DIY music promoter back in Ridgewood

Affable and forthcoming, the man known formally as Todd Patrick doesn’t strike you as the kind of person who has put on some of New York City’s most popular and notorious rock shows, someone revered by Brooklyn and Queens hipsters and detested by cops in just about equal measure for just about the same things.

But Patrick, 37, an Indiana native who has spent the better part of a decade making a name for himself in New York, is that man, even if he’s not sure that’s who he wants to be anymore.

“I’m older now,” Patrick said in between sips of tea. “It’s probably better to leave that underground stuff to someone younger.”

That “underground stuff” has been Patrick’s stock and trade. As Todd P, Patrick has become synonymous with underground and experimental rock music in the city, staging shows in rundown garages, apartments and warehouses, across Ridgewood and North Brooklyn.

His shows became sensationally popular with young people — both for the acts he could draw and the antidote they presented to Manhattan’s typically expensive and more regulated scene — while occasionally drawing the ire of the NYPD, which has shut down Patrick more than once for violations ranging from noise to over-occupancy.

Patrick brushed off his dealings with the law: “No venue is 100 percent up to code. If the NYPD need a reason to shut a venue down, they’ll find one.”

Now, after a string of misfortunes that have cost Patrick some of his favorite spaces — a police raid at Market Hotel in Brooklyn, for example, preceded its closing — he’s making what appears to be an effort to go legit.

This past weekend, Patrick held his inaugural show at Ridgewood’s K&K Super Buffet, a Chinese restaurant that allowed him to rent the space as a venue. It’s a far cry from Patrick’s previous spaces, most of which were semi-abandoned buildings like Monster Island and Market Hotel, which he “occupied” in the name of music.

K&K also represents Patrick’s first foray into Ridgewood since the abrupt “temporary” closure of music venue the Silent Barn in July 2011. After the place was robbed, its proprietors got enough money from a Kickstarter fundraiser to move out of the area. Since then, Ridgewood has been relatively quiet in comparison to the noisy Brooklyn neighborhood on the other side of the elevated train tracks.

That changed with Patrick’s show last Saturday, when the crowd started gathering in the K&K parking lot for what many anticipated to be an exciting night of music headlined by indie-pop darlings Real Estate and experimental post-punk favorites Black Dice.

The evening had a slapdash feel to it: the stage was still under construction when people started showing up. Expectant rock fans mingled with the few remaining couples and families finishing up their dinners.

In the crowd, Evan Weiner said he was happy to attend an event that broke the “every-night mold of attending a Bowery Presents show where drinks are exorbitantly expensive,” referring to the New York promotion company that runs a slew of large, established music venues, including the Bowery Ballroom and the Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Going against the grain is Patrick’s specialty. “I like to bring people out of their comfort zone,” he said.

When the bands started playing, the all-ages crowd — a hallmark of Patrick’s shows is the ever-present under-21s — whipped itself into a frenzy for the bands, who played straightforward rock (the Babies, Real Estate) and experimental (Black Dice).

Real Estate was Patrick’s booking coup: while the band has been associated with Todd P shows for many years, they recently gained major critical acclaim for their sophomore album, “Days.”They played a sold-out show at Terminal 5, a 5,000-seat venue in Manhattan, in mid-January. The band’s considerable buzz presented Patrick with some logistical problems.

“When Real Estate approached me to do this show for them, I knew that it would be larger than what we had done in the past,” he said. “So I felt that this was the right time to try something different”: renting out the Chinese restaurant.

Patrick noted that making his shows all-ages is one part of his ethos, however, that won’t change.

“I don’t like environments that exclude people,” he said. His website advertises his shows as “nothing elitist, everyone invited.” Age restrictions at most venues are arbitrary, he added.

“When I was in Portland, I ran an all-ages club that wasn’t allowed to serve alcohol because that was the law in Oregon. In New York, there isn’t a law like that: someone under the age of 21 can be in a rock club or a venue if they want to, as long as the venue doesn’t serve them alcohol.

“Of course, most of those places don’t want to let someone in if they’re not going to buy a drink.”

Drinks or no drinks, the crowd and the bands seemed to consider the show a rousing success. When Real Estate bassist Alex Bleecker asked if everyone was having a good time, the crowd roared back.

“That’s good,” Bleecker answered. “That’s what’s important.”

“I know it’s early,” said Cassie Ramone of the Babies, “but this was probably the best show of the year.”