A Guide to Friday Night Live Music in Greenwich Village

Starting today, the New York State government is allowing restaurants in New York City to have 50 percent indoor capacity. This is in addition to whatever outdoor capacity they may have already. Milder weather after winter hibernation plus the promulgation of coronavirus vaccinations is bringing out the public. This is what the music scene in Greenwich Village looked like on Friday night, March 19.

Baby Brasa

Thanks to a massive cabana on the roadside, Baby Brasa currently has a larger capacity than it has ever had. Get to Baby Brasa early, however, because the seating fills quickly, and it is common to see dozens of young people on the sidewalk waiting for a table. Yes, Baby Brasa might be the most popular restaurant in Greenwich Village among the twenty-something crowd. The live music is eclectic, with rock on Wednesdays, Brazilian on Thursdays, Cuban on Friday and Saturday evenings, and pop and soul acts for weekend brunches. The venue recently also dedicated a separate and smaller sidewalk enclosure for comedy shows.

Chino Pons at Baby Brasa

Café Wha? (downstairs)

Excited patrons waited on line tonight for the re-opening of Café Wha? The basement space has had several incarnations since the 1950s, but today's generation knows it as a music club where a house band performs high-energy covers of popular songs. A crisp sound system and flashing stage lights make the listeners feel like they are at a concert at Madison Square Garden. The audience sits in booths, separated from others via plexiglass dividers. The audience wants to move to the rocking music, but dancing in the aisles is not permitted.

The Café Wha? House Band

Café Wha? (outdoors)

For a mellower experience, Café Wha? offers softer music for its outdoor audience. The musicians perform in the lobby of the adjacent Players Theatre, and the audience sits at tables on the sidewalk or in the roadside shed. This is a newer initiative, started last summer when indoor seating was not permitted. Like the downstairs space, this street-level activity resumed tonight after a winter hiatus.

Matt Fernandez at Café Wha? outside

Groove

This past summer and fall, when indoor dining was not permitted, Groove moved its musicians from the back of the room to an open window in the front half of the space. The musicians continue to perform by an open window, but now the audience is seated at divider-separated tables inside and also seated in a roadside shed. The music is largely funk, pop, and rhythm & blues, with an occasional jazz artist as well.

The Black Soul Experience at Groove

The Red Lion

The Red Lion features live music every evening as well as on weekend afternoons. The musicians play three hour-long sets of popular covers, and many can be persuaded to play an original song if requested. For the most part, solo and duo performers fill the schedule on weekdays, and full bands are more likely to play on weekends. Sports fans also can watch various matches on televisions over the bar.

CC & the Boys at the Red Lion

The Village Roundup

Before COVID, Greenwich Village was loaded with music bars. As restrictions are relaxed further, we may see the return of many of these venues. 

The Bitter End will reopen on April 9 with a new arrangement; three shows each night, advance purchase for table seating, and a clearing of the room between shows, much like it did in the 1960s and 1970s. The Blue Note will open for live jazz when state legislators significantly increase the allowable indoor capacity. Fiddlesticks Pub has live music on Wednesdays and Thursdays, sometimes indoors and sometimes outdoors. The website for the Knickerbocker Bar & Grill announces that the jazz bar will reopen in late March or early April, The owner of the Village Vanguard told The Manhattan Beat that the jazz club is under renovations and may not reopen until the fall.

The future is more uncertain at other venues in Greenwich Village that hosted live music in times past. Carroll Place, Cowgirl, da Toscano, and the Zinc Bar are among the bars and restaurants that have re-opened for diners but have not yet resumed a live music program. Other bars and restaurants that regularly showcased live music, including the 55 Bar, Arthur's Tavern, Café Bohemia, the Duplex, le Poisson Rouge, Mezzrow, Smalls, Terra Blues, and the White Oak Tavern, remain closed and their future status is as yet unannounced. Fat Cat and Planted both seem to have closed permanently.

Last summer and fall, Washington Square Park was a prime destination spot for busking musicians, from a wide assortment of solo musicians to a 15-piece big band. Although amplified music is not allowed without a permit in any city parks, local enforcement seems to look the other way if the volume is kept at reasonable volumes. Tonight, three separate areas had gatherings of youth around very loud boom boxes. If that can happen, expect the live musicians to return soon.