A Bean goes to Brooklyn

What would you do if you were invited on an adventure to a warehouse the middle of Brooklyn at midnight on a Wednesday night? An old friend of mine was in town from California and wanted to meet up. We started out in the East Village and enjoyed a nice scotch before dinner. Then we ventured off to a Peruvian place for a delicious meal. We filled up on lots of fish and seafood (mine was hot and spicy!) and talked about the plans for the rest of the evening.

Both of my friends are music lovers. They live and breathe all kinds of music. One is in a band and a high school music teacher. So when he tells me that we have to go check out a group then I follow him. Even to a warehouse on an empty street in Brooklyn. As my loyal readers know, it takes a lot to get me to leave my borough.

So after dinner we walked to the L to take it 5 stops into Brooklyn. We had a street address and a number that my friend thought was right but he didn’t really remember. After we exited the train, we took out our handy phones with map apps and found our location and began the walk to the venue. The numbers were going up from 223 very slowly and we were looking for a number in the 600’s. As we continued to walk the apartments disappeared and were replaced with old graffiti covered warehouses with trucks parked on the street. I am a tough New Yorker but knew that this could not be a good neighborhood to stroll at night. We got to the 300’s and the street looked as though it would hit the water in a block or two. Certainly we were not going the right way. We went to take out our phones when we heard a muffled sound of music coming from a building a few steps away. This had to be the correct place! We opened an unmarked door and sure enough it was the venue and by venue I mean a small room for a “bar” and behind it a small room with the band playing.

The bar was serving cans of miller high life and some energy malt beverage with 12% alcohol and caffeine and guarana and artificial crap. I tasted it and it was like a carbonated watermelon jolly rancher with a nasty aftertaste. I am glad I didn’t drink more of it because I would have never fallen asleep as my insides glowed radioactive pink.

We stood and listened to the opening band play and then much later we heard the band we had come to see. It was fun but standing in one place for 2 hours was exhausting. There were tons of people smoking inside and my poor lungs are not used to that anymore. I knew I would smell real bad and have to shower when I got home. We left early so that I could get home and get enough sleep so I would not be a zombie at work.

We walked down the deserted street without incident back to the subway. Shockingly, we did not have to wait long for a train and I made the transfer and got home pretty fast!

What a fun Wednesday night!