ShapeShifter Lab
Posted: November 27, 2012 Filed under: Brooklyn | Tags: TUESDAY TOILET TALK Comments Off on ShapeShifter Lab“Should we sit in the first row?”
We settled on the second of the five rows in the front section, as that would require only 80% focus on the music, according to Jack. Jack provides emergency tech support for us and restored the blog when I inadvertently made the entire site crash. He once again saved the day by assessing that the requirements of front row seating would be incongruent with our 80% brain capacity to pay attention to the band, after an early morning of Black Friday shopping and an even earlier morning at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade a day prior.
Though waiting for over three hours with popsicle toes, surrounded by angry people wanting to see oversized balloons of Hello Kitty and SpongeBob was worth doing once, parades are more fun when viewed on television—but not so with musical performances. Live performances are incomparable to recordings and I was excited to see four different bands live Friday night for the OutNow Records release party.
I was particularly interested in seeing drummer George Schuller again, remembering his gig years ago at Korzo in Brooklyn and thinking to myself that I would want my group to sound like his. RIBBS, the quartet he performed with this time sounded nothing like my memory of his group. The Yoni Kretzmer 2Bass Quartet that followed them had bassist twinsies with matching beanies, glasses and earth tone tops. 9 Volt, the last group we stuck around for rocked.
Jack photographed the men’s room for us. The men’s room seems a bit cramped, with similar square footage as the women’s room but partitioned off into three sections for the toilet, urinal and sink.
The women’s room felt open, bare and white, like the rest of ShapeShifter Lab. It had no mirror but perhaps they are still working on finishing up the restroom, as it is a somewhat new venue. The flower-shaped tiles on the spacious cement floor was a nice touch.
At ShapeShifter Lab, you can choose to sip on tea and use the free Wi-Fi at one of the back tables by the bar while listening to live music—like a jazz café of sorts. Or you can sit in one of the rows and admire the color changing light against the white brick wall behind the performers. Dress warmly because it gets chilly in there. I suppose the cool air is a part of its Brooklyn converted warehouse space charm.
I’m glad our West Coast emergency tech support, as well as another college friend Amy, could join us for this assignment. I love Jack and Amy so much that I may start an indie rock band named after them.
Dorjee from Tibet tells us how to say, “Where’s the restroom?” in Tibetan –