New Venue Beneath New York’s Knockdown Center Detailed

Courtesy of Basement – Basement
Basement, the new, techno-oriented space beneath Queens’ Knockdown Center, opens this May.

Knockdown Center, located in Maspeth, Queens, near the Brooklyn-Queens border, has quickly become one of New York’s premier venues since opening earlier this decade.

The 3,000-capacity venue is now expanding – downward. Knockdown detailed plans Tuesday for Basement, a new, aptly titled venue situated beneath the familiar main space.

“The newly designed and literally underground room will be New York City’s new home for top and up-and-coming techno talent from all over the world,” an email announcement read. “Keeping with European club tradition, Basement will feature a state-of-the-art, Funktion-One sound system, and a custom lighting rig throughout the venue.”

The venue also announced its initial slate of May programming, which includes performances by DVS1, Volvox, Rebekah, Wrecked and Tommy Four Seven.

The new venue arrives just months after the December closure of Williamsburg haven Output and signifies yet another change to New York’s shifting electronic music landscape.

“With Output closing there’s a need” for the type of underground techno that Basement will offer, Ria Katz, Knockdown’s director of operations, told VenuesNow earlier this month. “There’s kind of become a vacuum in the industry for venues who are focusing primarily on that type of programming. A lot of those events have gone to warehouse parties.

“Certainly Knockdown Center is taking on a lot of the same kinds of events” as Output, she explained, “but because it’s a 3,000-capacity venue, they have to be really big in order to be sustainable here.”

In the announcement, Basement also outlined basic guidelines: All shows will be 21+ and no photo or video will be permitted.

Knockdown Center, for its part, continues apace. The venue’s biggest box office pull came on New Year’s Eve 2017, when an ascendant Cardi B sold 2,400 tickets and grossed $292,500. Other recent highlights include Juice WRLD, who sold 1,764 tickets and grossed $76,220 at an Aug. 4, 2018 show, and TV On the Radio, who sold 3,145 tickets and grossed $141,525 at the 10th anniversary celebration of their 2008 album Dear Science on Sept. 20, 2018.

Upcoming Knockdown programming includes a gig by acclaimed producer Four Tet and a co-headlining bill between techno luminary Nina Kraviz and LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy.

See Basement’s initial programming below and visit its website to purchase tickets and learn more. For more about New York’s shifting electronic music market, revisit VenuesNow‘s recent story.

May 10: Rebekah / Heidi Sabertooth / Ne/Re/A
May 11: DVS1 / Bryan Kasenic
May 17: Headless Horseman [Live] / Vatican Shadow / Volvox / Becka Diamond
May 18: Wrecked
May 24: STAUB: Luke Slater / Irakli / Caleb ESC / Adrestia
May 25: 999999999 / Fabrizio Lapiana
May 31: Tommy Four Seven / Silent Servant / Katie Rex