"Effective immediately” is a funny term. Change the locks to a local music venue, for instance, and a person has no choice but to acknowledge a sudden, permanent change. Book two months of local music at a venue that suddenly changes hands, however, and things become more complicated.
|
Gravity Lounge closed its doors last week, but is poised for new management, according to landlord Ludwig Kuttner. |
Unfortunately for Gravity Lounge, a perpetually busy (if not perpetually crowded) music venue on the Downtown Mall since 2003, musicians and fans alike are dealing with an immediate change with effects that extend as far down the road as June, to the end of the schedule booked by former manager Bill Baldwin. Roughly two months after C-VILLE reported on the venue’s $200,000 financial troubles (and a few days after the fire marshall uncovered a few infractions), Ludwig Kuttner, owner of The Terraces building, announced via a notice on Gravity’s doors that the space’s commercial lease had been terminated. Effective—you guessed it—immediately.
While Ludwig Kuttner told C-VILLE that an announcement on the venue’s new management team was forthcoming, what of the concerts scheduled for the space? Starr Hill Presents managed to find homes for its Monday night Great Lake Swimmers gig (Outback Lodge) and the upcoming Tift Merritt and Shannon Worrell show (the Music Resource Center—a space that we ought to utilize more). Folk musician Danny Schmidt turned on a dime and booked back-to-back Friday sets at Live Arts.
But a few acts may have trouble relocating: Blues titan John Hammond cancelled his Saturday gig. “Rats,” commented “Ed Deasy” on c-ville.com. “Got the tickets for John Hammond in advance…” Stay tuned to Feedback as the story develops.
Listen local: D.B.B., Yer Bird
A few weeks ago, Feedback wrote about the perks of listening local—digging through the shelves at Sidetracks for your Straight Punch to the Crotch records, or buying from online shops like Monkeyclaus.org and RecordTheory.com rather than iTunes. Since then, Feedback caught word of a few hyper-local listening opportunities that you ought to check out.
First, a gig that you won’t find making the rounds on Facebook or MySpace: D.B.B. Plays Cups, a local group that I’ll simply call as expansive as it is melodic, performs at The Garage this Friday, April 17. Feedback recently ran into songwriter/initials David Baker Benson at the Gordon Avenue Library book sale (still raging for another week!), where D.B.B. had secured The Boss’ Born to Run on vinyl, along with a few other LPs. You might not find D.B.B. online but, for one night, you can catch him live. Find details on thegarage-cville.com.
Second, occasional local songwriter Andrew Rose Gregory dropped by the C-VILLE office recently and told us he’s working with Morgan King’s locally based Yer Bird Records, a label that has also released material from the likes of Fleet Foxes member J. Tillman. Albums by Tillman and Gregory are worth your while and, thanks to Yer Bird’s new “Aviary,” you can pay an annual subscription fee of $25 and access everything the label releases. It’s local music’s answer to Netflix, people.