Monthly Archives: May 2010

The Brooklyn Infringement Festival

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Last night the hipsterati of East Williamsburg came out in droves for the Brooklyn Infringement Festival, a showcase of up-and-coming bands at Don Pedro (90 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn). The bar has all the makings of a classic dive: a velvet painting of Billy Dee Williams on the wall, PBR on tap, a bathroom missing a toilet seat. In short, Liz and Laura’s definition of true class. On this evening, although there wasn’t a raincloud in the sky, a pool of water had somehow collected in the basement where some of the bands were playing. As we surveyed the growing lake of water of mysterious origin puddling around our feet, and the power cables and music equipment marinating in that same lake, we knew were in for an interesting evening.

The possibility of electrocution aside, the evening started out well. We unfortunately missed one of the bands we intended to see, KITTEN: Revenge!, but we hear this experimental outfit rocked the house. By the time we got there, the band Toi Toi Toi was just splashing up to their mics to start a spirited set of edgy rock songs. Their sound was reminiscent of Sleater-Kinney and all sorts of other good stuff, and their outfits took us back to the days of Dynasty, with their bright colors and unnecessary shoulder pads.

other band bklyn infringe

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After fueling up with more cheap beer, we settled in on the main level to watch Groovesteady Sextet do their thing. The ensemble played a rousing, brass-filled set of jazzy songs that really got the crowd going.

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Groovesteady 2

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A lovely time was had by all, as well as too much beer, and as we stumbled homeward, our ears still ringing, we had a revelation: there’s a lot of goddamn hipsters in this neighborhood.