July 15th, 2021. Joel Pomerantz.

(above : Joel Pomerantz performing at my Capital City Cheesecake open mic in Takoma Park, MD in February of 2013)

Joel Pomerantz died Thursday morning. He’d had a stroke about a week ago and had been unresponsive ever since. He was transported up to Baltimore, his sister had time to get there… friends performed songs for him over Zoom to say farewell. I’m grateful he had an easy passage, as he did NOT have an easy Life.

Joel was a weird guy. I met him as a performer in the early 2000s at the long gone Year of the Rabbit Cafe in Bowie, MD and I remember his song “Bowling” quite clearly. Performed a capella, strident and strange – you were never sure how serious the song was until you got to the line about the shoes. In October of 2005 I wrote a Journal entry in which I reference that night’s show as being “almost our first [house concert] – we’ve played one for Joel Pomerantz with Syl Smith before”. I have no memory of what I might be referring to.

He was a strange patron deity of the punk rock, DIY side of the local music scene. A regular at Folk Alliance, NERFA, and SAW (Songwriters Association of Washington), any music-related organization soon grew used to his constant interest. He was frustrating and erratic but he kept the Electric Maid, a small donation-based venue space on the border of Takoma Park, MD and Washington, DC open by sheer force of will and he was a very rare thing : a booker, promoter and supporter of local music that was NOT a gatekeeper. He didn’t flirt, he didn’t trade favours, he wasn’t political, and he certainly wasn’t in it for the money. He just Loved music. He was connected and knowledgeable about music and musicians, and he was a Believer. Also – one of the few people who could respond intelligently about the weirder, bad scifi shows I Love.

It’s EASY to be beloved of the music community if you’ve got money for a nice hotel room at NERFA. It’s easy to get the connections and the network if you’ve got the Look or the credit line, the lineage or the charisma. Joel truly had NONE of those things – but he persevered and supported all the same.

As a community builder and open mic host, I’m often contacted for easy-to-book shows on weird nights of the week… and often the people contacting me don’t have a lot of experience. Some of them are just kids. Joel was one of the few people I KNEW I could forward them to – “he’s weird, but he won’t screw you over” was my usual line.

Whether music or low-budget science fiction, he at least always knew what I was talking about, and never tried to take advantage of me or mine. BOTH of those things are rarities in this world, and he’ll be missed.

Joel would pop into my open mics without warning, was at all the community meetings, was a fan of ilyAIMY and helped us out with the Electric Maid so we would had a space entirely under our artistic control for our 9th year anniversary show. He was difficult, but despite that he was kind. I half-expected to hear that the Maid had just faded into the brickwork this morning, vanishing with the last vestiges of Joel’s soul – maybe the PA system would be left over, or the mural on the wall… settling into the dust.

Not quite yet.

I hear that with its defender gone, it’ll be gone soon too. It’ll be the end of the one place where high school punk bands, area drum jams, Steve Key’s singer/songwriter birthday parties, rob’s one-and-only guitar master class and an acoustic grunge band could all strut their stuff LOUD in Takoma Park.

Give Joel a ride to the divine music hall, guest him in. See if there’s an extra meal in the green room. No matter who you were, he was a friend to the band.