Since the pandemic started, New York City's cultural spaces have been undergoing a period of sustained compression, as venues closed completely or temporarily shuttered amidst the extended shutdown. But for the first time since March 2020, things are starting to look up: venues are opening their doors once again, to varying capacities, and artists have begun announcing fall and winter tours. And the next time you go to a show, it made be at an entirely new venue — Brooklyn Made, an exciting new spot in Brooklyn, will open in late September with some big names already on the calendar.

Brooklyn Made, a 500-capacity venue located at 428 Troutman Street in Bushwick, is set to open with a special two-night run of shows by Jeff Tweedy on September 30th and October 1st. The venue was started by Anthony Makes, the former president of Live Nation’s New York office who also previously worked at Bowery Presents/AEG, and Kelly Winrich, longtime member of the group Delta Spirit.

For Makes, opening Brooklyn Made is the culmination of a long career in the music industry.

"What I've always been most interested in is independent mom-and-pop concert promotion music companies," he told Gothamist this week. Becoming president of Live Nation New York was as far as his career could go amongst the giant concert conglomerations. "It really doesn't get much bigger than that in my industry, and honestly, I just had burnout and was fried from all of it."

"I really missed that I started my career as an independent promoter when I first came out, it was just so hands-on," he said. "I worked my way up for my first 10 years of my career before I started jumping at the big boys. And I decided I wanted to go back to where my roots were and start my own company."

The pandemic of course provided a complicated reality for someone trying to launch a new business that relies on in-person gatherings. "And why not think it all up and do it all up during a pandemic, and regroup your life and get after it," he said, laughing. "That was the decision I made to try to get back to this."

Last summer, he initially launched Brooklyn Made as a concert promotions company out of his home in Park Slope, working with places like CMAC Events and United Palace.

The venue's space was acquired last November, and Makes and Winrich started eyeing fall 2021 to launch it. "It was definitely a slow roll getting things going," he said, noting that they didn't start booking any acts until February this year. "People were still very unsure of whether there was going to be anything going on this year. A lot of people felt that 2021 was a wash, and that it was going to be spring 2022."

But as more and more restrictions have been lifted in the last month, the industry is teeming with excitement.

"The expectation within the industry, and for myself personally, is we think it's going to be slamming right out of the gate once we start doing shows," Makes said. "You're seeing a bunch of the bigger festivals getting announced in the last couple of weeks. They wouldn't be putting on those festivals for this coming year, if they didn't think they were going to sell tickets for them. I think we're going to do a ton of business."

In addition to the main venue, there will also be a bar called Connie’s, which features a horseshoe-shaped bar along with a pool table and an outdoor courtyard; it will be open until 4 a.m. every day regardless of whether a band is playing. There'll also be a connecting café called Standing Room, which will open at 7 a.m. as a coffee house/café with pastries and breakfast and then turn into a cocktail/wine/tapas bar with a full kitchen in the afternoon until late into the evening.  

All these parts of the Brooklyn Made complex are still under construction, but Makes and Winrich are focused on making sure it's a decidedly artist-friendly experience. There are tons of amenities for bands, including four separate green rooms, an apartment, and a private pool that artists can take advantage of when playing there.

Winrich has been a touring artist his entire life and has experienced every kind of venue you can imagine, so the two were in agreement that they wanted to offer an artist experience that's like no other. "We're going to try to go above and beyond what they've ever experienced when they come to the venue and it's the same thing with the patrons," Makes said, adding that the venue will have unique lighting design by Jeremy Roth (Wilco, Nathaniel Rateliff, Mazzy Star).

Despite all these amenities, Brooklyn Made isn't look to compete with AEG or Live Nation over the Drake-level artists of the world. In addition to Tweedy, their initial lineup includes a mix of beloved legacy artists and indie bands, including Band Of Horses, Guided By Voices, Luna, Whitney, Steve Earle, Spirit Of The Beehive, Greg Dulli, and more.

For Makes, there is nowhere and nothing he'd rather be doing right now. "This is a lifelong dream and hopefully my last stop on what I'll be doing for the rest of my career and life," he said.

"I'm a lifelong New Yorker and so it's in my blood here, and I wouldn't have it any other way than to open up my first venue that I own here, especially coming out of the pandemic like this and trying to bring some life back to the city and be a part of it."