New 24,000-square-foot club to open in East Williamsburg this November

September 6, 2017 By Scott Enman Brooklyn Daily Eagle

A new 24,000-square-foot music venue dubbed Elsewhere is coming to East Williamsburg this fall. Shown: Elsewhere’s 675-capacty-performance hall and dance floor. Photos courtesy of Elsewhere

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North Brooklyn, once a barren wasteland of abandoned warehouses, has steadily become the epicenter of electronic dance music in New York, rivaling Berlin and London as the world’s top artistic hubs.

The enigmatic Williamsburg club Output was the first to take a shot in the dark, opening in the borough in 2013. It was soon followed by the recently shuttered Verboten, now known as Schimanski.

More recently, Brooklyn has seen several other massive music venues open, including Brooklyn Steel, House of Yes, The Knockdown Center and The Brooklyn Mirage.

The latest to join this trend is Elsewhere, the borough’s newest 24,000-square-foot warehouse turned nightclub in East Williamsburg on the Bushwick border.

“We started looking for a location in the winter of 2013, and it took us about a year-and-a-half to find it,” said co-founder Dhruv Chopra. “The back lot was filled with massive shipping containers. Large portions of the building were covered in rusting corrugated steel. Architecturally, the building is a labyrinth, it’s weird.

“And there was this disused floating bridge structure hovering above the courtyard. I think most people would have looked at the building and thought, ‘This isn’t the right spot for a music venue,’ but we felt an immediate connection to it. It was obvious to us. It felt like Elsewhere.”

Elsewhere, located at 599 Johnson Ave., will feature a 675-capacity performance hall, a 200-person cafe, bar and art gallery that will be open during the day and a 500-capacity rooftop with a bar that will host film screenings in the warmer months.

“Elsewhere inherits an ethos of creative risk-taking, progressive music programming, respect for all people and art and a desire to support and grow the community that makes it possible,” reads a statement on Elsewhere’s website.

The highly anticipated performance space is the brainchild of PopGun Presents, the team behind the former Williamsburg music and art venue Glasslands Gallery.

The adult playground is slated to open this November with an eclectic mix of live bands and DJs on the bill from stalwart representatives to up-and-coming artists with niche sounds.

The club’s first event, which is already sold out, will feature Bruno Major. Other artists include DJs Stacey Pullen, Juan Atkins, Moon Boots and Kolsch, among many others. The venue has shows slated through the New Year.

Several of Elsewhere’s live shows are 16-plus, while the space’s club nights will be 21-plus.

With the city’s Office of Nightlife coming by 2018, many entrepreneurs are eager to invest in and open music venues.

The New York City Council approved on Aug. 24 Councilmember Rafael Espinal’s bill to implement an Office of Nightlife, nightlife director and Nightlife Advisory Board.

The director of nightlife’s responsibilities will include regulating the nightlife industry, helping DIY venues stay open and creating a safer partying environment.

The director will be responsible for conducting outreach to nightlife establishments, acting as a liaison for those venues, referring those organizations to city services, reviewing 311 complaints and holding at least one public hearing in each borough, among other duties.

The office’s first priority will be repealing the antiquated Cabaret Law. The law states that people can only dance in venues that possess a cabaret license, but these certificates are extremely difficult to attain.

To buy tickets and to see Elsewhere’s full lineup of shows, go to elsewherebrooklyn.com.