Coffeehouses and series

The last couple of days I went to shows at great small venues. First was the Writer's Hang in Hoboken. Once a month there is a show in the back room of the Goldhawk bar. Scott Moore who runs the show has two or more other singer/songwriters join him in a song swap. The musicians often back each other up. They play songs, talk about writing and in general put on a great show. I've been to two shows and each time I went for one artist but discovered others. Scott has great taste in music.

Tonight I went to the Post Crypt Coffeehouse at Columbia University. It is held in a tiny room in a chapel basement and is purely acoustic. Evil electricity is not allowed. There are no mics and no amps. They get great artists playing in a very intimate venue.

Are there any coffeehouses or series going on in your neck of the woods that you'd like to share? Let's here about those musical treasures that exist under the radar.

My hometown of Findlay finally has one called Coffee Amici. Most of my life it's been a cultural wasteland of conservatism, so it was a big suprise when this place opened. The owner is a musician himself, and centered the place around a stage. Every Friday night is an open mic, and every Saturday features "real" folk concerts. It's got a great atmosphere. Almost every night it's sold out - a testament to the fact that the community needed this badly. Very neat place.

Well, coffeehouse, maybe not, but Jason Collett does a songwriter showcase on Mondays for 4 consecutive weeks every few months. It started off being hosted by Andy Stochansky and being called This Is Pop, but with Jason it's called Radio Monday. I went regularly for a while, but he seems to be weeding out all the people I like. *shrug* I think these days they're doing it at Rancho Relaxo, a tiny, ugly, narrow bar on the second floor of a restaurant.

Maybe when the girl who used to book acts for Ted's Wrecking Yard starts her new job downstairs at the El Mocambo, they'll move it to a new venue and more interesting people will be tempted to play.

Oh, I love the Postcrypt Coffeehouse!  I think the acoustics in there are amazing, considering that there is no amplication and the sound travels so well in the "dungeon-esque" space.  And it is such a very nice intimate venue, something about the artist just standing there in front of you with no barriers makes it seem personal (that and they sell yummy, warm, gooey brownies...mmmm).

Anyway, speaking of other coffeehouses and series, last night I went to The Rising Cafe in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which hosts a number of different series, including an acoustic folk series on Fridays and a live jazz series on Wednesdays. It's a pretty intimate space, with a decent sound system (probably fits about 80 people comfortably).   I went to see a couple of acts who I saw at the FRFF 2002 New Artist Showcase and stayed for the other acts as well, who were pretty good.  Plus, they had a Red Velvet cake that is to die for.  You see, for me, kick-ass desserts are just one of those little bonuses that makes going to initimate coffeehouses even more special.  :)

the best desserts in the world are found at the muse at the gray goose, though. BEST place ever. and wonderful concerts. i saw stephen fearing and aengus finnan there a couple weeks ago, and i've seen kris delmhorst and mark erelli and goodness knows who else there. it's the best folk venue in NH, imho. if you're ever up in the area, stop in and check it out! it's attached to a series of country gift shops, so it's open during the day. just no one's playing.

i also discovered a new little venue last night in west newton, mass, just southeast(?) of boston--the namaste cafe. it's a yoga studio that gets converted into a folk venue on friday nights. nate, becca, andy and i were all pleasantly entertained last night by full frontal folk and russell wolff on his comeback show--which was fabulous. but i must say, one of the biggest bonuses of the night were the reclining lawn chairs we sat in. we were practically lying down for the whole show. it was SO relaxing.

Uncommon Ground is a great coffeehouse here in Chicago. I haven't been here long enough to know all of the places, tho, so I'll also recommend some Baltimore area locations. David Morreale runs SNAFU (Sunday Night All Folked Up) at the Frederick Coffee Company, which is similar to the Writer's Hang. And Brian of We're About 9 runs a weekly coffeehouse at UMBC, where he works. Katie was running a similar thing at Towson, where she ges to school, but I don't know if that's still going on.

*notes that she will be seeing Cadence Caroll and WA9 perform tomorrow night at Common Grounds at UMBC*

wa9? i think it's just brian solo.

 Yeah-- it's billed on some posters as the group and on others as just Brian.  Somebody somewhere is confused.

I should mention a great series they do at the Bottom Line, Required Listening. They bring together four acts each of which is not big enough to headline. Some of them later become headliners like Dan Bern, EFO, The Kennedys, and these weird Canadians, Moxy Fruvous or something ridiculous like that.

and they they take a "break" and leave their fans to mourn!

WHY?

meh, there's nothing new..under anything...

forgive my dark moment..I really shouldn't post in this mood..

oh well

~J~

 

moxy wh�-vous?????

i'm just here for the veal.

it's danke schoen.  :)

Also featured at Required Listening was Nicklecreek and a certain "man band".

We have the Uncommon Ground that gets some good acts like Don Conoscenti, it's up by Wrigley Field... in my neck of the woods there's a coffeehouse called Buzz Cafe in Oak Park that has small acts... actually the place I've found the most good stuff at is Dos Hermanos, a hangout in the Sears Tower, music on Thursdays... found Down the Line there *heartshape* and a singer-songweriter named Nicholas Barron who sounds a @#$#@ of a lot like Cat Stevens (and I like that)...

I couldn't go to the DVN show so it didn't happen.

hence the inspiration for a certain song - Nicklecreek sang a song called "The Fox" that was obviously inspired by the DVN classic, "The Gates".

I went to see Black 47 and they covered Ally MacBeal. They got the words wrong though, they said "How does it feel?" What's weirder is that Dylan covered The Black 47 version before the guys in DVN were born.

You are a very peculiar man. :)

There's a Tuesday night open mic hosted by Chris Wynters of Captain Tractor that's fun. When Chris is busy, Jonny comes up from Calgary to host, which is cool.

Other than that, it's mostly the yearly seasons at the folk clubs: Full Moon, Northern Lights, and Uptown. And they pull in incredible performers in small venues. I'm going to see John Mann (of Spirit of the West) solo at the Northern Lights next weekend, and last month we went to see Martyn (http://www.martynjoseph.com) at the same venue.