With Faces of AB, we briefly walk into the lives of some familiar AB faces. For this edition, we tagged along with the people who provide something to quench your thirst, the perfect head on your beer and the ice blocks in your cups. They get the well-oiled Bar machine working every day with a smile and together they form the flexible ‘Team Staminee’ since 2023.
What drives these creative people and what do they like so much about AB? Read along and find out!
Frank Ferrante
I’ve been working at AB for 2.5 years and have been a permanent Bar Manager since last year. In the meantime, I am sometimes evening- or event-manager. The feeling that I can grow in my job gives me extra satisfaction. Recently, I started taking boxing classes and next week I will start my new training as Event Manager via Syntra Antwerp.
AB feels a little like my second home. I enjoy getting to know enthusiastic people, having diverse colleagues and attending shows. I was born and bred in Brussels and AB reflects how multi-cultural Brussels is. Brussels is a pure city with such a diversity of inhabitants. As I walk around in the heart of Brussels, I always run into someone I know and that gives me the ultimate feeling of being at home here.
My best concert at AB was The Death South on 17 June 2024, very unexpectedly as I didn’t know the band. Country is my guilty pleasure and I didn’t have to work that night but landed in AB that night after all. What a vibe and surprise.
Nastasia Daelman
I’m Nastasia Daelman, artist, landscape & garden architecture student. To work at AB is to work in an environment where the diverse audience generally enjoys with a smile.
My best concert here was, without a doubt, Aldous Harding and I am most looking forward to Valgeir Sigurðsson x Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe x Elisabeth Klinck present ‘ISABELLE LEWIS'.
Noah Balon
I’m Noah Balon and I mainly work as a bartender for our nightlife and events organized in partnership. Aside from my work at AB, I’m a painter and I’m studying painting at La Cambre.
I like the open-minded atmosphere at AB: I can be myself when I come to work. There’s a healthy working environment and my colleagues are all great people. And then there’s the music, of course. There’s no better place to be a painter than Brussels. I was born and raised in the city, and I’ve always felt at home here.
The best concerts I’ve been to at AB were King Krule, La Fève and Flavien Berger, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Ezra Collective.
Zef Helsen
Aside from working at AB, I’m studying for a master’s in fine arts at LUCA Brussels. As an artist, my works are typically a combination of painting and installation art, where I explore the (physical) context in which art is presented and experienced. The building blocks of this context are the space itself, but also the discourse around a specific art institution, for example.
What I like most about AB is not just the music, but also the interaction with both my colleagues and concertgoers. Learning about what goes on behind the scenes of a concert venue never fails to amaze me. As for what I like most about Brussels, it’s got to be the diversity, the many kinds of art you can find here, as well as the awesome bars and tasty food!
My first ever concert at a proper venue was at AB – Mac Miller in 2012. It’s still one of my favourite concerts, along with Moderat’s three-day run 2 years ago. Caribou’s next gig has already been well and truly marked on my calendar!
My motto is ‘live from art, and if that doesn’t work, bet it all on red!’