The Budos Band: Our Favorite NYC Dive Bars

  We've long been in the tank for the Budos Band, the NYC-based 10-piece band whose music sounds like the soundtrack to some lost 1970s Shaft sequel: Rhythm and funk to the core.

Not only is the Budos crew homegrown, but most of the musicians hail from Staten Island. So tonight's free Summerstage show in Tappen Park is an especially sweet homecoming for the band, who rarely gets the chance to play in its own borough (though the group has clocked plenty of time in Brooklyn, most notably opening for the Sharon Jones Prospect Park show last summer that drew a record-breaking crowd 20,000 strong).

We called up baritone sax player Jared Tankel (pictured)—one of two bandmembers who didn't grow up on S.I.; he's from Rochester and calls Astoria home–-on the eve of the Budos hopping a plane to London to kick off a European tour, and talked about the band's plans.

After the summer traveling dies down, the crew will head into the studio in fall to record material they've been busy writing for their fourth album, slated for an early-2012 release, he said.

Because their music reminds us of tunes you'd find on a really good old-school jukebox in a dive bar, we asked Tankel to share some of the band's favorite watering holes for hanging out... and were quickly corrected: “

As a general rule, the Budos don't really "'hang out' at bars. It's more like we plant ourselves at the bar and consume everything they have in stock.”

Impressive. In Tankel's own words, here are seven local establishments where the Budos Band can be found making a serious dent in the inventory: 

  1. We're big fans of Barcade, in Williamsburg. They have an awesome beer selection and they're just a great old-school arcade. 

  2. Rock Star Bar, under the Williamsburg Bridge. A hole-in-the-wall dive. We've seen some pretty cool metal and punk shows there, like the Villains, who also hail from Staten Island. And Rocky himself is awesome.

  3. O'Connors, on 5th Avenue in Park Slope. A total dive. There was a period when we played a lot of gigs at Southpaw, and pretty much as soon as soundcheck was over, we'd be at the bar at O'Connor's for the cheap drinks.

  4. Rosemary's, in Williamsburg. They sell those huge Styrofoam cups of Bud for $3. The S.I. guys in the band know a guy whose mom owns part of it, or something.

  5. Europa, in Greenpoint. We had a pretty epic night there with Pentagram, the godfathers of doom metal.

  6. On Staten Island, I'd say Adobe Blues—not really so much a dive, but it's a good bar.

  7. One of the guys had a tap installed in his garage. So now his garage is one of the band's very favorite bars. Unfortunately, it's not open to the public.

Summerstage presents The Budos Band; Wednesday, August 3 at 7pm; live at Tappen Park, Canal and Bay Streets, Staten Island. Free.  

Contact Us