The ID and the Ego
student-ready venues open their doors
There is no greater embarrassment than being turned away by a snickering bouncer from a club after waiting on an incredibly long line to see a favorite band. Personal experiences aside, the search for under-21 venues can be difficult and frustrating. Because college students’ desires to see good live music are in direct conflict with the financial concerns of music venues to make profits from their bars, seeing live music can quickly become exhausting and discouraging.
The motivations for keeping underage concertgoers out are almost entirely financial in nature. The money from ticket sales goes to pay the band and then the venue’s staff. Little profit is made on tickets alone. Most venues rely on their bars to bring in profit and see little economic advantage in admitting fans that cannot drink. If the band can attract an older and therefore more lucrative crowd, the venue would rather exploit this than admit a sea of underage college students that would prevent it from making money.
College students are left with two options. Either acquiesce and forgo a show because they know they will be rejected, or try to get in with a fake ID, which is often met with unintended and expensive consequences. Luckily, a number of venues are seeing the light and making the decision to lose some profit and prevent legal transgressions in favor of providing good music to people of all ages.
A new breed of music venue is growing, including “all-ages performance/art/work/living space” Silent Barn in Ridgewood, Queens and similar DIY music-venue Death by Audio in Williamsburg. Both venues are completely dedicated to music for all, hosting bands like Guignol, High Places, and An Albatross at just $6 a ticket. This egalitarian mentality is not without its drawbacks, as Silent Barn found itself unable to pay its ConEd bills earlier this year and appealed to the community for help. Nonetheless, these venues are driven by the community, and while the bands’ music is often inaccessible, the price and the door are not.
Equally experimental venue The Stone is home to seriously out-there music and student-priced tickets at $5 each. Indie-rock legend Thurston Moore is known to frequent the space and perform experiments of his own, throwing chains at his guitar for an incredibly diverse and all-ages crowd. Similarly, the Sidewalk Café is a favorite of the likes of the Moldy Peaches and Calvin Johnson and also will not keep underage fans out in the cold.
Under-21 venues often host bands that are themselves under 21, which brings in “young” music as well as a young crowd. ABC No Rio, an art and activism center on the Lower East Side features an all-ages Hard Core/Punk Matinee every Saturday afternoon. The shows are all-inclusive and not sexist, racist, or homophobic, which seriously gets an activist’s body moving. Arlene’s Grocery, which allows any band to audition, is another haven for particularly young talent and shows, often serving as a first real show for high-school bands.
Although more financially established, the Knitting Factory also schedules a mixture of high and low-profile artists, usually playing in the basement. The venue has been committed to scheduling under-21 shows for years, and they have managed to do it even through financial constrains.
Moving beyond the traditional music venue is another good way to find all ages shows. The Brooklyn Museum hosts a free, monthly “First Saturday” dance party and day of activities. Each party is themed, from salsa to Afro-beat, and everyone from kindergarteners to grandparents gathers to boogie for no fee.
The Guggenheim Museum features a similar series of musical performances, such as the recent collaboration of cellist Fred Sherry and experimental music pioneer John Zorn. For the indie-hipsters, the Whitney hosts artists including the Dirty Projectors and Dan Deacon for free.
Summer in New York City is like one giant all-ages show, as bands perform, often for free, in parks all over the island. McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg is the site of free shows all summer long. Last year the lineup included Blonde Redhead, the Beastie Boys, and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Central Park and South Street Seaport also lend themselves to music lovers all summer long. They turn no one away and make giant outdoor dance parties. The islands—Randalls and Governors—are also often the locations of large music festivals, always all-ages.
If the best concerts are the ones that make for the best stories, then Soundfix, a record store in Williamsburg, has been know to put on some of greatest. Often completely impromptu and given in the middle of a lazy Saturday, concerts at Soundfix are all-ages and free—if you can cram yourself into the tiny space. In the past, Kimya Dawson and Regina Spektor have both been spotted there. Cake Shop, a Lower East Side record shop, is also known to put on free, all-ages afternoon shows of their own.
If the rock-and-roll world seems discriminatory toward the underage, one can always turn to high art for a warm welcome. The symphony and opera are stimulating cultural experiences that will ask for ID, but of a different sort. Student rush tickets can be purchased for the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, and many other concert halls in New York City. Columbia’s Miller Theater and the Manhattan School of Music also put on beautiful concerts that are just steps away.
Until more venues become enlightened to the musical needs of the college student, hunting and searching seem inevitable. Fortunately, enough spaces are opening their doors to the underage among us, putting an end to public humiliation forever.