PopGun Presents

Brooklyn’s Original Stage for New Sounds.

Brooklyn's curator of unfolding nights, since 2008.

Our Story

PopGun Presents was founded in 2008 by Rami Haykal and Jake Rosenthal, in a cacophonous live/work space in Bushwick, Brooklyn, with the stubborn idea of celebrating and advocating for the artists and music we care about through live music. Back then, we were unemployed and we threw parties. There were long soggy night-mornings, and there was life-giving music, so we followed the light, Amen.

Since 2008, PopGun has grown from a hapless duo into a full-scale events production & promotion, music curation, and venue management collective. These days we book and promote shows through our large events newsletter, we build and operate independent music venues & arts spaces in New York, and our mission remains the same.

Beyond events, our focus is the culture of emerging music without boundaries, and so we designed this site to do more than sell tickets. We also use it to discuss progressive artists, to share what we’re listening to, and to publish a steady stream of photo galleries and interviews from our events.

Our Venues

In South Williamsburg from 2006 through 2014, Glasslands was a converted warehouse, formerly a homegrown community art space turned psychedelic venue partyhaus.

Elsewhere is a live music venue and arts space, housed in a 24,000+ square foot converted warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn opening fall 2016.

The Partners

Jake grew up in NYC, where he got a Knicks logo shaved into his head at Astor Cuts on Broadway in 1989, and wept like the baby he was when they lost the 1994 finals. Disheartened, he turned his attention to music that year when Nas released Illmatic, beginning a steady lifelong diet of hip-hop and learning all the incredible swear words that would serve him well for the rest of his life.

Jake Rosenthal
Co-Founder | Communications

Rami grew up in Genoa, Italy and continues in the illustrious tradition of the great Italian explorers, scouring the ends of the Internet – earth’s final frontier – for bitchin new music. He speaks at least four languages, doesn’t sleep very much, and runs in strange circles at strange hours of the morning.

Rami Haykal
Co-Founder | Booking

Dhruv grew up in Mumbai, India and moved to the States at the tender age of 7, where he spent middle school and high school shredding in Hendrix wannabe bands with Jake. Dhruv uses his Ivy League education to develop fancy new filing systems at PopGun, which he doesn’t regret at all. Dhruv is an expert skier, scuba diving certified, and just got his motorcycle license, so you can basically never find him. He listens to jazz, blues, and techno while doing all three.

Dhruv Chopra
Partner | Operations