Glasslands Gallery Art Gallery / Bar / Live Music Venue

WILLIAMSBURG, NEW YORK –

With a façade as raw and inscrutable as the DIY movement itself, Glasslands Gallery is Williamsburg’s quintessential warehouse-meets-house party venue.

While many of its peers are little more than basements with painted walls, this art gallery bar showcases work that runs the gamut from avant-garde to slapdash tagging.

Mellow hipsters, local musicians, and vintage-clad scene kids settle in on the concrete floor to watch the night’s indie concert, be it fuzzed-out guitars or slick electronica.

The bands themselves take to the small stage beneath a massive cloud-like sculpture that refracts the house lights to provide a backdrop of evolving wavelengths, and likely reflects the imagination of the acid-addled, insulation-spraying contractor/artist who created it.

Behind the long, narrow bar, drink prices are painted on the cinder block wall next to a teddy bear head that appears to have just come back from the taxidermist, while a small, rickety balcony hangs above the fray, offering visitors a mishmash of wrought-iron chairs and overstuffed couches to lounge on.

As the evening presses on, those chilling on the ground trade their seats for a standing-room-only dance party that sees sweaty music lovers rocking out on the floor.

Even at its most feverish, however, the joint never strays too far from the unbuttoned vibe that marks the early evenings, and drunken couples taking snapshots in the bar’s photo booth is pretty much as far as the debauchery goes.

Considering it has the energy of a rock venue and the creative fun of a summer camp, Glasslands Gallery is a must for DIY lovers looking to get way, way off the beaten path.