[NewMusic] More Tonic News/Discussions

[wobbly]

Hi everyone

just got back from spending the weekend in nyc, where i caught the last
night at Tonic -- both the 2nd of the two Zorn & friends set, and the final
electronic music sets at the Bunker.

what I'd been hoping was that I'd run into a host of local musicians who'd
tip me to the new places that were springing up.  but instead I got a long
list of all the other places that had closed in the last two years.  tonic
was one of the last ones standing.  the same gentrification / loft expansion
that happened to San Francisco in the late 90's, and then eased off -- it
happened in new york as well, but a) it wasn't noticed as much because it
was NYC, and b) it didn't really stop or slow down over the last 7 years, it
expanded to Brooklyn.

for five years all my favorite shows I've played in nyc have been at Tonic
-- I kept hunting around for other venues, not wanting to over-rely on it,
but was increasingly baffled to realize there wasn't any other place even
remotely like it on the island.  there isn't any place like it in SF either,
capacity 180 with decent sound and a bar -- it's comfy enough to drink and
hang out in, and yet it's just serious enough to play quiet-to-loud music in
with wide dynamic range.  the few other places recently established either
go for the airless art gallery where the room is cleared immediately after
each set, or the deadly hipster bar where you're playing over the noise of
the regulars at the bar.  either extreme can be bad for music -- Tonic had a
balance

I'm really going to miss that increasingly raggedy red curtain on Tonic's
stage.  On friday night the upper right hand corner was hanging off the side
a bit.  I couldn't see the stage too well, but I heard / saw Zorn, Elliot
Sharp, Anthony Coleman, Marc Ribot, Susie Ibarra, Vijay Iyer, Ned
Rothenberg, Annie Gosfield, many others all forming trios to quintets.  I
spent a lot of time at the back of the room talking about the place with
other musicians, and some time outside looking at the two ugly-as-hell
condos which had opened on either side of the building.

I stayed for the techno dance party The Bunker afterwards -- it used to be
downstairs, and called Polar Bear Club, but evidently in recent months it
had become a major draw and been moved upstairs.  it was at capacity, with a
line out the door of people waiting in the cold to get in.  Timeblind was
dj'ing full storm Berlin techno, it sounded pretty amazing and it was very
odd yet very appropriate to see it happening upstairs at Tonic.  It was a
very good final night.

Having stayed until 3am I didn't go back for the demonstrations the next
day, but I heard from several people that the music was non-stop
exceptional, especially Ribot.

I'd been in town to play a duo with Zeena Parkins at Tonic on the 15th.  The
announcement of their closing on the 13th came out about 12 hours after I'd
bought my plane ticket.  Patricia & Kurt ended up moving all the post-13th
gigs to another venue a block away.  we were pretty grateful and it was
wonderful to hang out, Keith Rowe's new guitar trio was playing as well and
they were astounding.  the room was much much smaller, and had an adjoining
bar -- Zeena mentioned that the place really took her back many years to an
earlier time in NYC.  7 inches of rain kept everyone but the hard core
faithful away, but the mood was very good and the room was nice.  at the
same time, it really did underline everything that's just been lost.

lot of assholes on various message boards saying a lot of cynical things
about how it's pointless to resist, or how 'whiney' the petition sounds, or
how it was foolish to wait until now to fight, etc. etc. etc. NYC really is
losing most of the things that have made it NYC, and Brooklyn isn't really
in a position to compensate, it's just gone -- it's not futile to sign the
position just to log the moment, the numbers count

anyway that was the scene, value every last venue we've got here because you
never know

http://www.takeittothebridge.com/forums/index.php

-jl