This month’s Live Wire: Unconventional Venues
Published by Natasha July 1st, 2009 in Live Wire.
[From the Ithaca Times; text by Luke Fenchel] Now that the venerable Ithacan institution ABC Café has shut its doors, its closing is felt not only by vegetarians, but also by the musicians it regularly welcomed through its doors.
But if the number of alcohol-serving live venues within city limits seems to be shrinking, unofficial and unconventional spaces have stepped up to fill the gap. These up-and-comers, The Shop, The Sweet Spot, The Pirate House and a salon series called Sound & Season are, respectively, a coffee shop, a simulated golf course and two private residences. All have found success in serving niche audiences, and offering music that isn’t readily found at the local watering hole.
Though there was no paucity of live music Friday, June 19, with Dan Smalls presenting Vieux Farka Touré and The Horse Flies offering their semi-annual show at Castaways, it didn’t stop 65 people from attending an event promoted by Ithaca Underground. Three touring bands from Cleveland, Los Angeles and Brooklyn joined Ithaca’s Why the Wires for a 7:00pm all-ages show; it set attendees back five bucks.
“I was a little concerned about that show,” Bubba Crumrine, Ithaca Underground’s head, said a few days after. “The CSMA was a new space for us, and a lot of people were asking where it was all that week [It’s at 330 East St. St]. Upsilon Acrux [the band from L.A.] had never toured in New York State, so we were pretty worried. But we were really happy with the turnout…the bands were happy and the crowd was too.”
Crumrine got his start booking shows at No Radio Records, the now defunct record store owned by Bob Proehl. After taking over Ithaca Underground in August 2008, Crumrine has booked 39 shows. Though he works with The Haunt - the venue has hosted a few Ithaca Underground showcases and will host three in July - some shows work better at other venues, coffee shops and his own home, a venue he has christened The Pirate House.
The Pirate House is located on 505 Cliff St. next to a parking lot that provides ample spaces for attendees. It has hosted punk, metal and experimental bands from around the corner and around the globe. A May show featured Buried Inside, a metalcore band on Relapse Records that drew more than 40 people.
“The first show I did had about six people at it, and that was at No Radio,” Crumrine, who has an astounding recall of every show he has ever promoted. “We had a couple of shows with twelve people…but by the time we hit January we did our first show at The Haunt and we had 109. They were pretty happy and we were too.”
Crumrine is happy to work with The Haunt, but some shows have what might be called a specialized audience. “We do some shows and the kids go crazy but the bartenders don’t,” Crumrine acknowledged. “Some shows work better at The Pirate House.”
Another semi-public location that has catered to a particular music scene is a salon series called Sound & Season. The residence of Jarek Miller (of the avant free-improv duo American Sphinx) and Sasha Kellner-Rogers, 1175 Ellis Hollow Rd. has already been home to a March event showcasing avant-garde music and astoundingly great food prepared by Kellner-Rogers. “The idea is to combine music with prepared seasonal food,” Kellner-Rogers noted.
Sound & Season is modeled on their experience in western Massachusetts, where Kellner-Rogers studied at Hampshire College. “There is a fairly vital and a fairly informal scene out there,” Miller said. “There are a lot of house shows and basement shows.”
The first installment featured a member of the popular garage rock group Awesome Color, and the pair are anticipating two more, a “midsummer” July 13 show with a Kentucky-based ambient synthesizer duo Caboladies, and an “Indian summer” August 9 show with two Boston-based artists named Eli Keszler and Ashley Paul. Part of the so-called “lowercase improvisational” scene, Keszler also plays in a group called Red Horse.
Miller looks forward to the upcoming installments. “The first event got just the right amount of people. Nobody stole anything from our house, nobody clogged up the toilet, nobody harassed our dog, so we’re not frightened to open our home to others. We’ve seen great shows at the Lost Dog and No Radio and we wanted to add to the repertoire.”
Over at No Radio, Phoebe Aceto recently took over the space, and rechristened it The Shop, a coffee shop that also offers baked goods. Both a special one-off show in May with We Are the Arm and its grand opening featuring Kevin Kinsella and the Aceto Brothers on Thursday, June 18 were a success.
Aceto professed to not know exactly how many dropped by to celebrate her grand opening, and then settled on two words: “Maximum occupancy.” “If you’re talking about unique visitors, then we were well above a hundred,” she said.
The Shop, open seven days a week (Monday through Saturday 9am-11pm, Sunday 11-5pm) and located at 312 E. Seneca Street, has been open less than a week but already has shows booked in July.
“I always knew music would have to be a part of it,” Aceto said of shows at The Shop. “Natasha and Bubba are able to continue booking as they did before for No Radio, and people can contact The Shop if they have a specific date in time.” Aceto continued: “It’s especially important for us to host music because so many places are closing down, and you especially need a place for all-ages shows.”
The Sweet Spot, which in the wintertime operates as an indoor golf simulator, isn’t an all-ages venue, but its booker, Sprocket Rages is excited about the space. “They just put the bar in, the owners are wonderful people, the space is new and fresh, and I get to build the character,” Rages said.
The venue will offer country, rock, and when the students return, jam bands, but will also focus on harder rock and metal. Rages added: “With the loss of venues downtown, I think it’s important to the central New York scene to make this venue happen.”
Both The Pirate House and The Shop host bands and artists that fly under the radar, and their musical offerings are in some sense as unconventional as their spaces. “What we’ll offer is really varied,” Aceto said. “My dad is going to play here a bit. I told him that he has first dibs on the schedule. But if you’re wondering what The Shop will sound like, it will be really varied.”
The Pirate House (505 Cliff St.): Sakes Alive! + Such Gold + The Berettas + The Plebes (July 1, 7pm), Monster Machismo + Zona Mexicana + Sleep for the Nightlife + The Motivators + Plasma 36 (July 30, 7pm). For more info visit www.ithacaunderground.com.
Sound & Season (1175 Ellis Hollow Road): Caboladies (July 13), Eli Keszler + Ashley Paul + American Sphinx (August 9).
The Shop (312 E. Seneca St.): Dufus + John Ludington + Andrea Zvaleko + Dead Canaries (July 3, 8pm, $3), Popcorn Youth presents Metalux + Bill Nace + Amen Dunes (July 9, 8pm), Preemptive Strike + Ailments + The Dead Army + Dusqkee (July 11).
The Sweet Spot (1779 Hanshaw Rd. at Rte. 13): Emerson B (July 
, Those Particular Individuals (July 10), Thirteen South + Twelve oz. Muzzle + Sugar Mama (July 11), F.B.I. + Nevaris (July 31), open blues jam Tuesday nights. For more info visit www.sweetspotithaca.com.
Ithaca Underground Presents at The Haunt: Avant Prog KAYO DOT + TZAR (July 6, 6pm), Red Scare Tour: Cobra Skulls + Menzingers + Sidekicks (July 23, 5pm), Dead But Not Resting + Iwo Jima Medkit + Makeshift + The Reputables (July 25, 8pm).
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