Knockdown Center

Upcoming concerts in New York City

Knockdown Center in New York City

About Knockdown Center

Knockdown Center in Maspeth, Queens, is a 3,200-capacity concert and arts complex inside a former industrial plant. Its main hall handles full-scale concert production, while the same 50,000-square-foot building also contains The Ruins, an outdoor yard, and BASEMENT below ground. The distinguishing detail sits beneath the dance floor: a furnace chamber and colored blocks of factory glass survived the conversion, making the building’s former work visible inside the venue.

A factory’s second life

Built in 1903 as the Gleason-Tiebout Glass Factory, the structure made gas-lamp bulbs, later produced glass marbles, then became the Manhattan Door Factory, whose knock-down frame supplied the current name. In 2013, Tyler Myers helped steer the Sklar family property toward cultural use after first encountering its scale while working on a Frieze Art Fair project.

Its early path carried real friction. On May 6, 2014, the State Liquor Authority denied an application to serve over 600 patrons, citing community opposition and limited public transportation. In May 2019, Knockdown opened BASEMENT beneath the main room, giving the complex a tightly programmed late-night counterpart to its wider upstairs calendar.

Choose your room

Upstairs, Knockdown books a broad range of electronic, indie, pop, hip-hop, rock, and experimental performances, with the cavernous main hall built for large crowds and The Ruins providing an open-air alternative. BASEMENT follows a sharper musical policy: its main room favors harder techno, while Studio leans house around the original furnace. Both basement rooms use Funktion-One sound, and its selective door policy aims to build a dance-focused crowd. For concertgoers, the key decision is scale: expansive main-room spectacle, outdoor movement, or immersive club pressure downstairs.

Sources

  1. Knockdown Center Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary — PAPER Magazine
  2. Elected Officials Applaud SLA Denial for Knockdown Center Cabaret License — New York State Senate
  3. Knockdown Center — Front of House Magazine
  4. Live: Red Bull Music Academy’s Drone Activity In Progress Showcase — The FADER
  5. Knockdown Center in Queens — Atlas Obscura
Upcoming shows
36
Address
52-19 Flushing Avenue, Queens, NY 11378
Phone
(718) 489-6285
Next show
Sat, 29 Aug 2026
Official siteDirections

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