GREEN DAY
Great Irish Fair returns to Coney Island
Them too: The U2 tribute band Unforgettable Fire will play at the Great Irish Fair, Pie and mighty
COURIER L 44 IFE, SEPT. 20-26, 2019
TBy Aidan Graham his group is rock and
rolling the dough!
A pizza-loving blues
band is cooking up a Brooklyncentric
new album. The
Brooklyn Pizzaiolos will soon
launch the debut album “Right
Outta Da Oven,” featuring
cheesy songs that pay homage
to the flavorful history of Kings
County, said the band’s leader.
“There’s not a lot of ‘old’
New York City left. New York
has changed tremendously.
People have moved from other
places, and it’s completely
transformed the city,” said Jeff
Alexander, a Sheepshead Bay
native. “All that’s left is a few
old school New Yorkers who
were born here — and some old
pizzerias.”
The new album features
mouth-watering rhythms
including “Grab a Slice” and
“Brooklyn in my Bones”
— tributes to the band’s
favorite Italian dish, and to
the borough that produces the
best version of it.
“One song is called
‘Brooklyn Pizza Blues,’ which
was an obvious song to write,”
said Alexander. “I’ve been
in different cities around the
county, and sometimes you
can’t get a real slice of pizza
— and when you can’t get real
pizza, you get the pizza blues.”
Alexander, the main
songwriter for the six-member
ensemble, focused on pizza
because, he said, it is among the
last true testaments to Brooklyn’s
past. He lists Sal’s Pizzeria in
Carroll Gardens, Luigi’s Pizza
in Greenwood Heights, Johnny’s
Pizzeria in Borough Park, and V
& S Pizza in Sheepshead Bay as
his favorites.
“They’re all very well kept,
and they’re clean. But they look
just like the day they opened.
It’s old school. It’s like a time
warp,” he said. “They make
pizza just like their fathers
taught them.”
The band’s frontman says
that he is 90 percent done with
the upcoming pizza project, and
plans to launch a Kickstarter
campaign to fund its promotion,
with special rewards for highdollar
donors.
“In the process of recording
the project, I ran out of dough, and
I was thinking about how I can
put together a Kickstarter where
New Yorkers and Brooklynites
would be interested enough to
fund the project,” he said. “It’s
going to have rewards — if you
give money, you can get the CD,
or the download link, or buy a
tee shirt. Hopefully, we can have
some incentives for pizzerias to
support it.”
Alexander hopes the
rewards, along with his appeals
to pizza lovers everywhere, will
help raise enough funds for a
full-scale album release.
“I hope that New Yorkers and
Brooklynites really embrace it,
but it should appeal to music
lovers everywhere,” he said.
Hear “Right Outta Da Oven,”
by the Brooklyn Pizzaiolos
streaming on the band’s website:
www.grabaslice.nyc/pages/
music-the-brooklyn-pizzaiolos.
Dumbo’s floating party
By Chandler Kidd It’s raining elephants!
A herd of parachuting
pachyderms will plummet to
the earth next weekend during the
third annual Dumbo Drop charity
event. Brooklynites can gather at a
block party on the neighborhood’s
picturesque Washington Street on
Sept. 27 to watch the mini elephant
toys float from the sky. All of
the Dumbo Drop participants will
receive a souvenir animal to take
home, and those who sponsor the
toy elephants that land closest to a
target can win a variety of prizes.
This year’s event will add a
spectacular second round called
the Disco Drop, with illuminated
elephants floating through the
night sky. Both drops benefit PS
307 and Dock Street School, and
adding a light-up element offers
twice as many chances for people
to contribute, said the executive
director of the Dumbo Business
Improvement District, which
sponsors the event
“The idea of the Disco Drop
would add the spectacle of light to
the experience,” said Alexandria
Sica. “We hope this will motivate
folks to participate because, at the
end of the day, our goal is to raise
money for schools.”
Entering either the original
Dumbo Drop or the Disco Drop
costs $20.
“Artists of all ages can
The block party will also
feature booths from local Dumbo
restaurants, along with live music,
street games, and a virtual reality
experience.
The Great Dumbo Drop Block
Party (at Washington and Water
streets in Dumbo, www.dumbo.is/
dropping-elephants). Sept. 27; 4–9
p.m. Dumbo Drop at 6 p.m. Disco
Drop at 7:45 p.m. Free admission;
$20.
TBy Kevin Duggan hey’re turning Coney Island
into the Emerald Isle!
With roughly half a year
to go before St. Patrick’s Day, an
Irish-themed fest will celebrate the
Emerald Isle’s culture, food, and
music in Coney Island. The 38th
annual Great Irish Fair returns to
the Ford Amphitheater on Sept. 21
for a day of live music, dancing,
food, and drink, designed to
reconnect Kings County to its Irish
roots, according to the head of the
Irish American business boosting
group behind the event.
“New York was the gateway for
the Irish and now we’re all over the
country,” said Martin Cottingham,
president of the Irish American
Building Society. “It’s important to
keep it going because, let’s face it,
our community has gotten smaller
and moved to the suburbs.”
The stage at the fair will feature
a lineup of shamrockin’ local
bands, including Shillelagh Law,
the Canny Brothers Band, McLean
Avenue Band, Jameson’s Revenge,
and the U2 cover band Unforgettable
Fire. Fans of old-school Celtic tunes
can also visit a traditional music
tent, according to Cottingham, a
Windsor Terrace native with roots
in counties Galway and Mayo.
The top o’ the morning on the
day of the festival will include
a Catholic Mass, followed by a
ceremony to honor Irish and Irish
Americans of note, including
several first responders who
served during the September 11
attacks, according to Cottingham.
One honoree is former Queens
Congressman and Irish American
Joe Crowley — ousted during
the last election by progressive
upstart Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
— who, later in the day, will whip
out his guitar to take the stage
with the McLean Avenue Band,
Cottingham said.
Dancers from the O’Malley
Irish Dance Academy in Marine
Park and Windsor Terrace’s
Buckley School of Irish Dance
will grace the stage with swinging
step dancing performances and
elaborate traditional outfits.
The day will also have plenty of
merchants selling Irish food, drink,
and crafts, including Celtic crosses
and sweaters, all of which will
help transport visitors to the Old
Country, according to Cottingham.
The celebration of Erin’s Isle
was launched in 1983 by the
Brooklyn chapter of the Ancient
Order of Hibernians, and took
place beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
The event moved to the People’s
Playground when Cottingham’s
firm started organizing it in 2007,
because of the beach community’s
great atmosphere, said the group’s
president.
“It’s a great time to be in Coney
Island,” said Cottingham.
Great Irish Fair at the Ford
Amphitheater 3052 W. 21st St. at the
Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney
Island, (718) 954–9933, www.
fordamphitheaterconeyisland.com.
Sept. 21, 9:30 a.m.–9 p.m. $20.
Brooklyn band sings
love songs to pizza
returning to Coney Island on Sept. 21. Photo by Mike Beitchman
A massive crowd gathers for a previous incarnation of the beloved
Dumbo Drop. Photo by Stephen Yang
On the spot: Jeff Alexander, the lead songwriter for the Brooklyn Pizzaiolo,
poses at one of his favorite pizza joints — Sal’s Pizzeria in Carroll Gardens.
Photo by Derrick Watterson
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