Downtown Boys and Oceanator at Union Pool
During the winter, Brooklyn’s Union Pool is hosting free concerts on Tuesday nights at their venue. On Tuesday, January 24, 2023, the punk band Downtown Boys was joined by Elise Okusami’s Oceanator, who performed as a trio.
The packed room got to hear a brand new song by Oceanator that doesn’t appear to have a title yet, and Elise mentioned that she may return in a week to see Ted Leo perform on the same stage.
Downtown Boys’ set featured a lot of body heat, dancing, singing along, and their singer, Victoria, guided people to the somewhat small stage to dance for two songs. After closing their set with “Monstro,” the band returned to the stage for a one song encore of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark,” which appeared on their album, Full Communism. Unfortunately, their bassist Mary was unable to perform due to illness and the band was joined by Tony to perform bass instead, who incredibly learned their songs overnight. I last saw Downtown Boys live when they were the opening act for L7 at Warsaw and it was wonderful to be in a room full of people who were there to see them a few months later.
The free concert series continues next week and currently goes through February with future headlining sets by the aforementioned Ted Leo, Man on Man, keiyaA, FACS, and Wolf Eyes.