New York City is a prominent, beautiful, confusing place. Some see it as the home of dream-making, a land drowned in opportunity with excitement around every corner. Some see it as an over-crowded tourist trap far past its prime. A city like this was meant to be polarizing, conquered by those who dared to enter its clutches. When one place births artists, from Run-DMC to The Strokes, something magical is going on. Either way, you dollar-slice it, we have New York City to thank for some of the most memorable artists and moments in music history.
Right on this great city’s edge is Le Poisson Rouge, a venue opened in 2008 by Justin Kantor and David Handler. The small venue is slowly staking its claim as NYC’s next musical hub. Musician-owned and operated LPR has built a strong reputation as a welcoming and artist-friendly safe haven for musicians of all kinds. With an alum list that includes David Byrne and Four Tet, the young venue has already achieved veteran status among the busy art community in NYC.
Glide had the pleasure of asking David Handler some questions about his venue. We discussed their inspiration behind LPR, how it transformed into a full production company, and how they keep up with the city’s ever-changing landscape. You can check out our full interview below.
David Handler’s debut album, Life Like Violence, is out May 16th from Cantaloupe Music.
LPR is proud to be started and run by musicians. How has coming from the live performance world affected your approach to running a venue?
From hospitality to sight and sound, no attention, effort, or expense was spared on the show and the artists who brought it. I joked that if I had to go broke on all that and paint the place black before we opened, then I would. That’s exactly how it played out. I believe it’s a pretty sacred experience to commune with like-minded people and listen to music being realized right before you. That only works if everybody feels good and the artists feel comfortable with how they sound, look, and are treated.
Curatorially, I have a particular interest in projects that are a bit left of center, either by emerging artists or established ones trying to take chances on new material or with new collaborators. The process has come full circle as a composer, where I’m taking chances—exploring new languages and genres I otherwise might not have—with my work.
Anyway, the catalyst for opening a venue was to expand the popular palette as far and often as possible. And musicians could have a place where we could sound and look our best and be treated with respect. These two motivations are closely related, even symbiotic.
Were there other venues you guys performed in that helped inspire the way you run LPR?
No specific rooms come to mind. However, as a “classical” musician, I often experienced better treatment playing popular gigs than the more avant-garde ones. Opening LPR, I was committed to taking care of the performers regardless of their widespread popularity.
What types of shows are most fun to host, and what continually keeps it fun and challenging for you?
There is no one particular genre, but the fact that we can be as eclectic as we want. String quartets, metal, house DJs, singer-songwriters – all are equally at home on the calendar and in the room. And not just stylistic diversity but also diversity of stature or place in an artist’s career – the advantage to space our size is that we are big enough to host nationally touring acts but not so big that we can’t take chances or book things that need room to grow.
LPR Presents, your events production company, was launched in 2015. What inspired you to branch out from the venue this way, and what is an average day like running a company like this?
We love booking all kinds of music and artists of varying audience sizes. The size of our mothership on Bleecker is optimal for diversity in that regard; it can host nationally turning acts and emerging talent because it fits within that sweet spot. But of course, no one size fits all. We relish the opportunity to go into bigger rooms with an opulence or seating configuration, such as a traditional theater or a church space, just as much as a room smaller or even more intimate than LPR. We also like helping artists expand their audience or serve their existing audience directly – a case in point being Kristin Michael Hater at Carnegie Hall or Buena Vista Orchestra in Miami.
New York City is known for its consistently evolving and larger-than-life art scene, but was it intimidating to start? Was there a moment when you felt LPR officially made it in the city?
Growing up here as a composer and violinist but just as a citygoer, I’m aware that we are lucky consumers to have such a high standard in New York. It can be daunting, even a stifling place to grow up for the seemingly limitless examples of excellence. You wanna play music? Go to Carnegie Hall or the Village Vanguard and listen. You like baseball? Behold the winningest franchise in all of sports. Inspiring but debilitating if you don’t have a strong sense of self and clear lenses.
As an institution, that standard, the competition of peer venues that uphold it, the challenges of uniquely high cost in New York, and a very discerning public all make it challenging, to say the least. But from that steal, the edge is honed, and the product is even better. It’s a tough town.
It’s also not lost on me all the places people could go every night that aren’t LPR. The myriad of restaurants, broadway shows, sports franchises, galleries, and museum openings of which are world-class. You’re not just competing with other concerts but anything you can do in this city on a given night. There’s lots that we have to pull people’s attention from, if you want to look at it that way. But we just worry about putting on shows that are unique, compelling, and as well presented as possible.
You guys have had some legends perform on your stage, and some exciting shows are coming up. Is there any connective tissue to the artists you host? What do you look for in an artist when booking your shows?
Maybe not the artists themselves, but the booking ethos, perhaps. I was fortunate to meet Art D’lugoff, the impresario behind the Village Gate, as I opened LPR shortly before he died. He was generous with his time and told me how he liked playing with the rub between genres and housing seemingly incongruous styles under one or even as part of the same program. This genre-bending, such as his Salsa Meets Jazz series, is alive every time we book an orchestra with a metal band, such as Mono with Ensemble LPR last month, or DJ after a spoken word event.
I grew up on recordings made at the Village Gate (the site LPR calls home). My dad raised me on the Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris records and Nina Simone’s Live at the Village Gate. There’s even the recently unearthed John Coltrane/Eric Dolphy record, which is a true discovery. Everyone from Aretha Franklin to Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix to Janis Joplin has played the room. So, the standard is high, and so is the inspiration. We’ll need thirty to fifty years to see who of the big names LPR has hosted will be listened to with that kind of reverence, but we’ve got an impressive list of our own so far.
