Much has changed since 2014, but one oft-overlooked constant is Brooklyn-based High and Mighty Brass Band’s Tuesday night gig at Chinatown speakeasy Apotheke.
At least a few members of the eight-piece group — pioneering performers of the city's highly saturated New Orleans-style brass band scene — are at the Doyers Street watering hole every Tuesday, vibrating the intimate space with dancey covers and original songs until after midnight.
“I’m biased, but it’s basically the coolest Tuesday night you can have in New York City: walking into Chinatown, into this small mixology bar and seeing too big of a band and too small of a space, but somehow it works. And we’ve been doing it for 11 years,” said Evan Howard, who founded the band after moving to New York from New Orleans back in 2009.
He stumbled upon Apotheke — itself a pioneer of the city’s craft cocktail and speakeasy scenes — around 2013, to attend a friend’s regular Monday gig.
“As soon as I crossed the threshold of the door, I still remember being like, 'Oh man, I gotta be up in this scene somehow,'” said Howard, describing it as “very cool and vibey.”
High and Mighty’s resultant gig has outlasted all of the band’s original members, except Howard, despite being something of a recurring logistical nightmare.
“Maybe somebody gets called to do a wedding on a Tuesday,” said Howard. “We don’t stop them. We just have to fill the vacancy.”
Still, the reliability of the show has helped make time fly.
“We just never stopped, because we didn’t really have a reason to. We just kind of looked back and were like, oh man, we’ve been doing this for five years,” said Howard. At 10 years, they threw themselves a party.
Over the years, they’ve offered a consistently lively night of soulful, upbeat tunes that are easy to get down to mixed with a healthy dose of inclusive audience interaction.
Despite its longevity, the scene has remained a strangely well-kept secret.
The High & Mighty Brass Band at a recent gig at Apotheke.
“ We've had plenty of people that have just been walking down the street and heard brassy music and been like, ‘Oh, what's in there?’ But for the most part, you kind of have to know it's here,” said Charly Kay, High and Mighty’s lead singer since 2019. She doesn’t mind the mysterious allure at all, especially since only so many people can fit into Apotheke, which has a capacity limit of just over 70 people.
The reliably packed shows generally feel more “like a house party, but with a super loud brass band and, like, the best drinks in Manhattan,” Kay said. And in the summer, a line to listen often wraps beyond the bar. “We really want people to come in here and feel like they can just dance their troubles away.”
Many fans are regulars, coming back most if not every Tuesday.
“They just get you hooked. You hear it once and you realize it's kind of this untapped gem,” said Morgan Floss, who has been attending for about four years. On a recent Tuesday, she introduced her friend Ellen Claire to the scene.
“ I walked in, I started dancing, I started bopping. I couldn't help it. It was so much fun,” Claire said from the alley outside between sets.
Kyle Valentim hails from Brazil and was visiting New York for the first time when his friends brought him to the show. Upon walking in, he immediately realized High and Mighty was randomly covering his favorite song, Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much.” And he said he was “mesmerized” by the performance.
“This was like ecstasy,” Valentim said. “It was just amazing.”
Grear Wilson, Apotheke’s COO, said he’s seen High and Mighty get up to about 14 people in the speakeasy’s tight space: “It's amazing to have that many musicians all playing together with the horns and everything.”
High and Mighty has the record for the longest running gig at the bar, but it’s not the only group with impressive longevity. Broadway Brassy, the regular Wednesday night show, has been performing there for close to a decade.
The tenure is not random: The bars’ owners, siblings Chris and Heather Tierney, were "adamant" about making the space a home to no-cover live music venue, Grear said.
Still, High and Mighty have recently begun thinking about sharing their weekly responsibility with other groups, perhaps bringing in other bands and turning the night into a “High and Mighty Presents” showcase.
As great as the gig is for the loyal audience, and as ideal as it is for showing off to potential private event clients, having a free weekly show can become an issue when it comes time to attempt selling tickets to a different gig, Kay said.
“ But for the most part,” she said, “it is a lovely experience.”
High and Mighty Brass Band performs every Tuesday night from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at Apotheke Chinatown, at 9 Doyers St.
