We Color Live, who are behind the Color Me Bushwick music fest held every June at the nabe’s Pickthorn Salon, threw a wild Catskills party in an abandoned barn house starring band The Nuclears earlier this month in upstate Bovina, NY.
Situated close to where Pickthorn plans to open an outpost of their salon in the nearby town Fleischmanns, the event’s local was welcoming to both the NYC weekenders and area locals who came out to join them. Much like their popular concerts in Brooklyn, there was an open bar sponsored by Astral Tequila, Sombra Mezcal, and White Claw plus multiple sets of music that had the party shaking the ancient floorboards all night.
While many in Bushwick rely on Chelsea Pickthorn’s hair colorist talents down in the city, she has a number of upstate clients. With the help her music promotions partner Jocelyn Simone, she wanted to connect the two worlds.
“The city is crazy, and people are looking for an escape, ” Simone told me. “We plan on hosting these monthly so this is just the beginning.”
Farm-to-table restauranteur and Bovina native Carver Farrell, who formally ran The Pines in Gowanus and now owns Goldenrod in nearby Delhi, NY, lent his historically decrepit barn house for the party said it was “such a fun night.”
He was gracious in setting up the generator that powered the music and propane heaters that warmed up the entire house.Talking under the light of countless candles spread throughout, Farrell told me how he got involved with the concert.
“Jocelyn called and asked about a place to have a party and I said I had an abandoned farm house. No one’s ever done a party here like this so I was all for it.”
Built in the 1860’s, Farrell’s house featured hand cut, rough hewn studs where the walls were gone and endless layers of wallpaper on the ones that still stood. The plumbing still worked though and it had an early 20th century feel of modernity without electricity.
The Nuclears, a Color Me Bushwick mainstay, started with two sets that included past hit “This is How We Party” and their latest single “One Day You Might” from recent album Record High. Their hard-rock sound fed off the acoustics of timber from trees that grew to a ripe old age as opposed to the brief lives of today’s farmed ones.
Guitarist and singer Briana Leyon ran around the crowd while she screamed on the mic to really drive home that we were at a house show. After finishing an additional cover-set of requests demanded from the crowd Leyon told me, “it felt great that the everyone wanted us to play so much, just as much as we really wanted to to play for them.”
All photos courtesy of Nick McManus
