9.13 A wknd w/ Blankette
The band on cemetery birding, island art exhibits and a whole bunch o' bagels — plus the MEOW-A-THON (a fundraiser show benefiting Ridgewood Rescue!) TONIGHT at Footlight Underground / Windjammer
Before Saturday comes Caturday (or Furr-iday, if you prefurr), and whether your’re a Childless Cat Lady™, a cat-over-dogs dude or just a feline fan… hey, just a music fan, tbh… we suggest the mighty MEOW-A-THON, a benefit show for Ridgewood Rescue — a “501c3 org improving the lives of the stray cats and kittens of Ridgewood, Queens through TNR, socialization, adoptions, and community education”—taking place TONIGHT at The Footlight Presents x The Windjammer!
Along with raising money for a really great cause, the bands are putting the ~fun~ in fundraising with a variety of cat-themed surprises planned for their performances. (There’s also, with artists on site, the opp to finally get that cat tat you’ve been contemplating. 😻.)
Now if you’ll direct your attention to the third name on the poster above, we’re excited to introduce Blankette, the band behind this week’s SETLIST, who will be hitting the Footlight stage this evening!
“Blankette call themselves Tweebag, a reclaimed and repurposed name for what Nylon described as Dirty-Bag Twee. Blankette consists of Theodora (she/her, guit/vox), Nat (she/they, guit/vox), Zara (she/her, bass/box), and Noah (they/them, drums), four lovely queer femmes, gathered through a combination of Lex posts, craigslist posts, and a flier. Their songs are both melodic and gritty, all about queerness, transition, death, love, and, of course, butt stuff.”
Honestly, had us at ~butt stuff~.
While Blankette’s debut EP has already been recorded—and is expected to be released in the next few months!—we don’t have any song links to share just yet. So instead we’re going to refer you to youtube for some live video action…
…Then invite you to read on for a truly wonderful weekend itinerary curated by Blankette, full of good carbs, good causes and much much more.
Have a really, really nice weekend <3
FRIDAY, the Thirteenth of September
Tonight is show night, tonight is our meow-ment, the night of the Meow-a-Thon.
A lot of us get off work at 5 (work sucks, I know), and on show nights we need to decompress and get in the mood. Given that most of us don’t regularly drink, that could mean stopping for an early dinner at Bunna Cafe, then stopping off to chill at Maria Hernandez to chat for a bit and maybe read a little (Noah recommends By The Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah (refugee story by nobel laureate) or You Dream of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue (hilarious dark takedown of spanish empire)). Then it’s time to stop home and grab our gear (Theodora, channeling her inner old lady, has her trusty cart, lovingly named Cart Cobain).
Doors open at 8:30 for the Meow-a-Thon, a community fundraiser for the Ridgewood Rescue, a volunteer-run 501c3 nonprofit supporting the neighborhood population of stray cats through trap-and-release, socialization, adoptions, and community education.
Presented by Footlight Underground at the Windjammer, the beating heart of emerging art in Ridgewood, the Meow-a-thon features the tender tweebag stylings of yours truly, Blankette, the raucous gendersmashing of Them Theys, and soulful confessions by zoë arora. Every band is cat-ifying their songs, offering murderous meows, odes to napping, or just the heartbreak of a mouse that got away…
To raise funds for our feline friends, Gabi will permanently commit cats to our skin, vendors’ art, including Toastgirl, will summon the feline spirit, and a cat-art raffle will rally the audience to supporting cats, rescues, and artists alike.
SATURDAY, the… Fourteenth of September
After a late Friday night rocking and meowing, nothing like your brain telling you it’s time to wake up at 8 am. So, after a bagel with lox from your fav bagel shop (Wow Bagel for Dora, Bagelsmith for Zara, Knickerbocker Bagel for Nat, and Catania Bakery for Noah (and not the one that nearly got blown up on the Sopranos)), you bike to domino park (ride carefully and don’t break your foot like Nat did in 2022!!) and get lost staring lovingly into the East River, wondering where all the time has gone.
Then it’s time for an afternoon at Governor’s Island to check out Jenny Kendler’s exhibit Other of Pearl, which “tells the story of the extractive histories that form the origin stories of the climate and environmental crisis, while considering the oyster and whale as central players in an ecological entanglement between human and nonhuman beings, waterways, and flows of capital.”
Sadly it’s at the end of the summer back patio season, but doesn’t mean you can’t head to Taqeria Kermes to chow down on some of the best tacos from some of the sweetest staff, and, if you’re risky like Theodora, have a coffee at 5 pm, or, if you’re not, some horchata.
We’re going to pretend like this itinerary makes any sense geographically, but I guess we are riding a bike, so it is all technically doable, but time to hit up Ornithology for intimate Jazz and drinks poured with a heavy hand (and chess upstairs!). Check out their roof deck or their new cafe for a $10 cover.
SUNDAY, the Fifteenth of September
We take this Sunday as a good time to mourn the end of the summer and celebrate the beginning of Spooky-Season™, so it’s time to take a walk through Greenwood Cemetery. Remember the dead or watch the ducks in the pond. Join their Mourning for Nature workshop on 9/14 (free) or early morning birding on 9/15 ($20) (given that Blankette ranges in current economic situations from broke-as-heck to worker in tech, nice to have a good range of activities and costs and friends to pay your birding tabs).
For an early lunch, stop by Burrito Republic for a delicious “Surf ‘n’ Earth” burrito (it’s off-menu, just ask for Surf and Turf, sub beef for veggie, it’s incredible, trust us!) and an Agua Fresca and sit outside for one of the last times before it gets too cold.
At 4:30, meet up with folx at Valentinos (best and cheapest produce in Ridgewood and best instagram presence) to buy some groceries to cook a delicious meal at Woodbine to eat with the community. For those who don’t feel like cooking, roll through around 7 for just the meal (and dishwashing), all for a $7 donation if you have the funds (and strong emphasis on the “notoflof,” even “eweilof” - everyone welcomed even if lack of funds).
Then it’s time to trek home. It’s been a lovely weekend. Tomorrow is another day of work, but you gotta make some money to keep doing what you love and, outside of work, trying to make a world where all humans and cats are cared for and welcomed, even if lack of funds. Sweet dreams y’all.
Itinerary above written + submitted by Blankette. Follow the ban at @blanketteband.
Feature image provided by the band.
MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Does it count as an announcement if you keep on sharing the same thing?! That’s promo, baby! Grab those tix right here for Richard Lloyd (of Television!!!) Group with Short Porch and Kristin Flammio & the Pretty Bitchin, 10/30 at Union Pool.
ICYMI, this week we released an edition of THE RIDER featuring Go Home! Find the band’s Top 10 — featuring Sisqo covers, chiropractic squeezes and a whole lot more — right here.
RELEASE RADAR
New(ish) stuff from local (+ occasionally, once-local) artists we love, listed in no particular order whatsoever — now embedded 4 extra listening ease.
Demon Dreams of a Clearing in the Woods // Go Home
Just A Tease // Wifey
“Maybe In Another Life” // lovetempo
“She’s a Star” video // Mary Shelley
“NHR” // Certain Death
“Not So Lonely” // Covey
“Nelson Hold (BUG)” // Pons
“December 18” video // Uncle Skunk
THE SETLIST by Bands do BK is a reader-supported publication that’s freeeee. BUT! If you want to become a paid subscriber to show some love and support the work BdBK is doing… well, hey. That’d be pretty rad of you. <3