Profile by Audrey Tran
FORT USELESS
Bushwick/Brooklyn NY
For Jeremiah McVay, the boom in DIY venues is a welcomed relief. He runs Fort Useless, a Bushwick-based event space that opened its doors last August.
In addition to playing with different bands, he’s been booking shows and connecting musicians across NYC for years. In a sense, he really knows the bolts behind the NYC music scene.
The “Do-It-Yourself” spots have produced better shows, according to McVay, mainly because there are now more places to play. That, in turn, allows groups to gravitate towards others who share their creative interests instead of having to aim for a limited pool of concert halls. He recalls how lots of venues in the early 2000’s would schedule these oddly-matched bands. For example, you could have gone to a venue and you might have seen a metal band mixed in with a folky, acoustic group all on the same night (back then people also had to be persuaded into traveling to Williamsburg).
“It’s always great to have bands that are going to appreciate each other, and enjoy each other’s music,” he said. “It happens a lot more now than it used to and I think it has to do with this whole DIY thing.”
Though the topic isn’t fresh, it seems to be in the air, as L Magazine recently made DIY the focus for their latest issue.
Other experts on the indie/underground scene have called Fort Useless “a rare and welcome gem to the live music landscape in Brooklyn.”
That’s a fine complement, perhaps well earned because of the warm attitude towards the artists of Fort Useless. “Generally, I end up being friends with most of the musicians I book,” McVay said. “I end up liking their music a lot and they tend to like whatever show we’re doing.” For him, there’s nothing better than hearing a group tell him post performance that they had a great time and want to continue showing with Fort Useless.
Monthly Songwriters Salons give Fort Useless the reputation of being made up of people who “care deeply about music.” These events turn the venue into a cozy space where musicians, many of which play in 3 or 4 member bands, often go on stage alone. Participants are given a suggested format to follow or completely ignore as they see fit: a new song never played before in public, a cover, a previously played song, and then one other song of their choice. Listeners are invited to give suggestions, praises, or critique. I’ve always been a sucker for these sorts of events. I dig seeing (or hearing) the unfinished piece, thinking about the story behind the art, and catching others in mid process–as in the art making/music creating process. Of the event, McVay said “Even some people I know to be generally shy and reserved have seemed to really take to the openness of it.”
There’s also something cheering about the way spaces like this become fertile grounds for collaborations. In less than a year, Fort Useless has turned into a hub for not only music, but art openings, readings, and comedy showcases as well. George Flanagan of the band El Jezel brought Spit-Take Nights of stand-up comedy to the space, while the artist Hans Viet curated the venue’s first 2 exhibits known now as shows by The Convertible Gallery. Jared Friedman of the band Holy Moly is responsible for introducing the Songwriters Salons. McVay said this intermingling of various arts happened because of the many neighborly artists interacting around the Bushwick community.
The story behind Fort Useless’ name is a bit of a collaboration itself, or more technically, it’s what we should call quoting. A friend’s band, Unsacred Hearts, released an album years ago called In Defense of Fort Useless, and McVay had always been charmed by the title.
Laughing, he said he asked to use it without knowing exactly where the reference came from. As it turns out, “fort useless” is a nickname for abandoned fortresses. For one of the members of Unsacred Hearts, the image of a deserted fort made a print in his memory one summer near Cape Cod. He had been working on a fishing boat and he’d pass this one empty fortress every morning.
During Bushwick Open Studios, the totally un-abandoned, lively, and likely to-be-packed Fort Useless of BK will present a sampling of all that regularly happens at the space. We’ll see a line up of music, a bit of art, a Songwriters Salon, and a comedy sketch. In a word—we’ll see some stellar works.
Fort Useless is located at 36 Ditmars Street, off the Myrtle Ave/Broadway stop on the J,M, and Z. During Open Studios, the venue will hold events on Friday through Sunday. See a detailed schedule of their events here.
