I have my own personal theories over how communities work, the cycles and evolutions they go through. One of them involves those small artsy communities within big cities… about how they’re usually a rundown section of town, perhaps with interesting houses or architecture or some other unique attribute which, in combination with cheap rents or low property values attracts the (usually low on the financial totem pole) artistic community. Slowly that artistic community grows until it kind of takes over and you have this wonderful oasis of music and murals and farmers’ markets. But then it becomes an attractive place to Live and the lawyers and yuppies and well-heeled souls start moving in. They like the ambiance and they like the quaintness of it all but they slowly raise those property values until the artistic community that attracted them to the place in the first place is priced right out – first to the periphery of the community and then right on out. Only the most successful of those artists and musicians can continue to pay those skyrocketing rents and so the flavour of the place changes swiftly until it’s re-imagined into one of those mass-produced main streets occupied by chain purveyors of artsiness, rather than the artists themselves.
I feel like Takoma Park has been struggling with that sort of decline for a couple of years now. For as long as I’ve known it. They still hold on to the artistic pretentions, but no longer seem to support the arts. There are no music venues, the art galleries are pushed off to side streets, the Subway sandwich place got rocks thrown through the windows because the locals didn’t want a chain invading their haven of uniqueness, but every bookstore has died out because of the close proximity of the Silver Spring Borders and a Barnes and Nobles none too far away… that kind of hypocrisy really, really bothers me, but sometimes people just need to be given a chance…
This past year has seen a couple of big changes in the local music scene, both somewhat spearheaded by Dave Eisner. He’s the owner of House of Musical Traditions, he’s on the board of and one of the founding members of Institute of Musical Traditions, and has been a real mover and shaker in – or at least a true proponent of – the DC-area folk scene for decades. However, despite the shop’s location in Takoma Park, I feel that every effort to start an actual concert series IN the town has kind of flopped. However, this past year’s Voices of Takoma series in the new arts space in the community centre (sound devised, installed and often run by Dave) has seen incredible success and last night, Dave and I started a new open mic on the main street in Takoma Park and the first one, at least, has met with wild success.
Despite the hottest day of the year (100 degrees +), despite it being Memorial Day (I was worried everyone would still be stuck in traffic on the way back from the beach), despite my backordered Mackie (I ended up rolling with Heather’s little Behringers because my second Thump is still somewhere overseas) and despite the venue’s air conditioning dying (the whole open mic took place in sweat-dripping, sauna-like conditions with the owner hovering near the ceiling, tinkering with the AC unit installed in the roof all to no avail) – the house was packed, the list was filled and Takoma Park came out in droves to support the night.
I have my reservations. The first week’s ALWAYS good. We’ll see what happens NEXT week. But hopefully we’re up and running, off and rolling, and have a wild success on our hands. There hasn’t been an open mic in town for about a decade, and my memories of the previous one, though foggy, aren’t very shiny. Most people in town are all growed up and have kids now, so a number of artists brought their own children with them – Joe Uhlein brought his daughter and though he’s a staple of the DC music scene, his daughter was new to it. She sang short songs about colours she liked and led the house in a sing-a-long version of “This Land Is Your Land (God Bless America)” to great applause. I personally liked the song about lemonade best. I think it’s the first time I’ve heard the word “slurp” placed to music.
I hope everyone comes back. I hope that Bruce gets the air-conditioning fixed. I hope I can find a better way of setting up so I can get in and out a little easier. I hope that Cooking With Gas comes back because they were awesome. I’m wondering if we shouldn’t start at 6.30 because everyone got there early and left us all just sort of standing around…
T’was a great night. Absolutely exhausting for me, but well worth it. The next morning,
DC again is baking and the thermometers should again top 100 degrees. The whole city will either be out and panting or hiding beside their air conditioners. I personally vote for the latter and hope I’ll be allowed to do so.
Rinse and repeat.
And speaking of home-made instruments: Shawn built this washtub bass. A table leg forms the bottom peg and the neck is a solid piece of maple and the body is… yup… a washtub. Not what people normally mean! Any guess what he covered? Steve Pollack finally shows off one of his cigar box instruments at my Takoma Park open mic. Above: you can see the headstock of his home-made mandolin and he’s playing his ukulele. He’s popped into HMT many times to measure instruments for his projects… it’s good to see they all function! Speaking of hipper than I – I couldn’t resist grabbing this guy’s photograph (I’ll hopefully dig up his name again) as he stood in an Everyday Gourmet sunbeam. The sun has been mostly our enemy, setting directly behind the stage and silhouetting every performer, making the audience squint and everyone sweat – but here it really does this guy justice. My second Everyday Gourmet open mic does as well as the first. Slightly smaller turnout but working air conditioning… and the owner has risked a smile! I worry about the third one… I’ll be in Kentucky!
