Wednesday's parting shot

Photo by Stacie Joy 

This year's New Colossus Festival is underway at East Village and Lower East Side music venues. It will feature more than 200 bands and various industry panels. 

At Baker Falls, 192 Allen St., between Houston and Stanton, there was an afternoon slate of conversations ranging from independent release and distribution strategies to creating music videos. 

The live music continues through Sunday. Check out the slate here.

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Q&A with Steven Matrick, co-founder of the New Colossus Festival, taking place this week at East Village and Lower East Side music venues

Ashes to ashes: A to-go twist on Ash Wednesday

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

This morning, on this Ash Wednesday, Pastor Will Kroeze and retired Pastor Barbara Beale offered "ashes to go" from the corner of Ninth Street and Avenue B outside Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran Parish.

Those who received the ashes arrived on foot, by bicycle and car.

At least one dog took part as well...

Pastor Will also prepared to-go bags of ashes — made from burned palms from Palm Sunday and holy oil — for a colleague to administer to a hospital-bound parishioner and during at-home visits.

And yes, someone couldn’t resist making a dime-bag joke...

RIP Hal Hirshorn

Photo for EVG from 2016 by James Maher

Several EVG readers shared the sad news that Hal Hirshorn, an artist well-known in the downtown community, passed away on Feb. 4. 

Little had been made public about his death until a feature at The New York Times yesterday. His sister, Harriet Hirshorn, told the paper that the cause of death was coronary artery disease. He was 60. 

Per the Times: 

While other artists of his generation rode the art-market boom of the last three decades, he remained aloof, rarely putting his work up for sale at galleries. His spare website features a few of his paintings and photographs, but no contact information or personal details. 

His work was absolutely analog. Mr. Hirshorn made his own paints using traditional ingredients, and he scoured the Chelsea flea market for antique camera parts, the older and more obscure the better. 

His landscapes drew on a color palette of dirty greens and autumnal browns. They were Turner-esque in their near abstraction, with swirls of misty clouds obscuring craggy cliffs and stormy seas. 

His photographs likewise seemed to exist out of time. He made them by applying a solution of salt and silver to drawing paper, layering it with a negative and exposing it to light to capture an image — a technique developed in England in the mid-19th century that eventually fell out of favor because it required very long exposures that made it hard to keep an image in focus. 

He arrived here in the late 1980s. During an interview with EVG's James Maher in August 2016, Hirshorn lamented the changing neighborhood. 

Basically within a five-minute walk [today] most of the East Village that I’ve known over the course of 25, almost 30 years is gone, just gone, not like in bits and pieces, shifting here and there — just one fell swoop. Just to see everything radically redeveloped is what’s so stunning, because it used to happen in bits and pieces as the real estate went up. Now they’re doing blocks instead of buildings. 

An EVG reader emailed us to say, "He was a wonderfully sweet, quirky man and a brilliant painter and photographer. I'm glad to have called him a friend."

 

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From pizza to politics: Eleven B serves up a new campaign HQ on Avenue B

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

In recent months, we've received several inquiries about the status of Eleven B, the pizzeria owned by Vincent Sgarlato and his family on the southwest corner of 11th Street and Avenue B. 

A large for-lease banner arrived on the 11th Street side in the fall, though it remained in business.

Now, though, Sarah Batchu, a Democratic candidate for the open City Council District 2 seat, has debuted a campaign office inside the restaurant. This is a temporary, four-month lease agreement with Eleven B for the corner space. The restaurant and bar will (physically) remain the same, pending possible reopening once the campaign office lease is up.

"We are holding the space for him, happy to help," says Batchu of Sgarlato. 

Batchu says she will host community events here, including constituent services.

In the interim, the Express slice shop remains in service on the 11th Street side, offering slices and whole pies.

Meanwhile, one block away, we ran into local Assembly Member Harvey Epstein, another Democratic District 2 Council candidate. He has opened a campaign office on 12th Street and Avenue B.

