Another scrappy Williamsburg music venue is closing its doors.
Death By Audio will close next month, after seven years in business, its owners announced this week. The duo said the shuttering was expected given the fleeting nature of liquor-license-free concert spaces specializing in independent music.
“All ages, DIY music venues are almost by definition temporary, and we feel fortunate to have lasted in this space for this long,” owners Edan Wilber and Matt Conboy wrote on their blog. “We knew from the beginning that it couldn’t last forever and we are extremely grateful to everyone who has performed or attended any of our shows.”
The venue on S. Second Street between Kent and Wythe avenues has seen the shiny, new Williamsburg rise all around it, the pair mused in the post.
“When we first moved onto S. Second Street, the only things on our block were a used police car lot and several empty buildings,” they wrote. “Now there are a half dozen expensive restaurants, bars, a daycare center and a new condo building.”
Regulars said they are devastated by the news.
“It has been the consistent answer to me being asked ‘What’s the best venue in New York?’ for five years,” said Jordan Michael Iannucci, a show promoter who occasionally books shows at Death By Audio and is often in the audience there. “Its focus were bands that existed within the context of a national scene. DBA is where touring bands would play, and they would play there regardless of whether they had a lot of buzz behind them.”
The building is zoned to allow residential and light industrial uses.
Some of the more well-known acts that have graced the Death By Audio stage over the years include Dirty Projectors, Dan Deacon, and Thee Oh Sees.
The Death By Audio company, which makes guitar fuzz pedals in the same space, will stay in business, Wilber and Conboy wrote. It will operate out of a temporary location until they can find something more permanent, they said.
During the past couple of years, popular Williamsburg venues Public Assembly, House of Yes, and Zebulon have all closed. House of Yes is set to reopen on Jefferson Street in Bushwick, but Public Assembly and Zebulon appear gone for good.
Death By Audio’s last day will be Nov. 22. The venue minders promised 75 days of “great programming” until then.
