Nightmoves is it a bar? is it a club?
295 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY 11211 (allegedly)
Annoyingly, Nightmoves is not on Google Maps. You can find a listing for “Daymoves,” the name given to the exact same place but during the daylight hours for coffee service, which has been labeled temporarily closed since the beginning of the pandemic. I was reminded of the Bob Seger song when Googling this and I am playing it now as I type and think of all the hours I spent playing GTA: San Andreas which included “Night Moves” on Radio Los Santos. Spiritually I am now cruising in a stolen ambulance through the California inspired interiorscape of that digital environment, so well recorded in my mind, as I reminisce or more accurately try to remember what happened the last time I went to Nightmoves.
Before I arrived I was already pondering a tricky question. Nightmoves is in actuality a tiny club. How does one distinguish between a bar, a lounge, a club, a “place,” or merely a drinking establishment that happens to be home to a light up dance floor? Do you have to spend a lot of money there in order to be comfortable or enjoy yourself? Do you have to plan ahead to be partaking of drugs? Should I be changing into my dancing shoes and a disco shirt in advance? Some say “why would you go to the club sober? What would be the fun in that?” Many others know that dancing under the cover of semi darkness and blinking lights can be almost childlike in its innocence and see no need to cloud it with substances. Still “some places exist to be safe places to do drugs” and drugs are fun. Sure, not that Nightmoves is that but some venues of dance are. Raves in a rented or unrented illegal place, the basement of a building perhaps, or Basement the club that’s a basement in a basement called Basement - all places where drugs are often a motivating factor. Generally these places are ticketed or a cover is required at the door but otherwise everyone gets in given available space. Maybe a long line but otherwise yes. Do you think Berghain let everyone in before it got so famous? Probably not but I do wonder. Not enough to pull up Reddit, or what have you, but a bit.
In this respect Nightmoves has more in common, than would immediately seem likely, with another famously popular Brooklyn location. I’m sure you have heard of it, if not been to it and/or if not been to it 1000 times and/or if not hopped into a cab to it at 2am, from the city, purely because you were too drunk to turn down a free cab to a club nowhere near your (my) apartment: Bossa Nova. Bossa has its own rubric for proper and successful execution of attendance. Is it Thursday through Saturday? Get there before midnight (early I know) and get the stamp. Bring some extracurriculars and drink the cucumber water, etc. Or are you one of those with a member card? Not the most complicated things to do but does require you to move with intention and commit at least somewhat to the idea that you really want to be there and are not just winding up. Nightmoves is somewhat similar in requirement of intent as it’s usually billed a private event, unlisted on Google maps, has a doorman, has a list, and doesn’t explicitly require attendance before 11 but if you want to get in, regardless of list status, you should probably be punctual. Perhaps this is a slightly outdated summary of protocol since, admittedly, I haven’t been on a night I would call “busy busy” in a few seasons. Last summer I stood at the front of the line(throng), nose to chin with a tall doorman in a suit, for 45 minutes, as I saw friends pop in and out to smoke, covered in the sweat of presumably boisterous dancing, and eventually gave up. That guy doesn’t work there anymore and the new person was much more pleasant and inviting so maybe they have changed their mind regarding how exclusive they wish to be.
Nightmoves is in Williamsburg, on Grand street, and lies behind an anonymous looking door and a narrow wooden hallway. The bar is small and at left upon entering and across from a big round booth and several smaller low chairs and tables leading to a more private nook in the far back and opening up to a technicolored dance floor in the middle. Back in the day this place was a different bar, called Larry Lawrence, which I always thought sounded like an art gallery. At Larry Lawrence you could smoke outside at the top of the spiral staircase on the roof level outdoor section. At Nightmoves you cannot. The place is, famously, owned by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, though I’ve never seen him there, and the sound system, which I know nothing about, is allegedly quite good. Nextdoor is Four Horseman, a restaurant with a Michelin star and described by the Michelin men as a “chic and convivial wine-focused spot as minimalist as their succinct menu.” I’ve never been there though I have several friends who have worked there or currently do. I’m not sure why the urge to sip in this pared down place preparing paired up petite portions has never struck. Perhaps I am more proclaved to crave beverages than food and beers and shots than wine. Recently I went to Nightmoves for an old friend and past coworker’s birthday and was reminded of when we were here in its Larry Lawrence days for Metrograph’s staff party. Our brave manager upped our management mandated drinks tab limit from $2000 to $3000 mid party. He like many other of the managers back then didn’t stay too much longer but was missed.
Turntables and CDJs are behind the mirror fronted DJ booth that looks out over a grid of light up plexiglass squares that play out colorful designs beneath your feet as you dance. Behind the bar are the instruments and ingredients with which to make the 10 or so cocktails on the list and a few taps. I don’t really remember but I know they have like 3 beers and shots are expensive and the wine I'm sure must be good given the accolades of their co-tenant. I feel like I always wind up drinking mescal here. Why? I have no idea. I hope I alluded to this before but I never feel fully comfortable at Nightmoves without being drunk. Not just because of its dance centric environment but there’s always static in the air even if the sound system itself would never lazily emit electric noise. I have never been here and had a tab come out to less than $100.
Nightmoves is kind of like grinding your teeth in your sleep. Yes, you are getting a deep night's sleep, but at what cost? You have to white knuckle it a bit. And that isn’t so relaxing. It’s expensive beyond just general necessity so it isn’t a bar’s bar. It’s for dancing, and though you need to be kinda fucked up on something, when it works it works. They don’t seem to terribly mind drug use though it isn’t exactly convenient. Furthermore, I wouldn’t want to be rolling balls here as it would be inappropriate. This is where its ‘Williamsburginess’ feels relevant to mention. It does feel a bit of an up-charged, safely psychedelic, enclave. I’m not entirely sure who I’m trying to make people think I am when I’m there but I tend to feel the urge to play dress up. A desirable place to be on a weekend given the lines I’ve seen and sat in and would not want to brave it again. If you are in fact local to it I would assume it not worth your effort or maybe you know: know someone. I think it allows people either from the city or deeper reaches of Brooklyn the excuse to venture to center Williamsburg because they are only going because they’ve been invited along with the rest of the extended friend group so the bands getting back together. If it’s not busy it feels like the first slow song of a high school dance and if it’s too busy the small bar is rendered nearly inoperable. For these reason it falls firmly into the go if your friend is DJ’ing or having a birthday party realm with near zero overlap into any adjoining venn diagram circles.
However, given the occasion, the privacy of the institution can be yours to enjoy musical curation harmoniously. This part isn’t complicated. Do you like the DJ? Do you want to dance? If yes to both of these then yes you are going to have a good time and quite possibly with a cadre of your closest, if not in residential locale but relational fondness, compatriots at your side. So I don’t want you to think I am all bad on this place just a general perplexion past its obvious pros. Having a semi private vibe you begin to feel separated from the rest of the neighborhood, much like dancing on the rainbow lit plexi is more comfortable to the feet than the concrete floor that surrounds it. The drunken revelers within its walls seldom think to let their minds find solutions to problems beyond the limits of the front door. AKA if you have drugs you are sharing and if someone else has them you are asking politely. It’s identity is in flux. Maybe James should make an appearance to take up the mantle of figure head. I could see that bringing the crowd down however. In the meanwhile do you want to have to work hard to party? Buy a night guard for $100 worth of either booze or blow; your choice.
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