Our Wicked Lady's Last Days

On a humid Wednesday night in early July, three local New York bands played to a rooftop crowd in Brooklyn. The venue, Our Wicked Lady (OWL), will close on July 21. It’s going all out for its final days.

“I’m hoping they see it from space,” said the club's owner Zach Glass. “I want it to just be a legendary sendoff.”

Glass and co-owner Keith Hamilton opened the 200-person venue in 2015 as a bar partially funded by attached band rehearsal spaces. The result was a community hub for the New York local music scene.

“There are people who are friends because of here, there’s a million relationships that have happened because of here, babies that came out of people meeting here,” said Ruby Furlow, who works the door at OWL. She has her own familial connection to the venue – she took over the job from her mother.

Many praise OWL for its inclusivity when it came to booking emerging bands. SKORTS, an up-and-coming post-psych band, got their start playing the venue.

“I feel like there's a lot of places where there's pressure about, ‘how big is your band?’” said SKORTS bassist Emma Welch. “We were able to sow our oats and grow as a band because we were able to be there when we were just starting out.”

But despite community support, OWL struggled following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everything changed,” Glass said. “The crowd changed. People’s drinking patterns changed. The people who were coming out, how often they came out, how late they stayed out. For most small businesses, COVID’s not over.”

OWL announced they were in danger of closing in December 2024. The community rallied together for fundraising shows, and the venue raised over $40,000 on GoFundMe. Glass and Hamilton were also looking to transfer ownership.

“We’re both getting older, we have kids, and we just couldn’t really continue living this way anymore as much as we love what we do,” said Hamilton. “That’s why we were hoping that it would continue in someone else’s hands.”

However, their landlord refused the ownership transfer, which forced them to shut OWL down.

“Our landlord decided he does not want a music venue to continue on his property and refused a near sale,” Glass and Hamilton wrote in an Instagram post.

Many supporters and musicians were devastated.

“Not all venues survive and everything turns over in New York really quickly, but you’re never ready for something that feels like a staple to end,” said SKORTS lead vocalist Alli Walls.

OWL’s closing also brings up fears about the future of the city’s music scene if small venues continue to shut down.

“If we don't have a place to play, then people are going to get very annoyed because we're going to be in the public playing our instruments,” said Walls. “That's not where they want us.”

At OWL’s Wednesday night concert, musicians and concertgoers shared bittersweet memories of playing the venue.

“Rest in peace to another venue,” said Connor O’Sullivan, a first-time OWL attendee. “But you know, like we said, you gotta keep showing out.”

However, Glass and Hamilton are looking ahead. They packed OWL’s final week with some of their favorite bands that have played there over the years.

“Even though OWL is closing after 10 years, we're gonna be a part of this rich history of music in New York City,” said Hamilton.

The owners are proud of OWL’s legacy.

“Look, we had a dream to open this place, and we did it,” said Glass. “We’re closing now, but we accomplished it.”

This story ran on the What’s What podcast from WFUV News on July 10, 2025.