Music Hall in Williamsburg is located on the numerologically-ominous 66 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, between Kent and Wythe Avenues. It is part of the ‘Bowery Presents’ circle of venues, along with the Mercury Lounge, Bowery Ballroom, and Terminal 5; from noon to seven PM, Monday-Saturday, Mercury Lounge serves as the box office for all four places (Music Hall also does on Saturdays, eleven AM to six PM). It is a relatively new venue, having only opened on September 5th, 2007, with Against Me! and Matt & Kim. Before Bowery Presents took it over and refurbished it, the venue was previously known as Northsix.
The influence of Bowery Presents is obvious, as the set-up of Music Hall is almost a carbon copy of Bowery Ballroom. While the actual stage floor is located on ground level, Music Hall’s entrance goes directly downstairs, below the stage floor, to a large, but low-ceilinged, U-shaped bar (there’s one street-level door that can be used if you get a hand-stamp inside, for smokers, and the larger street-level doors open after the show is finished, to let crowds out). The downstairs section also contains the coat-check and both bathrooms. On the other side of the bar, near the street, are the stairs up.
These stairs lead to a foyer area, which contains the merchandise table on house left and the upstairs bar on house right. However, the foyer is separated from the stage floor by inner doors, unlike Bowery Ballroom. Also unlike Bowery Ballroom are the sides of the stage floor, which are a few steps up and separated by a railing, with steps at the back and front of the stage floor. Stairs up to the balcony are at the house right back corner of the stage floor, and on the house left side of the foyer (next to the side street-level door). In size, Music Hall is perhaps slightly larger than Bowery Ballroom, with more walls; larger than most small, bar venues located in Brooklyn, but smaller than the larger indie-rock venues located around the city, such as Bowery Presents’ Terminal 5 or (used, not run) Webster Hall.
Thanks to its mid-level size and Bowery Presents hook, Music Hall has a ‘just right’ fit with its headliners – bands accomplished enough to make the concert an ‘event’, but size small enough that you don’t have to fight to the front or get pressed in the center for a good view. It usually gets bands slightly bigger than at Bowery Ballroom – a band that tours more than once on a record might play Bowery on their first trip to New York, then Music Hall on their second. But other times, bands play two dates in one visit – a Manhattan date and a Brooklyn one, and the Manhattan locale can vary from Mercury Lounge to Terminal 5. The place is large enough that there are usually two headliners (especially on Friday and Saturday nights) – the first usually starts an hour after doors open, with the main act usually going on at 11 P.M. Along with Bowery Ballroom, Music Hall in Williamsburg is perfect place to catch a band right before they get so big the tickets and beers are too expensive, or a working-class, ‘never blew up, but still consistently delivering’ indie-staples.
Capacity: 550
Address:
66 North 6th Street (Between Kent and Wythe Avenues)
By Subway:
L to Bedford Avenue – walk one block south on Bedford, two blocks west on South side of North 6th Street
