Text by Asha Chagoyen
Photos by Peter Dressel
Lively DIY scene is one of the best things about Bushwick! People host parties in their loft apartments and rock shows in their living rooms with cheap (or free!) booze. This past Saturday, the second floor of a former cheap storage space off the Jefferson Stop was the venue for Aputumtu’s Break Out Sessions V. Aputumtu showcases (mostly) rising Brooklyn bands, and this Saturday’s performances featured Gypsy Wigs, Life Size Maps, Gunfight!, Osekre and The Lucky Bastards, and headliners AVAN LAVA. WC Kids DJ’ed awesome pop songs for the growing crowd between each set. All the bands are from the Bushwick area, except Gypsy Wigs who are from across the Hudson in New Jersey.
The lively atmosphere and colorful stage made this showcase intriguing. Although the crowd was slowly coming to the showcase by the third act (Life Size Maps) the crowd was reasonably large. During the show alcohol was plentiful and cheap as they had a sponsorship from Brooklyn Brewery, which kindly served the audience free beer from 8-9:30PM.
The show commenced with New Jersey’s very own Gypsy Wigs’ African-inspired tunes which reminded me a bit of Vampire Weekend and concluded with AVAN LAVA’s electropop dance music and laser show that got the crowd grooving the rest of the night away.
Breakout Sessions V has done itself justice in terms of putting on a good show and exposing great up and coming bands to the public. The performance by Life Size Maps’ synthesized noise pop melodies made me a fan, thus making me heart one of their songs on hypem.com. Their chick bassist was dually a fantastic performer as much as their lead singer. During the remainder of the evening, I began to think of my friends who were unfortunately not in the crowd and I just had to send them a link to Gunfight!’s upbeat southern rock music (that made me tap my toes as if this NYC kid grew up in the South), and Osekre and the Lucky Bastards African punk sound so they could appreciate it as much as I did.
Aputumpu will be rounding out its BreakOut Summer Sessions on September 29th. Stay tuned to hear more about more upcoming performances…
