It was the brat green croc heels in front of me that did it. Outside, Hurricane Ernesto was raging, the rain twirling on and off in the cloudy late afternoon. The weather had already forced the Canadian DJ Dan Snaith to abandon plans of spinning at a semi-impromptu “block party” on Jefferson Street, between Wyckoff and Irving Avenue. It was part of a free series that Snaith — who got started under the moniker Manitoba but later changed that to Caribou following the threat of litigation from punk singer “Richard Manitoba” — had been putting on that weekend, stopping by Philadelphia, Toronto and Chicago, before landing in Bushwick.
Instead, he took things to the recently-opened indoor skate park Xanadu, operated by Sultan Room-owner Varun Kataria, and which is also trying to double as another Bushwick dance club. In fact, the people putting on these, a somewhat mysterious business called Mean Red, who already had put on a Zeds Dead show inside the small Ridgewood club H0l0 last month, had succeeded in getting this club to push out its weekend “All Ages Skate/Family Day.” Instead, the floor was filled with a circle of colorfully-decked hipsters who had dispatched from their rainy afternoon walks for the chance to sway up and down, for free, to the beat of Snaith’s brand of music blogger IDM.
Some had brought their dogs; a group was wearing t-shirts that read “I <3 DJING.” There was at least one person slinking along in a full, 70s-style semi-fur jacket, complete with colorful fedora. Many were wearing shades. It was interesting to walk along the wood-bright shiny floors without trying to dodge the amateur professional skaters that have already made Xanadu home. (Upon opening, it became the only indoor skating park in the city committed to staying open year-round.) It wouldn’t be Snaith’s last time in the neighborhood; he’s booked a night later this year, complete with full band and $50 tickets, inside the grand, and occasionally deadly, dance canyons of Brooklyn Mirage. But here, on this rainy night, he was bopping by himself, soberly crushing his boxed waters, around a ring of the hardcore and committed, visible sweat on their sports jerseys, heads fully in the know.
Xanadu is located at 262 Starr Street. Keep up with the roller rink, and occasional day and night club, on Instagram.
Photos taken by Andrew Karpan.
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