A DIY Brooklyn landmark changes with the times

Just before midnight on Saturday, hard techno started pulsing from the venue Market hotel, a DIY music venue located next to the elevated tracks of a Myrtle Avenue subway station in Bushwick, Brooklyn. A crowd of twenty-somethings, many wearing sunglasses, ripped jeans and fanny packs, lined up in the cold before throwing themselves onto the dance floor.

The party, “Market Hotel Sweet Sixteen,” was intended to commemorate the venue's legacy as a DIY rock club. But as the beats continued toward dawn, the celebration became more about the present moment in a vastly changed underground scene.

More than a decade ago, the Market Hotel fostered a middle-class bohemia and hosted punk and indie bands like Real Estate, Vivian girlsTitus Andronicus and the So Glo. It was defiantly underground in its early years, operating without a liquor license and hosting musicians who slept in their cubicles. The address was communicated verbally. If you knew, you knew.

Founded by the So So Glos and Todd Patrickthe music promoter known as Todd P, the Market Hotel became a hotbed of millennial nightlife in Brooklyn, when a Pitchfork writer was able to bring a noise-rock band back from obscurity with a rave review. At the recent Sweet Sixteen party, it was clear that the place had moved past the time when flannel shirts were fashionable and craft beer was drank from Mason jars.

“I don't really know much about the indie rock scene that used to be here, but I'm grateful for this space as it is now,” says Ashley Van Eyk, 26. “It's become a liberating queer space, I think I can express myself.”

Connor Samuelson, 30, was old enough to remember Pabst Blue Ribbon splashing on the floor: “It's still crunchy, but it was even crunchier when I saw punk and noise shows here. But I think the Market Hotel has changed like Bushwick has changed. It has evolved since it was guys in leather jackets spilling beer everywhere.”

Gentrification during Brooklyn's early years has come under scrutiny, as have other DIY venues such as Shea Stadium and Mr. Patrick's 285 Kent and Silent Barn perishedthe Market Hotel has reinvented itself as a new kind of retreat.

While punk and rock are still in the mix, it now hosts all-ages hip-hop shows for artists like Cash Cobain, BabyTron and Destroy Lonely, and electronic music programming showcases subgenres like hyper-pop and ghetto tech. It has also become vitally important nightlife space in Bushwick's queer and trans community, hosting recurring celebrations such as IntimacyDick Appointment and La Gota Fria.

“I think any creative scene, whether it's the Market Hotel or the Lower East Side in the 1970s, is meant to adapt,” says Maleek Brown, the venue's 24-year-old general manager. 'Those were the people who came before us here, and without them none of what is happening now would be possible. But now we try to reflect the underground scene.”

Joni Glam, nightlife curator at the Market Hotel, noticed the change. “Scenes in New York repeat with different names and styles, but what changes is who can participate,” she said. “It sounded like it was once a great time to be an artist at the Market Hotel. But as time goes on, there is always room to do better and get better.”

As J trains rattled past the windows and fog from a smoke machine filled the dance floor, people raced to sets from DJ Chaotic Ugly and AceMo. After a sweaty set from umru, a producer who has worked with Charli XCX, Ms. Glam, 25, took the stage carrying a birthday cake topped with lighted candles.

“We're here to celebrate the anniversary of the Market Hotel,” she said. “We love you. You're beautiful. You're growing. And we know you're going through puberty now, but you'll get through it – it's okay.”

Todd P, who had put his two children to bed before arriving at the party, stood next to the stage as loud techno blasted into his face. He had a silver beard at age 48, wore Vans and a black beanie, and drank kava tea from a deli cup. He still oversees the Market Hotel, along with the avant-garde music venue Trans-Pecosbut he has delegated most of the activities to his young staff.

He stepped out of the club to catch his breath and refill his tea at the Korean grocery store downstairs. Mr Kiwiwhere he reflected on the scene he helped to create as the ceiling above him shook.

“I had a lot of time to step back and look at that Brooklyn moment in the late 2000s, the so-called heyday of the Market Hotel, and I decided I didn't want us to be tied to who we were” , he said. . 'I've been thinking about the implications these kinds of spaces have for neighborhoods, and how the downside of secrecy is that these spaces ultimately belong to people who know about them, usually people who all look alike. I am proud that this is no longer an issue at the Market Hotel. These spaces should not just be for groups of privileged students.”

“We don't want to be a nostalgia act,” he added. “When bands like Wavves or Girls played here, performing to a room full of Pitchfork writers while people were hanging from the rafters – that continuum is dead now, and we're not trying to bring back the past.