Beloved Brooklyn venue Barbès returns to presenting live music after NYC’s COVID-19 pause with a brand new livestream series. Télé-Barbès is broadcast live from Barbès legendary backroom, several nights a week.
“Live is dead but we’re trying our best to clone it,” says Barbès owner Olivier Conan. “For the past 18 years, against all reasonable odds, we have managed to present close to 1,000 shows a year. For the past three and half months, Barbès has been silent, but we’re doing our very best to adapt and not become a casualty.
“We’re trying to recreate the live experience as much as possible - with quality sound, and cameras that don’t imitate parking garage surveillance cameras. We find the experience uplifting, because it is the closest to live music we’ve come to in months.
“Our livestreams are under an hour, generally streamed at 6.00 pm. They favor listening music rather that party music, for obvious reasons. We’re minimizing the use of horns or multiple vocals: So no choirs, no brass bands, no opera. No very large bands - that means no Slavic Soul Party, no Bulla en el Barrio or some of the other extraordinary bands who have come to define our space.”
Still, many old favorites -- including Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet, Stephane Wrembel Trio, and The Crooked Trio -- have already returned for the Télé-Barbès series, with more to come; taking Barbès back to its roots as an incubator of original Brooklyn music and talent.
For the full schedule of Télé-Barbès upcoming performances, and to watch them live, check the Barbès website: https://www.barbesbrooklyn.com. Every performances is archived at the above address, and on Youtube, as well. All performances are free to watch, but a tip-jar link is included for donations to pay the musicians.
In addition to the Télé-Barbès series, last August's successful Barbès In The Woods event will also return, in a slightly-tweaked livestream format for 2020. Tune in on Saturday, August 8th for House Parties for Barbès, a very special Zoom party to keep spirits high and keep the lights on at the iconic Brooklyn bar. Featuring DJ sets from Nickodemus and Eric Banta from Names You Can Trust and performances from Son Rompe Pera and Underground System.
