One particularly lame Long Island show for Slothbear was two years ago at Mr. Beery’s in Bethpage. “The sound guy decided to unplug Craig’s amp after he [purposefully] made feedback, early into what was supposed to be a long set,” Ginsberg says. “Unfortunately, a lot of places view music as nothing more than a ploy to bring in customers.”
Valley Stream’s Gaza Striptease has also had little luck playing on Long Island. Their first show, at a basement party in their home town organized by Hofstra students, was awkward. “We got kicked out after our bassist and drummer were tackled by uptight partygoers,” the band recalls. The band cites a pool party at their bassist’s house with Weed Hounds as a favorite Long Island show.
Nick Rice of Weed Hounds cites the 2009 summertime pool party as his favorite Weed Hounds show on Long Island. “It was such a blast and we intend on having another one,” he said. “As soon as we finished playing, everyone who was there jumped into the pool.”
Dave Barrit, frontman of Massapequa natives Bonus Eventus, agrees that the hardest thing about playing Long Island is trying to find good shows. “A lot of times, Long Island shows are at these tiny dive bars,” Barrit says. “Bands tend to leave as soon as they’re done playing, and only show up right before their set starts. It gets frustrating. We might as well just let our friends come sit in at practice and save them money.”
That frustration has led a number of particularly talented groups to leave Long Island altogether. The members of Small Black—Josh Kolenik and Ryan Heynera—a keyboard and synth-based recording project praised by indie tastemakers like Pitchfork and Stereogum, are originally from Baldwin and Lindenhurst, but moved to Brooklyn to pursue music.
“There was just no outlet for the music we were doing,” Kolenik says. “I don’t think anyone was paying attention.” Kolenik agrees that all-ages art spaces are critical to any indie scene. “Everything was so disconnected,” he says of the LI scene he moved away from. He describes an “awesome” warehouse space in Lindenhurst that once threw DIY shows, but the space was eventually shut down.
WILL FORTHMAN, 20, is a co-founder of Dinosaurs in Vietnam, a Massapequa- and Wantagh-based collective and label which books shows and releases zines in support of their roster of LI-based artists. Forthman has been booking bar-shows for Long Island bands since 2006. But he says that the best Long Island shows are the ones the bands make themselves.
“Good Long Island shows are in places you’d never expect them to be,” Forthman says. According to Forthman, house shows are slowly becoming a Long Island phenomenon, and he believes that well-organized and -publicized house shows will be crucial in redefining the Long Island sound.
“People don’t care about playing bars anymore,” he says. “Bands are making their own thing happen with house shows, and I don’t see that sort of thing getting shut down any time soon on Long Island. The concept is only in its infancy.” Forthman mentions The Holy Soviets, an Islip-based psych-folk duo who began organizing monthly house shows last year after playing open-mic night at The Cup in Wantagh several times.
Straylight Run’s Nolan says that as long as bands are interconnected, the Long Island sound can be redefined. “That’s a key part of what made everything work the way it did in the past. Everybody was aware of each other, and in general trying to help each other out,” he says. “That would need to happen again.”
Kolenik of Small Black recalled a recent Long Island house show that took him by great surprise. “We [Small Black] were driving around and went to a house show with some noise band and it was really weird,” he says. “I didn’t think that happened on Long Island, and I thought it was interesting and kind of hopeful for something different. I had no idea people were doing stuff like that on Long Island, but I don’t even know where I would go to see another show on Long Island now.”
INDEED, INDIE ROCK HAS AGAIN BECOME A PHENOMENON throughout the country and around the world. Long Island is clearly no exception. “I think more [touring] bands should come out to the Island,” says WUSB’s Agathos. “It would create a demand for a venue that’s more suitable for the growing interest in indie rock. The interest is here, and kids really like it.” After all, as she notes, “If kids are willing to go through all the trouble of heading to the city to see a show, why wouldn’t they go to one on Long Island?”