The Hundred In The Hands at New Park Slope Venue

In the five years I've lived in the Slope, the music stores have almost all closed down but the music venues have bloomed in abundance. We had Union Hall open, then its sister, The Bell House, and now a new venue, Littlefield. This weekend marked the official opening of this new performance and art space. Housed in an old, 6200-square foot warehouse, Littlefield merges the Gowanus's industrial past with an organic, eco-friendly future. Green elements include a landscaped interior courtyard, sound walls formed from recycled rubber tires, a bar and tables constructed of salvaged bowling alley lanes, and energy supplied by wind power. Future projects include a greywater system and a landscaped roof, which will reduce Littlefield's carbon footprint to virtually zero. The club was great, offering nice open spaces like an outdoor patio extending from the indoor art space, separation of the two minimized by a wall constructed of windows. The bar and club space was well appointed and comfortable with multiple bathrooms and plenty of seats. The one criticism was that music was a little loud in the bar room. The bar staff came off a bit off-kilter, unable to hear drink orders, customers were forced to shout and repeat orders, adding an unnecessarily harsh vibe to an otherwise relaxed setting.

The duo The Hundred In The Hands played a little after 11pm, Saturday night. The band was composed of Jason Friedman of The Boggs and Eleanore Everdell who had met on tour. We had missed Cruel Black Dove who had opened the show. And on Friday night Golden Triangle, Sisters and Little Girls performed. The Hundred In The Hands played a hypnotic set. Jason controlled the drum machine and pre-recorded backing tracks as Eleanore sung consistently with her lovely voice and took on keyboard duties armed with a single MiniKORG. As they got into their fourth tune and everyone was hooked into the music, the sound man caused a little mayhem, jarring the onstage mix for a few tunes. He hadn't quite harnessed the beautiful JBL sound system quite yet, but that's to be expected for an opening weekend. By the end of the show, the duo had the crowd head-bobbing and swaying to their tunes. They closed with the catchiest of their songs "Undressed in Dresden."

A good night, all in all. Very chill, nice vibe from the new space and the band. 'Look forward to seeing both of them in the near future.