna come to your shows. They’ll expect to have a good time and enjoy the music. It’s about people being conscious of the music because whether it’s $5 or $10 it’s their money and they’ll be excited about spending it if it’s a cool show. Also, to any promoters out there looking for advice or ideas about running shows and building your scene, just get in touch with us we’d be happy to help.

Awesome, thanks a lot.

Cool. I made pizza tonight, I just pulled it out of the oven. That’s the Bronx for you.

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You can find out more about the Bronx Underground, including information on the Our Scene Is Cooler Than Yours compilation featuring all sorts of bands that have performed at the Bronx Underground, the new Scene But Not Heard DVD (with interviews from Bronx Underground staffers, regulars, and performances from bands like Daly’s Gone Wrong and Everything’s Ruined), and where to get some snazzy Bronx Underground t-shirts and hoodies at their site or on Myspace.

Tags: DIY, Interview, show promotion //