Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Growing list of live-music venues comes to Philly

In 2012, word came that developer Michael Samschick was rehabbing the vacant Ajax Metal Co. at Frankford Avenue for an entertainment complex that would include a Live Nation-run concert venue.

Mohican at Ortlieb's last week. It was reconfigured for maximum comfort for audiences and acts. (CHARLES FOX / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Mohican at Ortlieb's last week. It was reconfigured for maximum comfort for audiences and acts. (CHARLES FOX / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)Read more

In 2012, word came that developer Michael Samschick was rehabbing the vacant Ajax Metal Co. at Frankford Avenue for an entertainment complex that would include a Live Nation-run concert venue.

Ten days ago, Live Nation execs let Philly know that the 2,500-capacity Fillmore and its 450-capacity venue-within-a-venue Foundry would be ready this autumn.

"We wanted good non-genre-specific rooms for major mid-level acts and to develop new artists," says Geoff Gordon, regional president of Live Nation. Gordon hints that the Fillmore will embrace a preponderance of acts for adults "who usually do casinos and theaters," but he adds that his two-in-one venue will be the "most comfortable spot in town for 21- to 50-year-olds."

The Fillmore is only the latest entry in this city's list of new live stages. That list has grown in the last 12 months, including jazz and indie-rock spots, stages in restaurants, even batting cages with stages. And more are on the way.

"Having live stages is good for business," says Mark Bee, owner of the recently opened Franky Bradley's, a restaurant/live space on Chancellor Street in Midtown Village that has hosted acts such as hip-hop star Kuf Knotz. "You get diverse new audiences - hip-hop, rock, burlesque - nightly that might not come to your restaurant otherwise."

Philly is live stage crazy, no matter what the setting or size of the stage. Ortlieb's on North Third Street in Northern Liberties hired indie booster Kyle Costill to book bigger names regularly. In February, the space was reconfigured for maximum comfort for audiences and acts. It now hosts acts such as Eddie Spaghetti and Cherokee Red, plus jazz nights with Chris Oatts.

The new CODA dance club at 17th and Walnut Streets - featuring late-night DJ bookings, such as Miguel Migs - hosts bands such as Sponge early in the evening. Square on Square Chinese Restaurant at 19th and Chestnut Streets opens its second floor to Philly's All Star Jazz Trio every Friday.

The Philadelphia Bike Rescue team now hosts punk-pop shows at Hazzard Hall at 19th and Hazzard Streets - acts such as Philly band Radiator Hospital. At Everybody Hits Batting Cages at Fifth Street and Girard Avenue, you're as likely to catch hard-core bands such as Drone Ranger as you are to hit a fastball down the middle.

Last March, Bourbon and Branch on North Second Street replaced the decades-old Liberties, opening its second floor to live music, such as Philly act Sylvia Platypus. Pennsylvania 6 at South 12th Street in Midtown Village just started bringing in jazz duos for Prohibition-themed Thursdays. Around the corner, Teddy Sourias built U-Bahn, an underground-themed live room at 1320 Chestnut - below his Brü Craft & Wurst restaurant and pub. U-Bahn books indie-rock and reggae, bands such as TJ Kong, the Brian LaPann Trio, and Swift Technique.

The best way "to differentiate our basement from Brü was to install a stage and develop U-Bahn's regular music program to draw repeat business from neighbors," says Alex Bokulich, U-Bahn's general manager.

Another Midtown Village live music/good food hot spot - Jason Evenchik's jazz venue Time - was the model for Evenchik's new high-ceilinged restaurant Heritage at 914-22 N. Second St. in Northern Liberties. Like Time, Heritage features jazz. Unlike Time, Heritage hosts jazz every night (with Time all-stars such as saxophonist Tom Moon and crooner Peter Gaudioso), along with Sunday brunches including singer-songwriters.

"I like live music - jazz, in particular - wherever I go," says Evenchik who soundproofed Heritage's ceilings and codesigned its hooded band shell with local producer Aaron Levinson, building it with untreated cedar for better acoustics.

The swank new Vesper supper club at 223 S. Sydenham St. not only hosts different acts during dinner hours (quiet jazz and folk duos early; louder jazz, blues, and swing acts, such as Drew Nugent, late night). But Jim Israel, vice president of operations, says Vesper's long second floor is also perfect for bigger acts. He is currently in talks with WXPN-FM to be an event sponsor.

Vesper's motto could stand for many eatery/venues in Philadelphia: "Dine Drink Dance."

"We're all-inclusive," says Israel. "We don't want you to leave, so we feature music that makes you smile but allows for conversation."

For summer, Atlantic City's Borgata Casino opens its outdoor Festival Park in June. North Broad Street awaits chef-owner-drummer John Mims' Treme for live New Orleans-based music and food on the ground floor of Eric Blumenfeld's Studebaker Building. The country venue Tin Roof will no longer be at 15th and Sansom Streets - owners didn't dig Philly's laborious licensing process - but rumor has it that a Nashville-style music venue may open in the same complex that holds the Fillmore and the Foundry.

For the moment, the tide is at the full, but there have been recent ebbs. In 2010, the Khyber dropped main room live music to become the craft beer-oriented Khyber Pass Pub. South Street's legendary punk-rock venue Tritone closed in 2011; it was sold and became the Cambridge restaurant. That same year, Ortlieb's Jazzhaus shifted its emphasis from jazz to comedy and a smaller schedule of bands.

What went wrong then?

"With Tritone, the gentrifying neighborhood no longer was hospitable to live, loud, rock," says Sara Sherr, a booking agent for Tritone who also placed shows at the Khyber. "There, the character of the neighborhood changed. Bros and bro-ettes weren't interested in the type of music Khyber booked," she says. Gordon believes that Khyber's change of direction came down to real estate development. Other neighborhoods with younger audiences - such as Fishtown - were more amenable to music venues. "Why risk money with live programming," Gordon says, "when you're better off selling food?"

What is going on right now?

"This city's growth - status, population - warrants all this," Gordon says.

"Having live music is a crapshoot, wondering who's going to show," says Bee. "Then again, so is opening a restaurant. Might as well have some fun."