Though the world’s borough isn’t a hot spot in terms of New York’s live music scene, this hasn’t stopped one Queens College student from hosting DIY shows in his very own home. Griffin Backer’s house shows might not exactly be located in a cultural hotspot, but to him, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Backer, currently a Master’s student at Queens College and a public high school English teacher, has hosted a number of live music shows right in the living room of his family’s home in Kew Gardens, Queens. His most recent show, held on a Saturday night, featured a diverse lineup of pop punk, avant-garde postrock, synth-heavy techno and funk-infused rock & roll.
The first act of the show, naturally, was Backer’s own band, Made Without Hands – named after a story that Backer wrote in high school. The band had a largely high-energy pop-punk sound, with elements of indie sprinkled throughout. The group’s style is based largely off of Backer’s own music tastes, which includes popular mainstream rock acts of the 2000’s such as Green Day and My Chemical Romance. Backer also mentioned that country music was a major influence on him growing up.
The second group to play, Death 13 changed things up a bit. Despite the name suggesting an extreme sound similar to death metal or hardcore punk, Death 13 describes their music as post-rock – an atmospheric sound that uses non-traditional song structures. The group’s set was far different from what was initially expected, playing in an avant-garde style that was both atonal and feedback-heavy.
No Grudges, the third group of the lineup, is a longtime member of the New York City music scene. Fronted by the driving guitar sounds of Gabriel Castellar and the powerful, alluring vocals of Crystalla Gonzalez, the band’s sound can best be described as hard-hitting rock and roll with a funk edge, containing influences from well-known rock bands such as No Doubt and Paramore. No Grudges’s set was the longest of the night; this may be because the last time they performed at Backer’s home, the show was shut down by police after noise complaints from residents nearby.
Backer has been regularly hosting music shows at his home for a little over a year. He began using his living room as a performance space many years ago, but stopped after the coronavirus pandemic began and he subsequently fell off the music scene for the next several years. After seeing some of his friends perform at an apartment venue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn known as Murder Palace, Backer was convinced to bring house shows to Queens.
Another reason why Backer has hosted shows at his house is because Queens is virtually a desert in terms of live music. The vibrant cultural scene of Bushwick has been finding its way into Ridgewood in recent years. The live music options in Queens are scarce, but there are a number of bars in Astoria that host music shows. According to Backer, even bands that were originally based in Queens have since moved to Brooklyn and Manhattan. There are a number of restaurants in Queens that attempted to bring live music in the years following the pandemic, but failed due to unforeseen circumstances.
