By Stephanie Meditz
Vinyl Revolution Record Show invites over 50 record vendors to set up shop in one venue. Photo via their website.
On Saturday, Nov. 12 and Sunday, Nov. 13 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Vinyl Revolution Record Show will return to the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden in Astoria for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Father-daughter duo Mike and Amanda Schutzman started hosting record shows 10 years ago at the Brooklyn Bowl.
Mike Schutzman initially ran the show with the manager of his record store in Valley Stream.
Amanda Schutzman has always been involved in the show, but she now works in records full-time and co-organizes it with her father.
“Now I work for a large vinyl distributor that deals with record stores all over America for new releases and reissues and stuff like that. So I deal with 200 record stores every day,” she said. “So I was just like, hey, I’ll take over. I know enough of the business at this point.”
Since it began, Vinyl Revolution Record Show has hosted several shows a year in Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island.
“I think it just got bigger than we expected it to get, and we just kept doing them,” Schutzman said.
The show invites roughly 50 record dealers, personal collectors and record store owners from all over the country to set up shop in the same venue.
Vendors sell a range of merchandise, including vinyl records, CDs, 45 RPM records and record supplies like sleeves, boxes and collector bags.
Steve Lobmeier of Steve’s Record Cleaning cleans records that attendees buy or bring to the show for $1.50 per LP.
At a whopping 80 tables, the most recent show was the largest one yet, and the Astoria show will be the first two-day show.
“It’s basically just a giant flea, but it’s all records,” Schutzman said.
Mike Schutzman, an avid record collector, often sets up shop at record shows around the country, including Vinyl Revolution.
He passed his love for vinyl and music onto his daughter, who is also a collector.
“I was raised in a record store, so I’ve always been into music. I didn’t start collecting myself until about 10 years ago, maybe even more than that,” Amanda Schutzman said. “And I’m addicted like the rest of them.”
She is grateful to work with her father and share this hobby with him.
“We have all the same hang-ups and we’re constantly back and forth on the phone making sure everything’s planned properly, but we have a great time working together,” she said. “We’ve never really butt heads or anything like that. He seems to really know what he’s doing, so I fall in line and listen.”
The Astoria show will also feature special guests DJ Shangri-La, DJ Nina Day and DJ Spag of punk band Two Man Advantage.
DJ Shangri-La and DJ Nina Day will play music at both Astoria shows.
Tickets are available on their website for $5. With the price of admission comes a ticket for the raffles called every half hour.
Early admission is also available from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. for $10.
“It’s just nice to have the Queens, Brooklyn, New York City crowd come back to the shows because we haven’t done them in a while,” Schutzman said. “The atmosphere is the most exciting at Astoria.”
