Welcome to Bushwick Nightly, our bi-weekly nightlife column highlighting intersectional parties with spotlights on queer and PoC Djs and crowds!
Friday, August 9
THE BUNKER X WITH MOZGHAN X MIKE SERVITO AT NOWADAYS, 10 P.M.
Legendary Brooklyn techno crew, The Bunker, has been throwing heavy handed techno parties in the borough for almost 20 years. Consistently booking talent hot on the global circuit, while also fostering new voices in the local space (who have since been hot on the global circuit in their own rights).
Their continually inclusive parties have happened all over town in spaces both above and under the ground, and permutations that end before and after dawn. Now they’re beginning a new series at Nowadays, The Bunker X. The series focuses on a loosely-defined back-to-back session between two artists. The artists can interpret that collaboration however they’d like.
Tonight’s event features a woman at the height of the San Francisco underground scene, Mozghan, who has come up with her own dark-focused “We Are Monsters” party and now regularly plays Klubnachts at Berghain and is a repeat visitor to Honey Soundsystem stages. She’ll be joined by Bunker resident and Detroit legend Mike Servito. Who knows what will happen when these two get together but The Bunker imagines it will be rated X.
Saturday, August 10
FIST with MCMLXXXV and Umfang at Basement, 10 p.m.
FIST stands for Fun Is Still Transgressive. It’s also pretty cheeky. FIST is focused on “engaging the visibility of otherness through techno.” The collective promises not only the apex of the global sounds of loud, industrial techno, but also inclusiveness, visibility, and space where otherness is null at our area’s newest dark, subterranean techno temple.
FIST is a crew that believes nightlife is more than just a party but also a radical act. That said, it’s also definitely a party and the music makes sure of just that. Headliner MCMLXXXV is a resident and co-founder of Berlin’s Herrensauna (translation: men’s sauna … ‘nuff said). Herrensauna provides a space like queer spas of yore but, because it’s Berlin, there’s also a world-class bangin’ (pun intended) soundtrack.
Joining tonight is New York’s own Umfang from the recently-New York Times-featured all-female Brooklyn collective Discwoman. It’s about re-establishing a space from which the techno sound came from and it’s also about, as FIST states, “radical fun”.
Saturday, August 10
Susanne Bartsch x Dreamhouse Productions pres. KUNST at Elsewhere, 10 p.m.
KUNST is a party whose legend would outshine its creators, if its creators were not some of the most legendary party throwers New York City has seen since Studio 54. Susanne Bartsch, the woman for whom the phrase “her legend precedes her” is a shamefully weak attribution, has long been the queen of queer, club-kid, highly debaucherous and glamorous nightlife. When she joins forces with the Bushwick queer collective Dreamhouse Prodcutions the party they’ve created is one for which looks come out and extravagance becomes everyone’s middle name.
DJs include standbys of the community like A Village Raid and Jasmine Infiniti and, as with any KUNST event, the hosts are just a part of the fun. Legends like Amanda Lepore, Gage the Boon, Ryan Burke, and others are here to show off their freak side (it’s a high level compliment) to which we all can aspire. It’s a party as well as a festivity of mutual respect, admiration, and tip sharing of course.
Thursday, August 15
Biryani at Mood Ring, 10 p.m.
Mood Ring consistently offers astrologically-themed drinks with at least three different liquor-based ingredients, heavy-hitting music in the back, and a consistent focus on artists and communities of color.
Biryani is a special night that focuses on artists of South Asian backgrounds. The sounds could be dance-oriented versions of South Asian-originating beats but that is by no means a requirement. The event speaks to the lack of South Asian representation in the dance music scene and provides a platform for anyone identifying to spread their wings to a hungry audience. Tonight’s event will showcase Ayesha, a resident of Half Moon Radio, as well as rrao, a new affiliate of The Bunker. Dreamy techno, diasporic rhythms, or just come for the In The Mood For Love poster.
Friday, August 16
Half Moon Radio at Bossa Nova Civic Club, 10 p.m.
Half Moon Radio Brooklyn is a relatively new player in the Brooklyn alternative nightlife and music scene. Started in 2017, the grassroots radio station is resolutely focused on the underground. The station showcases everything from UK drill and grime to a consistent collection of Brooklyn-local artists in house, techno, and esoterica.
Tonight at Bossa they’re providing a lineup of club music the way that Jersey does it with Nadus, Ase Manual, and Neon Knuckles (sometimes called the Juke Princess), and more.
Image cover courtesy of @HotRabbit.
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