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Friday, September 20, 2013

Producer's Note: BAMcafé Live returns with Olga Bell & Heliotropes

by Darrell McNeill

Olga Bell performs tonight at BAMcafé Live

As BAM kicks off the 14th formal season of BAMcafé Live, the entire landscape of music in Brooklyn has radically altered. Music goes to the consumer, not the other way around—“scenes” are now online communities, bloggers are tastemakers, and there are more venues within immediate walking distance. Brooklyn music is in its “show me” moment, when the scene has to prove itself as more than hype for a zip code—artists and venues need to deliver “the goods.”

The mandate for talent stewards like myself is not simply to deliver “the goods,” but to engage music lovers in a new relationship and create a community between venue, artist, and patron. For my part, BAMcafé Live will be aggressively seeking new ways of inviting our supporters, old and new, to connect with familiar and fresh talent and take part in a new, heightened live musical experience. Our community will be akin to a house party where good friends take turns as DJs, becoming enraptured with great new music while exchanging conversations and relishing the company—in other words, music as the communal experience it was always meant to be.


In the coming weeks, the BAMcafé Live team and I will be reaching out to you with a brand new look, new content (like this new weekly blog), and through social media. This is our “show you” moment, proving that we continue to deliver some of the brightest musical artists from the area and beyond. And, in the spirit of the party, we welcome your part of the conversation.

We launch the Next Wave season tonight, Friday, September 20 with Olga Bell, iridescent singer-composer-musician from Dirty Projectors (former leader of Chairlift), who will be performing her solo pop electronica works. Having performed at BAM this past April as part of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, she was as enamored with our space as we were of her, so it was a natural fit. Emo-punk quartet Heliotropes rounds out the weekend on Saturday, September 21, ushering in the next generation of intense, jarring, and thoughtful rock ‘n' roll. This group has been making waves on the underground rock scene since 2009, performing at many of New York City’s noted rock clubs and festivals. By the way, they are very, very dark and very, very loud.

So here’s to another great season of great music—we hope to catch you under the arches very soon. Be sure to let us know what you think about the shows by commenting below, or tweeting at as at @BAM_Brooklyn. And remember to tag your tweets and 'grams #BAMcafeLive. Cheers…

Darrell McNeill is the Associate Producer of Music Programming at BAM. 

Watch Olga Bell's brand new video (from her collaboration with U.K. dance-pop artist Tom Vek):



And Heliotropes:


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