Thanks for the Memories, Lakeside Lounge
by delarue
Lakeside Lounge has been sold and will be closing at the end of April. After just over fifteen years in business, the bar that defined oldschool East Village cool will be replaced by a gentrifier whiskey joint, no doubt with $19 artisanal cocktails and hedge fund nebbishes trying to pick up on sorostitutes when their boyfriends are puking in the bathroom – or out of it.
Lakeside opened in 1996 [thanks for the correction, everybody] in the space just north of the former Life Cafe on Ave. B north of 10th Street in the single-story building between tenements that had previously housed a Jamaican fried chicken takeout restaurant. It was an instant hit. Owners Jim Marshall (a.k.a. The Hound, an astute and encyclopedic blues and soul-ologist with a great blog) and Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (of the Del-Lords, and eventually lead guitarist in Steve Earle’s band) had a game plan: create a space that nurtures artists rather than exploiting them as so many venues do. And they stuck to that plan. Before long, Lakeside had become a mecca for good music. For several years, there was literally a good band here just about every night with the exception of the few holidays when the bar was closed. Artists far too popular for the back room would play here just for the fun of it: Earle, Rudy Ray Moore, Graham Parker, John Sinclair, the Sadies, Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby all had gigs here, some of them more than once. Dee Dee Ramone hung out here and eventually did a book signing on the little stage in the back, with people lined up around the block. Steve Wynn had a weekly residency here for a bit (which was amazing). The place helped launch the careers of countless Americana-ish acts including Laura Cantrell, Amy Allison, Mary Lee’s Corvette, Megan Reilly, Tom Clark & the High Action Boys, Tammy Faye Starlite and Spanking Charlene and sustained countless others through good times and bad. And as much as most of the bands played some kind of twangy rock, booking here was actually very eclectic: chanteuses Erica Smith and Jenifer Jackson, indie pop mastermind Ward White, punk rockers Ff and several surf bands from Laika & the Cosmonauts to the Sea Devils all played here.
As the toxic waves of gentrification pushed deeper into the East Village, Lakeside never changed. You could still get a $3 Pabst, or a very stiff well drink for twice that. Their half-price happy hour lasted til 8 PM. The jukebox was expensive (two plays for a buck) but was loaded with obscure R&B, blues and country treasures from the 40s through the 60s. Countless bands used their black-and-white photo booth for album cover shots. Their bar staff had personalities: rather than constantly texting or checking their Facebook pages, they’d talk to you. And they’d become your friends if you hung out and got to know them. Some were sweet, some had a mean streak, but it seemed that there was a rule that to work at Lakeside, you had to be smart, and you had to be cool.
But times changed. To a generation of pampered, status-grubbing white invaders from the suburbs, Lakeside made no sense. The place wasn’t kitschy because its owners were genuinely committed to it, and to the musicians who played there. It had no status appeal because it was cheap, dingy and roughhewn, and Ambel refused to book trendy bands. Had they renovated, put in sconces and ash-blonde paneling, laid some tile on the concrete floor, kicked out the bands and brought in “celebrity DJ’s” and started serving $19 artisanal cocktails, they might have survived. But that would have been suicide. It wouldn’t have been Lakeside anymore.
There won’t be any closing party, but the bands on the club calendar will be playing their scheduled shows. Ambel plays the final show at 9 on the 30th. Before then, stop in and say goodbye to a quintessential New York treasure.
New York Music Daily 
Thanks for a great tribute to a great EV hole in the wall with wonderful music. Actually,before it Lakeside, it was a rehearsal studio for Jesse Malin’s punk band Heart Attack, which he shared with hardcore punk band False Prophets. The Jamaican place was across the street.
No, the Jamaican place was at the Lakeside address, and before that it was the private club Silenco’s.
r u sure about that? I’ll ask Deb from the FPs and see what she says – I always thought that the ductwork in the back – with the sweeeeet powerful AC in the summer! – used to be the ventilation for the restaurant kitchen…
The music room was the Jamaican place. Lakeside has a lot of our favorites booked for the last weeks. Please come in and tip our bartenders. Thanks for the support.
(Lakeside opened in ’96 btw)
Very sad… my most favourite bar in the world.
I read a story that Van Morrison elected to do an interview here a couple of years ago and spent the time playing Big Joe Turner on the jukey.
