Famed Williamsburg Club Output Will Close on New Years

WILLIAMSBURG – The well-known electronic music venue Output has announced they’ll be shuttering after a five-year run in Williamsburg, going out with a bang and a New Year’s party.

The venue, located at 74 Wythe, launched in 2013 and hosted DJ sets from some of dance music’s most storied names, including LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Bonobo, James Blake, Prins Thomas and more.

Located in what was once an industrial section of Williamsburg, the beloved club neighbored some of the other big North Brooklyn nightlife names, like Kinfolk 90 and Brooklyn Bowl. Brooklyn Brewery was around the corner and the swank Williamsburg and Wythe hotels towered overhead.

The closing was announced on social media in an appreciative note from Nicholas, Shawn and Bo, the founders and operators of the club.

“This sudden turn of events may seem shocking to many, but for those of us watching from the inside, we have seen the writing on the wall for some time,” they wrote.

“A confluence of factors contributed to the club’s misfortune; rapidly shifting social trends, unfavorable market conditions and weakening financial outlooks coincided with the simultaneous emergence of multiple existential challenges unique to the club’s circumstances. The mounting situation led to one unfortunate yet unavoidable conclusion; for OUTPUT to continue as a viable enterprise, the business model and mode of operation would need to change drastically, in ways that would likely betray the mission on which the brand was founded,” they added.

The club eschewed VIP treatment and high-priced bottle service in favor of quality acts and excellent lineups, earning a reputation as the place to go for one of the city’s best sound systems.

The farewell announcement can be read in its entirety here

Making sure to thank their faithful customers and hard-working staff, the owners signed off the bittersweet note by assuring readers that the party wasn’t quite over—DJ John Digweed would be performing a “marathon” set for New Year’s Eve 2019.

Naturally, there was an outpouring of support on social media, with tweets from fans and artists alike:

Of course, while many attendees found the club to be an integral part of their Brooklyn experience, the closure also highlights how much has changed in the five years the club has been operating. Seen skeptically locals at the outset, the club existed through a rapid shift into overdrive for Williamsburg’s growth, marking the change from hip, gentrified neighborhood into late-stage urban destination culture.

Cities are inherently transitory experiences, each resident’s memories inevitably built around their what shops, venues and locations greeted their arrival, remaining frozen even after those same spots have inevitably shut down or sold out. To lifelong Williamsburg residents, it was a blip on the radar, to more recent arrivals, it marks the end of an era. More clubs will come, more will go, but the music will keep playing somewhere.