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"Out Late" is Time Out's nightlife and party column by DJ, Whorechata founder, and Staff Writer Ian Kumamoto, which will publish every other Tuesday. The previous edition highlighted Deviant, a queer kink party.
A lot of great parties start with great flyers. If a promoter pours their heart and soul into their marketing, it’s probably a sign that they deeply care about the space they’re creating, and great marketing is exactly what Bias, the K-pop-centered club night, consistently gives. So when their last flyer dropped, I knew I had to go.
The flyer for the March 8 party, named "Bias Rave," was designed by Alex Bosserman and it was a total gag: It featured a speeding subway train that swooshed past the Market Hotel, the iconic club above Mr. Kiwi’s on Myrtle-Broadway. The POV pans from the chaotic train and into the venue, where Bias’ cute mascot, a teddy bear-like creature with a B-shaped mouth, is DJing to a crowd of adorable and adoring ravers.
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Bias has been going strong in Brooklyn’s scene for just over a year now, and it has uniquely capitalized off the global K-pop craze in a way that is also authentically building a local community around the genre. Its name is a reference to the term K-pop fans use to describe their affiliation to a certain artist or group. If someone wants to know your favorite K-pop idol, for example, they ask what your bias is. The party blends Bushwick’s angsty techno sensibilities with the sunny aesthetics of K-pop to create something that feels at times contradictory, often experimental, and always exciting.
We wanted to blend two worlds that we’re a part of that are usually very separate musically.
Bias is the baby of Sammy Kim and KA WAI, two friends and K-pop stans who decided they weren’t seeing the K-pop parties they wanted to attend. In November 2022, the two friends threw a party and packed out Mood Ring, a bar with a dance floor in Bushwick. For Bias Rave, Kim wanted to explicitly make a space where the two scenes they loved most would amalgamate. “We wanted to blend two worlds that we’re a part of that are usually very separate musically,” Kim tells Time Out New York. Kim, who is queer and Korean, is deeply informed by the queer parties they go to and that their friends throw in New York, and making a K-pop space that was also queer and trans inclusive was a priority.
In terms of the vibe, Bias is driven by fandom and genuine love for a specific genre. Unlike so many Bushwick parties, which tend to get scene-y and sometimes devolve into spaces that are less about the music than they are about being noticed, Bias maintains what I can only describe as a wholesome essence. “One of the things about Bias is people are here for the music, for fun, there’s no judgement, there’s no tension,” KA WAI tells Time Out. The party is meant to serve as a meeting point between diehard K-pop fans and ravers who might only be tangentially familiar with K-pop. “If you’re a K-pop fan, come with an open mind because you might not hear all the original songs you want to hear. You’re gonna hear them interpreted in this club setting.”
All great parties address a gap that its founders want desperately to fill: In other words, they’re creating a world that wouldn’t exist without them. “Anyone who likes K-pop has had the thought, I want to shake my ass to K-pop at the club!” Kim says. “So we thought, why don’t we just do that?”
Although primarily known as a K-pop party, to me Bias is, at its core, a party that navigates in-betweenness. It’s not just a K-pop party, but it’s also not not a K-pop party; it’s not quite a queer party, but also not not a queer party. I think this speaks to the organizers’ ability to comfortably navigate the different worlds they belong to, or perhaps it’s the embodiment of their own process of figuring out where exactly they fit into the scene, a question that is at the heart of K-pop, and maybe even Asian American identity itself. The point is that whatever biases you may have of what a Brooklyn party should look like, you should leave them at the door.
The Bias Rave on March 8 featured sets by DJs Hojo (TW), dj hotpot, SEVYN LOVE, moong!rl and KA WAI.
An hour-by-hour account of a night at Bias
11pm
As soon as doors opened at 11, the party was on. Smoke machines gave the space the feel of an underground rave, despite the fact that the venue is at eye-level with the J/Z elevated train tracks.
The music was a combination of K-pop edits and remixes, as well as full-out rave and techno songs. As people streamed into the party, they wore merch from Blackpink and BTS concerts, which made it clear that for many, this was a rare chance to express a side of them that they probably couldn’t in most nightlife spaces. My first impression from some of the first people who walked in was that the crowd was very women-forward, and there was definitely a mix of queer and straight ravers. There was a sense of excitement from most attendees as soon as they walked in, a sense that they were there to be among friends.
11:45pm
More people start coming in. It’s still mostly a younger crowd. As a mixed Asian “Zillennial”—someone who is between Millennial and Gen-Z—this made me happy to see. Growing up, anything relating to Asian culture was considered geeky, but here you had college-aged kids from different backgrounds in clubwear jamming to K-pop intermingled with Jersey Club and drill.
“I’m here because I’m starting to get more into K-pop thanks to my roommate, but to be honest I couldn’t name most of the songs,” someone who identified themselves as Jane tells me. “This feels pretty accessible because it’s first and foremost dance music.”
12am
At some point, people were dancing so much that the floor was shaking and creaking. I had an intrusive thought about the floor caving in and all of us landing on a pile of mangoes at the Mr. Kiwi’s below.
12:20am
People are starting to form dance circles, and it’s clear that a lot of people already know each other, or maybe know of each other from online. Most people seem to know Sammy, and their warmth gives people a sense that they're walking into a friend’s house.
I approach a group of friends to interview them, but before I get a chance to say anything, a song comes on that they all recognize. One of them lets out a shriek, and then they start belting out the lyrics, so I back off.
12:40am
Demetrius Winn, a friend who I came to the party with and who is a K-pop fan, has been to several Biases before. When I asked him why he keeps coming back to the parties, he, like so many others, references the crowd. “I enjoy how judgement-free Bias parties are,” he says. “It’s very rare to find spaces in nightlife where people are actually connected.”
1am
The venue begins to fill up even more. I’m feeling tired and have a commitment early the next day, so I say bye to Sammy and head out. As I leave the venue, there’s a line going down the stairs leading up to the person checking IDs. From everyone I spoke to the next morning, the party only got better.
For more information, check out Bias’ Instagram here.
How to catch the next Bias party
Where: Elsewhere or Market Hotel
When: Several times a year. Check Bias' Instagram for upcoming events.
Cost: $20
How to get in: Buy a ticket whenever they drop a link. Keep an eye on their Instagram.
The vibe: Ravey but also wholesome.
What to wear: K-Pop fantasy attire.