I always made sure to visit the Lakeside Lounge a few times whenever I was visiting New York (from London). It was always welcoming. The bar staff were excellent. And sometimes I saw some awesome bands – including Andre Williams on one memorable occasion. I’ll miss the Lakeside enormously.
sorry to flood you with the little details but I was in the band when Earle played there:)….You don’t have to publish these comments
sad news. but I’d like to thank Eric for all the years of great (+free!) music I’ve experienced there………….it really was my favorite place in recent years and I always had that ‘at home’ feeling there………………..
Lakeside Lounge was casting pearls before swine… New Dork Shitty continues to pave the way for braying yuppie scum since the realtors won the battle at the Thompkins Square Riots in ’93. Got to play there with The Crazy Pages 3 times almost a decade ago, a wonderful and receptive experience during the slight bump in interest in garage bands back then. The Hound is a living National Treasure, as rare these days as the obscure geniuses he champions to this day. The financial sector has managed to finally kill a bohemian arts culture that flourished for over 2 centuries, replacing it with a vapid, pointless monoculture of stupidity and greed.
Whoops – mean the riots in ’88. It was already a dog-poop park by ’93…
Punk girl is correct. It was the Falsh Prophets practice space for years, though I think it was pretty much empty prior to the Lakeside setting up in there. Don’t remember what it was before that.
When I hear news of yet another counter culture institution in New York being shut down and replaced by one catering to the nouveau riche I try to adopt a Woodstock attitude. When it was announced that a quarter million drug-crazed freaks were converging upon Max Yasgar’s farm, the surrounding authorities concluded that the best outcome would result if a physical perimeter could be established and the potential damage would be contained to a small geographic area. If a new club is erected to entertain the trustifarians , at least they will be corralled in a confined space which will prevent them from portraying themselves as having any real social awareness or, for that matter, art cognisance . The alternative culture will find new venues. We are, after all, pioneers.
An excellent article – brutally concise on all fronts – and sad news to be sure. The end of my favorite little music joint in the world, and pretty much the end of the East Village as I knew it.
When I hear news of yet another counter culture institution in New York being shut down and replaced by one catering to the nouveau riche I try to adopt a Woodstock attitude. When it was announced that a quarter million drug-crazed freaks were converging upon Max Yasgar’s farm, the surrounding authorities concluded that the best outcome would result if a physical perimeter could be established and the potential damage would be contained to a small geographic area. If a new club is erected to entertain the trustifarians , at least they will be corralled in a confined space which will prevent them from portraying themselves as having any real social awareness or, for that matter, art cognisance . The alternative culture will find new venues. We are, after all, pioneers.
About a million years ago, the chalkboard at the Lakeside read “keep walking, frat boy.” Best sign ever.
Thanks, though I distinctly remember that Lakeside opened in the Fall of 96.
Actually, the front room where the bar is was the Jamaican place, the room w/the stage was Stephan of the False Prophet’s place where the bands practiced, we broke through the wall and put ’em together, it’s actually two different buildings (look at it from the outside)….
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Nice article, but sorostitutes?
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Very sad!
One correction: “Surf bands from Laika & the Cosmonauts”–they weren’t a surf band, they were an instrumental bands. Not the same thing.
I got to work there a bit before I moved away. Many good times.
I have been saying this for 31 years; “There goes the neighborhood!”
[…] New Music Daily reports that Avenue B fixture Lakeside Lounge has been sold and will close at the end of the month. The bar joins Nice Guy Eddie’s in closing after a 15-year run. “To a generation of pampered, status-grubbing white invaders from the suburbs, Lakeside made no sense,” the site laments. “The place wasn’t kitschy because its owners were genuinely committed to it, and to the musicians who played there. It had no status appeal because it was cheap, dingy and roughhewn, and Ambel refused to book trendy bands.” […]
The NY Times reposted part of this (but misattributed it to “New Music Daily” – funny, huh?). So far a lone gentrifier has weighed in with a comment:
“'(N)o status appeal because it was cheap, dingy and roughhewn, and Ambel refused to book trendy bands.’” And we’re supposed to be upset that it closed? Sounds like a plan for a failed business. No surprises here.”
To respond to this moron, in 1996, when Lakeside Lounge opened, the local population was much less affluent and welcomed a bar that didn’t charge an arm and a leg for a drink (in fact, in that neighborhood, most didn’t). As far as trendy music is concerned, musicians who played Lakeside did it because they enjoyed it, or because they had something to say, not because being in a band was trendy. Back then, it wasn’t.
“And we’re supposed to be upset that it closed? Sounds like a plan for a failed business. No surprises here.”