The other candidates for this District 2 seat (Carlina Rivera has been term-limited) are:

• Andrea Gordillo (Democrat)

• Jason Murillo (Republican)

• Allie Ryan (Democrat)

• Gail Schargel (Democrat)

• Anthony Weiner (Democrat)

The primaries take place on June 24.

Signage alert: Butter Smashburgers on St. Mark's Place

Signage is up now at 17 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue for Butter Smashburgers. 

This will be the second outpost for the burger joint that opened last summer on Macdougal Street.

Butter offers five menu items (not counting tea, soda, and water): the house cheeseburger (single or double), a fried chicken sandwich, a veggie burger, fries, and an ice cream sundae. It also offers a monthly burger or chicken sandwich special.

Find the menu here. 

St. Mark's Burgers & Dogs recently opened down the block at 34 St. Mark's Place ... and because someone will bring this up: An outpost of Smashed is coming soon to 94 Third Ave. between 12th Street and 13th Street.

Interesting new business opens on the Bowery and Houston

Over the weekend, the plywood came down on the SW corner of the Bowery and Houston to reveal the new business — Bank of America! 

This is the first tenant here in almost seven years ... the last at 284 Bowery was Cherche Midi, Keith McNally's French brasserie, which closed in June 2018. (Before this, McNally had unleased Pulino's Bar and Pizzeria.) 

This corner had also been a hot spot for street art these past six years, including a mural paying tribute to George Floyd by @fumeroism that arrived in early June 2020.

So much for bank branches being a thing of the past: A Wells Fargo opened one storefront to the south on the Bowery several years back. Now, if we can just get a psychic or nail salon to open in the space between, it will feel like 2008 or so...

Q&A with Steven Matrick, co-founder of the New Colossus Festival, taking place this week at East Village and Lower East Side music venues

Photos and interview by Stacie Joy 

Longtime Lower East Side resident Steven Matrick arrives at Pianos (158 Ludlow St.) excited to talk about music and bands — and I am excited to let him, as he details some acts he's especially keen on seeing (and hearing) at this year's New Colossus Festival.

Since he's the co-founder of the nearly weeklong event, which is rapidly approaching (today through Sunday), we take some photos at one of the fest's 11 venues and chat about the NYC music scene, what it takes to run a festival, and his favorite moments from previous ones.

What inspired you to start The New Colossus Festival, and how has it evolved since its inception? 

I was on a series of panels with the other bookers on the Lower East Side, and we kept talking about how much we all missed CMJ. This was in 2018. Festival Co-Founder Mike Bell approached me about the New Colossus Festival as the booker of Pianos, and then his partner quit, so we teamed up. He rightly pointed out the scattershot nature of bands coming to NYC on their way to SXSW and how we should centralize it in the neighborhood we love. We chose Lio Kanine from Kanine Records to help us with booking, as he always threw amazing parties at CMJ. 

We did a test run in 2018 on both floors at Pianos the week before SXSW, and it went extremely well, so we went full throttle in 2019. The festival lineup has gotten bigger (more bands) and better (more amazing bands) with each year. We’ve been able to rely on locals less and less with each edition, and our mission is to welcome international bands to NYC, so we’re very happy about this. We also have done 22 weeks of shows (with 5 bands at each one) at 18th Ward Brewery the last three years, so we’ve at this point worked with about 300 local bands and are able to figure out which ones we want to showcase every year. 

The festival name is derived from Emma Lazarus's poem about the Statue of Liberty. How does that symbolism influence the Festival’s identity? 

NYC has been one of the epicenters of music for a very long time, and we want to welcome artists from all over the world to play their first shows in March. This was Mike's idea, and I'm a very sentimental person, so I was and always have been really into it. 

It is really beautiful, and there is a way in which musical artists wash up to NYC looking to play: 

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she 

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, 

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

How do you see The New Colossus Festival contributing to NYC's cultural and artistic landscape? 

Well, we're an indie rock festival. The indie rock music scene started in the East Village with CBGB and Max's Kansas City, moved to the Lower East Side in the early 2000s (Mercury Lounge, Luna Lounge, Pianos, Cake Shop, Don Hills, etc.), moved to Williamsburg in the early 2010s, and then eastward to Bushwick. Now, there are a ton of venues in Ridgewood and BedStuy.

