If you hadn’t already heard, Cameo Gallery is going the way of Glasslands and 285 Kent this November, but that doesn’t mean it’s slowing its roll until then. With CMJ in town, and with its days significantly numbered, the venue packed itself to the gills with premium acts and throngs of followers willing to compete for oxygen near the stage.
Deradoorian and Porches carried the early night. Deradoorian, formerly of Dirty Projectors fame, sold the crowd on life beyond the death of Cameo.
As Deradoorian shot out regal, wild, and resilient shouts of joy into the room it reminded me, as I looked around, that I’d seen all these people before, and would see them again. Surely these bands can find a new home in Greenpoint, given their loyal audience.
Porches has a sound that is deceptively youthful and clean, but their signature space-age discontent came through in a hot second. They wrapped up their set with “Headsgiving,” a song whose central tenet is “you don’t know what I mean.”
The message of alienation connected with an audience looking around and thinking about Brooklyn Rod & Gun gone, and the aforementioned places near Grand Ferry Park also closed.
The audience was probably wondering, when do we last get to spill out at dawn to the benches of that nearby park, where the remaining walls of the Domino Sugar plant frame an East River current slipping under the bridges?
We all have a handful of go-to music places in Greenpoint that possess a certain magic, and don’t face immediate threat of closing. We need to urge our favorite bands from Cameo to try to book there so that we and they don’t have to face randos in some Bushwick club. (Just kidding, we acknowledge there is a mix of hometown pride and envy when we go to places in Bushwick).
Thanks to the CMJ bands for providing some final good memories at Cameo.