Photos by Julia Khoroshilov (find more of her work here) and Lauren Khalfayan (find more of her work here). Video by Molly Mary O’Brien.
This past Thursday night Alt Citizen teamed up with DIY Magazine for a diverse showcase at the aptly named The Broadway, tucked inside a relatively unassuming front on Broadway in Bushwick featuring performances from Computer Magic, The Muckers, and Nyssa. The Broadway is a new local watering hole and live music space that bills itself as a “social club for the stars,” a claim that may seem a little pretentious but stepping through the doorway into the tastefully vintage-inspired space feels immediately comfortable; all warm tones, rich wood paneling, and dim accent lighting. The bar is well stocked and staffed with friendly bartenders, there’s the requisite CD jukebox and a pool table in the back, and an overall vibe that’s simultaneously cool and inviting. It’s a new space but in time The Broadway will most certainly earn its patina.
Upstairs is where the magic happens. An intimate, 120-person capacity venue with a tiny stage and an incredible sound system up front, a massive Frank Frazetta print towering over the bar in the back of the room. While the downstairs is cool, the upstairs is definitely cooler.
Kicking off the evening’s festivities was Toronto singer/performer/rocker/goddess Nyssa, a genre-hopping powerhouse of talent and inescapable vortex of magnetizing stage presence. Expertly weaving pop, glam rock, synthwave, and country into a sonic cocktail spiked with powerfully feminine lyrics and deeply personal confessions, the audience couldn’t help being drawn into her unique musical identity. It’s difficult to describe her music without experiencing it, but Orville Peck is a contemporary, or Kasey Musgraves by way of Twin Peaks would be an appropriate attempt and describing her musical singularity of talent. Nyssa isn’t a star in the making, she already is one. It’s only a matter of time before the world notices.
The Muckers were up next, diving headlong into a set of motorik powered greasy and glammed out rock n roll. This is the sound of an IROC Camaro hooking up with a Delorean on prom night while listening to Foghat on 8-track in Mom and Dad’s basement. Piles of spacey reverb gave a tripped-out sense of intergalactic magnitude, bubbling just beneath the screaming guitars and pounding bass. Throughout the set the band gave hints of instrumental virtuosity but it wasn’t until the final song that the machine broke free of its restraints and The Muckers launched headlong into an epic krautrock-meets-Harley Davidson jam that left the audience slack jawed and stupefied in the face of such incredible guitar heroics.
Rounding out the showcase was Computer Magic and despite some early-set technical difficulties the late crowd quickly fell under Danielle Johnson’s digital spell. 8-bit goth and haunting vocals cast a pall of darkness over the stage, extending out into the audience like a long and menacing shadow. Live drums added an analog heartbeat to synthetic undulations of sound like the soundtrack to a pagan ritual from the future filmed on VHS and sent back in time to 1985. It wasn’t all doom and gloom, the undeniable sheen of perfectly produced neon synthwave was omnipresent and added a noticeable bubblegum flavor to the Numan-esque industrial vibes, like the collective rosters of Blood Music and Italians Do It Better at a mixer for mascara stained club kids and The Matrix-obsessed high school hackers.