The move eastward has to do with artists finding affordable places to live. It is extremely important to us that we have this Festival in the Lower East Side/East Village to bring these kids back to playing in these historic venues. 

We're also functioning as an entry point for what will be 800 bands by the end of the Festival, and most of them gain a footing so that their next show in NYC has the capacity to have a good-sized audience at it. It's a wonderful thing.

Many artists are performing in New York City — or even the U.S. — for the first time. How does the Festival support them in making that leap? 

Well, when you go to SXSW, you're technically only supposed to play one show and certainly not more than one at night during official festival hours. This year, we’ve given all international bands two to three shows and many locals two shows. It is so excellent to provide multiple showcases for them during their trip. 

In the past, at Pianos, a band from Norway would showcase at 7 p.m., and sometimes the rooms were empty because nobody knew who they were yet. This is a much better way to play your first NYC shows. 

Are there any artists or performances you’re particularly excited about this year? 

Yes! I'm a punk rock guy and am throwing two label parties. All of the bands on those parties are amazing: Test Plan, Prostitute, Public Circuit, Peer Pleasure and Bucket (two bands I saw at Ireland Music Week), Joe & the Shitboys from the Faroe Islands, who are opening three shows for Iggy Pop soon, and some really excellent weird bands from Ohio: Big Fat Head, People in the Daytime and Touchdown Jesus, that Pons, who are on our label, sent over to me.

On the nonpunk front, I can't wait to see Prism Shores, You Said Strange, Delivery, Hachiku, Cusp, World News, Dictator, Dutch Mustard, Snoozer (Alex G's band), Wax Jaw, Bleary Eyed … and I can go on and on and on! 

Looking back, what are the festival moments that stand out for you?

1. Lowly (Denmark) at Pianos in 2019 completely blew our minds. Think Stereolab. 

2. Paul Jacobs (Montreal) blew us away at Pianos in 2022. 

3. GIFT (Brooklyn) played Berlin in 2022 and were so great I wound up managing them.

4. Ducks Ltd. (Toronto) blessed us with three shows last year. Their album Harm's Way was the theme album for the Festival, so I enjoyed every moment of all three shows—as did everyone else who was there! 

5. Roost.World (Vermont) closed out the Festival last year at Baker Falls on Saturday Night, and it was a full-on amazing dance party. 

What are your long-term goals for The New Colossus Festival, and are there any new elements or expansions you’re considering for future editions? 

We'd like to continue holding it in small venues to keep it manageable for everyone and evolve the number of people who come out for the week. This year, we did six shows with Super Bock, three shows with Groover, and, again, 22 weeks of shows at 18th Ward Brewery, so the Festival has become more of a year-round thing. 

We'd like to continue expanding who we partner with for shows and throw great shows throughout the year.

Find the entire schedule and band info at this link.

Tompkins Square Park field house refurbished, reopening nears after final inspections

Photos and reporting yesterday by Stacie Joy 

At the start of 2025, NYC Parks officials told us that the nearly 20-month renovations of the Tompkins Square Park field house were expected to be completed by the end of January or early February. 

Now that we have entered March, and the fencing still surrounds the structure along the Ninth Street walkway, we asked for an update. 

An NYC Parks official told us that the construction has been completed, and the Park staff is conducting final inspections.

There is no word on when that might be. The official said they are still working on scheduling a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the upgraded facility. 

The reconstruction of the field house included a complete renovation of the building's interior and exterior, upgrading all mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems. Accessibility improvements feature reconfigured layouts, new entryways, ADA-compliant ramps, and renovated restrooms and maintenance areas. 

The mayor's office funded the $5.6 million renovations, which were much needed because the field house rarely had heat or hot water. And you know what the restrooms looked like.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• Tompkins Square Park upgrades: When will the field house and restrooms reopen?

