Goodbye Blue Monday

Goodbye Blue Monday is an unpretentiously weird bar/café/internet hub that sits on the border of Bed Stuy and Bushwick (the management is now terming this ‘Bushstuy’). While this fact would otherwise remain unremarkable, what makes GBM worth checking out is its position in the local, national and international music scene as a go-to place to book a quick gig in New York (every musician for miles knows this). The bar hosts nightly free music of all varieties—I saw a weird progressive freejazz group, followed by a more traditional upright bass and saxophone duo, a few Tuesdays ago. The bands/shows the club books are as eclectic and eccentric as the interior decorating, which is mostly a randomly arranged mishmash of retro collectibles, thrift store furnishings and nostalgia-inducing signage (flotsam and jetsam, anyone?). I’ve seen everything from indie rock to solo acoustic singer-songwriter stuff, sad bastard to glitchy noise at GBM. Once my band even played a show there on a second outdoor stage, while a strange mixture of circus/cabaret thing happened in the front room.

Anyway, it’s nice to know that this somewhat under-the-radar little gem is right here in our neck of Brooklyn. Definitely worth stopping by, sipping a Red Stripe and watching whatever happens to be going down on stage.

Goodbye Blue Monday

1087 Broadway Brooklyn, NY 11221