Live Music in Brooklyn...

Always in search of live music, preferably something never seen before and off the beaten path our recent visit to NYC found us in Brooklyn at the club (pronounced Barbez) Barbes. There should be an accent over that last e but I'm don't know how to do that. 

We rode the subway to Brooklyn. It's more like the neighborhood areas I'm used to in Chicago, a nice relaxed feel of a place where people live than the run and gun of downtown Manhattan. As you can see the club is tiny, two rooms, one a bar and the other for a band. 

The band we saw was Los Mochuelos. Mochuelos means little owl. They play Vellenato music from the Caribbean region of Columbia that mixes African harmony and rhythms with Spanish poetry. It's the most popular folkoric  music in Columbia today. 

Barbes seems to be the place to hear world type music of blended cultures as well as groups doing twisted sense of humor jazz, country and crazy covers of popular tunes. Straight cover bands need not apply. If you look up the club's web site and read band descriptions it will be a nice relief from the weariness of your usual internet searches for cat photos.   

Most of the band room is dance floor and could get crowded with more than 50 people. We grabbed some seats next to the band. A New York band we have a bunch of CDs by, Slavic Soul Party plays here and I would like to see how they operate with a brass band group of horn players on the small stage.  

I picked up a tip from this bass player. He had what looked like a leather shoe string tied and woven through his strings at the bridge. When the band took a break I asked him about it and he said it helped get a string bass sound on the electric instrument. I've experimented with string mutes but never found one satisfactory but I may give this a try. 

Of course Cathy got the t shirt. The bass player sold it to us but when the band came back from break the accordion player called out from the stage "Shout out to Texas, thanks for buying a shirt." 

The bar also had a tasty non alcohol imported beer on hand. That is always a plus for me. Put Brooklyn and Barbes on your list of cool places.