Monday's parting shots

Workers today provided some long-needed tree care at the Tompkins Square Park dog runs... trimming back the cascading American Elms ...

Thnaks to Deb O'Nair for the photos!

At Night Club 101 with Hello Mary

Photos by Stacie Joy 

On Friday night, local faves Hello Mary headlined a sold-out Night Club 101 at 101 Avenue A. 

It was another solid show courtesy of (from left) drummer/vocalist Stella Wave, guitarist/vocalist Helena Straight and bassist Mikaela Oppenheimer ...

After opening acts You Bet and a solo 22° Halo, Hello Mary performed a nearly hour-long set featuring several choice tracks from their second full-length album, Emita Ox.

The band closed with arguably their best song, "0%." Stella, who sings lead on the track, ceded the drum kit to Cooper Ladomade from Rocket. She finished unleashing the punkish fury of "0%" from the floor alongside the crowd.

Next, Hello Mary opens three dates this week for Kim Deal (a dream opportunity for the band, they say), including Wednesday at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. The band has several festivals booked this summer. 

Keep tabs on the band via Instagram.

The new old Lucy's reopens tomorrow

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Lucy's officially begins a new era tomorrow at 135 Avenue A between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street.

Lucy's, now owned by Golden Age Hospitality, underwent renovations in recent months. Golden Age Hospitality CEO Jon Neidich, who previously lived upstairs and was a big Lucy's fan, promised to maintain the bar's look and feel and the same neighborhood bar vibes. (The renovations mainly included soundproofing in the ceiling and ADA bathrooms.) 

When the ownership change was presented to Community Board 3 last summer, Eater noted: "At least up until now, Neidich's businesses are just about the antithesis of Lucy's." A Times profile noted how he and Golden Age are swanking up millennial nightlife. (Who doesn't love a caviar-baked potato?) 

This past Thursday night, the new Lucy's debuted during a private party that included friends and neighbors, Golden Age associates, and a reporter or two. The place looks almost identical to the Lucy's you visited before closing in November 2023. (This EVG post will bring you up to date.) 

I have to say the bar looks pretty much like I remembered it — only a bit spiffier. It has a new jukebox featuring bands from Outkast to the Rolling Stones, new speakers, and a fresh coat of paint. 

Elsewhere, there is a new ADA-compliant restroom and a cleaned-up storage room (I did not get to go into the basement, but I was told it's an empty storage area now). A team of enthusiastic bartenders also makes some carefully crafted cocktails. However, there are no contraband bottles of you-take-the-first-shot 192-proof Spirytus behind the bar. 

One item is missing: the well-worn poster for the 1997 teen drama Hurricane Streets, which filmed a scene in the bar. Neidich said a new one is on its way. 

Overall, it looks as if Neidich tried carefully to recreate the Lucy's of his earlier days.

Around 9:30, Ludwika "Lucy" Mickevicius, who opened the bar here in 1987, arrived on the scene after an outing with The New York Times to a very warm welcome...

Golden Age has said that Lucy will still have a presence here — even bartending. (Playing it cool, she told me she'll "be at the bar when I'm available.") 

Here is Lucy with Jon Neidich...

I asked her what she thought of the new look.

"It's good. It's nice. This is new, and it costs a lot of money. It was time to make a change. Mine was very old," she said. "This is just so nice. I still love it." 

And on her return to the bar to see so many people happy to see her? 

"I am surviving a long time because people care about me, and then people from all over the world come in to say hi, and they remember me."

The best part for me, personally, was seeing Lucy smile. She put down the cane she now uses, sat at a table by the front door, and looked around the bar at everyone enjoying the opening night private party.

She put her hand over mine and said, "You look tired, Stacie. Go home. I am staying maybe a little bit longer."

It was after midnight when I walked out, and she was still going strong.

Starting tomorrow (March 4), Lucy's is open seven days a week from 5 p.m. to 4 a.m. You can follow Lucy's on Instagram here.

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• A few more details on the future of East Village classic bar Lucy's 

• Exclusive: Lucy discusses the future of her iconic East Village bar