It’s Sunday night at the Sixth Ward, a pub on the Lower East Side, and three out of four members of Des Roar are standing behind the bar. Ryan Spoto, the group’s bassist, grabs an opener and runs it across a slew of vodka bottles, creating a tinkling echo of beats.

It’s freezing and windy outside once again, but tonight Ninjasonik is playing a local show before going on a nationwide tour, so despite the cold it’s reason enough to leave the house.

It’s no small challenge to get New Yorkers out of their living rooms, on the streets, and to an event in the dead of winter, especially with the additional chill of our economic times in the air.

It’s the middle of summer, and in typically hot Brooklyn fashion, the kids have come out to play. Everyone is gathered behind an industrial lot off the highway, under the overpass and next to a BP gas station. (Those really are the best directions.) We all paid five bucks plus two dollars for PBRs to be here, and we want to hear some good music.