Cameo Gallery

Overview

A back-room black-box tucked behind the Lovin' Cup Cafe on North 6th Street (150-capacity, thirty-foot ceilings, streamer-lined stage) that ran a deliberately mixed bill of indie rock, dance music, and comedy for six years before a new landlord forced it out in November 2015.

Cameo Gallery grew out of a Williamsburg experiment: in late 2008 or early 2009, Josh Sampson and Nicolette Krickl opened the Lovin' Cup Cafe at 93 North 6th Street with a back room intended as a gallery and music space; Jify Shah, a former Manhattan club booker who had worked at spots like the Belmont Lounge, ran the venue from the start, and after roughly three years took over the full lease and became the recorded owner. The room held 150, with thirty-foot ceilings, an elevated stage beneath a streamer-lined canopy, and a lighted installation. It sat on what a 2008 Gothamist preview called 'a sonically saturated stretch,' next to Music Hall of Williamsburg and Public Assembly, yet felt hidden and unhurried. A Timeout review later noted the sound engineer was known to dash onstage mid-set to fix problems, suggesting the PA was workmanlike rather than audiophile-grade, a contrast to the devoted praise Shah's programming drew. The booking philosophy was idiosyncratic for its era: Shah treated Cameo as a passion project rather than a profit centre, mixing all-night electronic sets with guitar-band nights in a way few mid-size Brooklyn rooms attempted. Frankie Knuckles played there twice and, according to Shah, said the room's feel reminded him of the early house parties at The Loft; Nicolas Jaar performed extended all-night sets; Maurice Fulton, Joe Goddard, and Benji B all came through. On the indie side, the room gave early stages to Twin Shadow, the War on Drugs, Sharon Van Etten, and Neon Indian, as well as hosting the long-running Big Terrific comedy showcase, whose weekly bill drew Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, and Zach Galifianakis before any of them were household names. The dance-music act Midnight Magic held what Shah recalled as an eight-month residency at some point in the venue's middle years; The Juan MacLean ran a multi-night residency in its final weeks. The building's sale to 88 Property LLC in March 2014 proved fatal: the new owner, in Shah's account, 'looked for all possible ways to get us out, until we had no option but to surrender under their terms.' The final night was November 21/22, 2015, the closing was reported variously as the 21st and the 22nd, reflecting a set that ran past midnight. The closure followed a pattern already visible across north Williamsburg: Glasslands had closed in late 2014 when Vice Media took its building, 285 Kent shuttered the same year, Death by Audio fell to the same Vice building conversion, and Cameo was among the last of the cluster. Shah told Bedford + Bowery that the rent was the main driver but framed the loss in terms of what independent booking culture the room had made possible, rather than personal grievance.

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