Had some friends return from Japan recently and they couldn’t stop talking about how clean and orderly everything was.
They were there for hanami, too, the Japanese ritual of going to a park to view the cherry blossoms.
Then there’s my friend Eric. He just moved there.
He’s having a different experience.
We all have friends that just seem drawn to bad luck. Eric is one of those people. Here’s Eric’s photo from the neighborhood where he found housing in Japan.
Eric previously resided in the East Village. Not much luck there either. One day he called his landlord. “I think the guy across from me died.” Took the landlord two weeks to investigate.
I asked Eric how he knew. He said, “When you smell a dead person, you’ll know exactly what that smell is.”
Today’s post is dedicated to Eric. Between the freezing and the rain in Greenpoint this early Spring, we can relate. And so today we highlight sanguine musicians with a sense of humor that take the stage in North Brooklyn the next few days.
Are you the type who loves finding secret hangouts? That’s Night of Joy. The location is nondescript, with the club pressed under the shadow of the BQE, by Lorimer Avenue.
Nerdcore DJ Clara Bizna$$ is the perfect match for this eccentric location. She spins there tonight (4/7).
She’s got the self-deprecatory wit of Rachel Bloom. Here’s Clara on the 1’s and 2’s.
Then on Friday night (4/8), at Union Pool, Birdcloud taps into how a lot of Greenpointers perceive outsiders bar-hopping in the local area, by narrating in the voice of an outsider. It’s not pretty.
To be fair, our relations here with tourists tends to be copacetic, since our favorite Greenpoint places tend to bore them, so there’s not a lot of forced interaction. But for caricature you can’t beat the Birdcloud take.
Also on Friday, if you are a Ben Harper fan, he’s doing an early set at Rough Trade at 6:30 pm. The catch is you need to buy his new album Call It What It Is at the store anytime after 11 am on Friday, to get a wristband for the show.
On Sunday (4/10), none straddle the divide between bitter and sweet better than folk songwriter Tom Moran. His beautiful melodies overlay wistful gut-checks in his lyrics. He’s perfect for the intimate setting of the back room at Pete’s Candy Store. His show is where I most want to be on Sunday.
Finally, if you’re weird enough (like me) to sometimes want sad music on a Saturday night too, The Gutter can oblige. The Drinkers Themselves appear there that night (4/9), as the last of a three-band lineup that starts at 9 pm.