Finally, the precocious rockers who frequent Red Hook’s Liberty Heights Tap Room have gotten into trouble, comforting those of us who worry that today’s kids may believe that handcuffs were invented as fashion accessories.
A 16-year-old, faux-hawked drummer and wannabe graffiti artist from Woodstock, became the first alleged law-breaker of the tap room’s burgeoning kid-core movement — the pint-sized, punk-influenced and parentally endorsed live music scene.
The spray paint on the would-be Joey Ramone’s tag wasn’t even dry when a squadron of officers from the 76th Precinct pulled up and took away a boy in a CBGB T-shirt who had come to town in his dad’s car. The police ended up dropping the graffiti charge.
But for his young bandmates, the arrest had more dire consequences: a drum-free gig. The Defenestrators, a fast-paced, pop-punk quartet that describes itself on its Myspace page as sounding “like people who throw things out of windows,” had never played without their beatkeeper before.
Sipping sodas in the front of the bar, the band’s three remaining free members lamented their loss.
I’ve always had a soft spot for teenybopper rule-breakers. In fact, I only stopped by the rock nursery to observe the graffiti arrest after learning that the involved party was a Little-League-aged, trendy-headed drummer born after indie rock became the soundtrack of Saturn commercials.
But at the same time, there is an annoying factor here. Grimy, industrial Red Hook is a TV-appropriate setting for a pampered kid’s alt-rock reenactments. Punk shows should not involve unloading gear from your parent’s SUVs at a bar that serves cola on Saturday afternoons. In today’s Brooklyn of parentally endorsed punk shows and mall-bought handcufffs, I fear mini-rockers, in their designer bad-boy haircuts and yellow skull-and-cross-bones T-shirts, have forgotten that rock music was once supposed to be about breaking rules.
So, I had to give the graffiti kid some credit. I mean, at least he’s learning that playing the part of a punk comes with more dire consequences than a hefty iTunes bill.
Plus, isn’t it about time for a Ramones-inspired remake of “Jailhouse Rock”?
The Kitchen Sink
Charles Goldman, former president of the board Hanna Senesh Community Day School, died on May 24. Goodman was instrumental in helping the school fund the construction of its new building at 342 Carroll St. in Carroll Gardens. He will be missed. …
360, Van Brunt Street’s French eatery, will be closed all summer in a nod to the European tradition of taking a real vacation. Some say the acclaimed dinner spot may reopen in the fall under new management. …
Several blocks of Red Hook’s main drag was transformed last Thursday night into a set for Charlie Kaufman’s latest flick, “Synecdoche,” starring Michelle Williams and Philip Seymour Hoffman. At one point, a production assistant had to shush local rowdies hanging outside the Bait and Tackle bar, reminding them that movie-making, like movie-watching, required quiet. Word is that Williams and Hoffman stayed up late with Baked coffee as a fuel.