If that attitude prevailed then there’d be no ballet or opera, considering how those “arts” are heavily subsidised. It’s a snob thing, if you ask me. Rock’n’roll has to stand on its own two feet whilst the higher arts should be supported with grants? Why?
In other countries like France and Canada they are. If the US got out of Afghanistan there would be a ton of money to support the arts. Can’t do that, though – terrorists everywhere!
Keep Walking Frat Boy says it all.
Visited Lakeside a couple of times….cool and friendly place….and got a book mark with Eric in the booth…still got it E!!! I remember walking with Keith C from his apartment around the corner….took about 20 mins to get 200 yards down the street by the time everyone had finished saying hello!! Well you can buy your way in, but there aint much left when the cool folk have left town.
Saw the late great Jim Dickinson a few years ago, the Del Lords reunion last year (or the year before?) & several other really cool shows. Will definitely miss the vibe, the folks behind the bar, the jukebox & bands. Will try to make it over for Roscoe’s final show. A one of a kind NYC gem.
Oh, wow, so self-righteous. Lakeside IS kitschy (photo booth, anyone?) AND was very much a participant in an earlier wave of white gentrification, even if the drinks were “cheap.” But who cares. It’s still a GREAT bar, and I am very, very sad to see it go, as well as a certain phase of the East Village that is dying with it.
That photo booth was a working-class photo booth. I must own a couple dozen albums whose cover shots or cd booklet photos were taken in that booth. And while no New York bar since about 1990 has been 100% gentrifier-free, most of the people who hung at Lakeside – at least the ones I knew and still know – never had much money. They were too busy playing!
It’s been a bad week for Rock and Roll.
I used to play here all the time with Lowdown Payment. Eric, you should move to Seattle and open a new one here in Georgetown. People would love it!
i must echo nissanissanissan. i’ve lived in the neighborhood for 26 years. the cool white punks who were the earlier wave of gentrification could afford to drink in a bar and pay cover charges, however low. the blacks and latinos who drank on the corner and listened to boom boxes were pushed out. the wave continues. i don’t know how much time anyone has spent with the youngsters, but they’re not all assholes. my 20-something friend is an emergency room nurse in a city hospital. but that’s not as cool as being a junkie musician. the self-righteousness of the sneering toward the newcomers is pathetic.lakeside has been a great establishment and i’ve had many fun times there. i’m sorry to see it go. that doesn’t mean that the old school people were any better than the kids today tho.
Prior to being the Lakeside it was two properties.The north half,where the bands play,was the private residence of an artist.In the early 90’s he’d open the door and run it as an illegal bar.I had drinks in there a couple of times.Even as late as ’95 – ’96 [when the Lakeside opened] few people ventured to ave. B and the police did not pay much attention.
That shows how rapidly the destruction has occured.
There is no “East Village” anymore.
I saw the Bush Tetras there when they had a brief reforming. Man, that was history. And it was great for the few kids that were there to see a real post-punk band.
Hi, I’m Steve, the bass player from the False Prophets.
We rented the space in the fall of ’81. We rehearsed in the stage side and lived in half of the bar side (the other half was a Jamaican candy store/ganja spot). I think it was a Rainbow Family free store before.
In late ’83 the landlord wouldn’t renew our lease for the side we lived on. He walled it off, and we kept the bar side as our rehearsal studio–which we shared with Heart Attack and later Hope, Jesse Malin’s band in between Heart Attack and D Generation.
After the False Prophets broke up in the fall of ’87, I kept the space, using it for my new bands and sharing it with Raging Slab and my ex’s bands. We lost it to a massive rent increase in early ’89.
I spent a lot of time at the Lakeside–best jukebox of any bar in New York, and played there a bunch of times, mainly with Gateria (bilingual punk-garage band).
Last time I was there was Saturday, April 28, dancing my aging, decrepit ass off to Simon and the Bar Sinisters…
Steve, thanks for the info. Wasn’t around when the FPs first started but always loved seeing you guys – especially Deb’s guitar playing!
This is sad. We used to hang out there, drink cheap Pabst while discovering obscure songs in the jukebox. No Mars Bar and no Lake Side no New York no more!
[…] reporting on the closure, New York Music Daily wrote that the Lakeside “will be replaced by a gentrifier whiskey joint, no doubt with $19 […]
[…] it reported that Lakeside Lounge would close at the end of April, New York Music Daily wrote, “the bar that defined oldschool East Village cool will be replaced by a gentrifier whiskey […]