Once walking into the building, past the ticket windows and merchandise table, is the entrance to the venue itself. Upon entering the room, it’s hard not to stare in awe. With the bar built into the back wall, the area in front of it stretches to fit an impressive 3,200 people standing. With incredibly high ceilings, it also supports a balcony that holds an additional 300 people.

The entire room is always set up to impress. Sometimes with draping sheets and tables, while at other times with an unbelievable light show, the decor varies with the tastes of the performers. For instance, during a recent show by The Mars Volta, a brightly colored and intricately designed drape changed colors behind the band during its performance, with bright lights changing to fit the intense vibes of each song. The Roseland Ballroom perfectly matched the personality of this crazy and phenomenal band.

As if the stage and surrounding area isn’t enough to look at already, Roseland also has a downstairs area that adds a unique touch to the venue. With a space modeled with numbered ticket booths surrounding the entire room, one stand is open to check jackets, while others often go unused. There are also a few tables set up where people often sell small items, such as buttons.

Even the bathroom is impressive. Not only is there a bathroom when you enter, but there is an entire accompanying lounge room to the right of it. The lounge room has bright pink walls with black seats. Mirrors with individual side tables and lights line against the wall. The actual bathroom has dim lighting with burning incense candles. However, this is only speaking for the women’s restrooms. If you’re a guy, you’ll have to check the bathroom out and let me know if it matches up to the intensity of the women’s bath-and-lounge area.

What many don’t know about Roseland is that the venue was originally an ice skating rink. It was bought in 1956 and converted into a roller skating rink. When it was first opened as the Roseland Ballroom, the owner banned rock and roll and disco, trying to keep ballroom style dancing alive in the venue. In the 1980’s, the building was sold again and “disco nights” made the ballroom popular, but also gave it a bad reputation. After a teenager was shot and killed on the dance floor and suspects of a murder were found at the venue, the “disco nights” were discontinued and the ballroom began hosting more shows, eventually leading to the successful venue we know today.

The Roseland Ballroom has held many concerts, with some of the more recent including the 2009 MTVU Woodie Awards (11/18), The Mars Volta (10/8), Yo La Tengo (9/25), The Used (10/27), and AFI (11/13). The venue hosts not only music shows, but also sit-down dinners, theater shows, and dance parties. Other performances the ballroom has had recently are Disney’s Princess & The Frog Experience and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Fashion Show (11/25-12/13). So, next time you are in New York City, whether with your friends, parents, or baby cousin, make sure to check out the Roseland Ballroom, as it is sure to have something playing for you.

Roseland Ballroom
239 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019-5893
(212) 247-0200

To view a complete schedule of upcoming events, click here.

However, NoHo (I get to call it NoHo because I go to school in the next town over) has much more to offer than just lesbians. Dubbed as the #1 Best Small Arts Town in America by author John Villani in 2000, it’s pretty amazing what this non-metropolitan area has been able to provide to its community: a competitive scholarly environment, a flourishing art scene, cool consignment stores, coffee shops, top-notch restaurants, art-house theaters, and the opportunity to see some of the greatest acts in music today.

There are a handful of music venues that showcase smaller names in music only known to the locals at places like The Elevens (Celtic, folk rock) or the hard-to-find Basement (free jazz, lounge, blues).

Then there’s the other side of the scene, the side that brings in talents familiar to the masses. First, there’s Pearl Street, a two-stage venue, with one downstairs for smaller acts or electro dance parties, and the other (the “Ballroom”), fits more mainstream flair. I’ve been there a few times and have caught acts like Cat Power (I think she was slightly tipsy, but nevertheless gorgeous) and Stars, and others that I can’t recall at the moment, but you get the idea of what type of crowd Pearl Street attracts. It’s definitely the most alluring to the many college students in the area.

Next is the Iron Horse (pictured below), a music club situated on a small side street in downtown NoHo that’s easy to overlook, even when a show is going on. It’s a favorite to the older generation (30-something or 50-somethings) of the town because the shows are generally geared towards the coffeehouse crowd — those that usually sit pensive in old wooden chairs. This isn’t the case all the time though, but the two shows that I have caught (American Music Club, Girlyman) and the upcoming shows suggest the same. If you ever get the chance to see a show at the Iron Horse, try to get there early because you don’t want to be caught standing. Awkwardly placed pillars obstruct the stage just about everywhere and you will most likely spend the evening bobbing your head from left to right; not because you will be feeling the beat of the drummer, but because you’ll be constantly trying to get a decent view.

The granddaddy of all the concert venues in NoHo has to be The Calvin Theater, an ex-movie theater revamped into a grand music monument designed to hold a crowd much larger than one would expect by looking at its moderately sized, yet decadent entrance. The theater’s name is displayed in large, block white lettering on an oversized and protruding marquee during the day, but once dusk hits, bright blue bulbs illuminate the Calvin name.

The interior is just as posh as the exterior. As you first step into the theater’s lobby, you will instantly understand how important the theater has been to the town’s music scene over the years, attracting big names such as B.B. King, James Taylor, Lucinda Williams, and many more on the same playing field. Promo posters from the theater’s biggest shows of the past line the lobby’s walls and it’s startling to think that so many important artists came to such an overshadowed town.

What makes NoHo so special is that it’s so unlikely. With Boston just an hour and a half east and New York City three hours south, no one is to blame for the town’s elusiveness to the rest of the world. In lieu of this, the area that downtown NoHo is in happens to be polar opposite to the town’s busy and noisy atmosphere. It’s nestled in the rolling hills of the Holyoke Range in the Pioneer Valley — a fertile farmland and pastoral area that typically attracts tourists looking for outdoor adventure and a break from city life struggles. But if it’s music that you’re searching for and you happen to be in the Valley, NoHo won’t let you down.

Matt Krefting w/ Thurston Moore (Live @ The Calvin Theater)

The Calvin Theater
19 King St.
Northhampton, MA
Phone: 413.586.8686

Upcoming Events:
07/10 – Mix 93.1 welcomes John Tesh Live in Concert
07/17 - Aurelia’s Oratorio
07/18 - Aurelia’s Oratorio
07/31 - Billy Bragg, Mike and Ruthy (of The Mammals)
08/02 – The Avett Brothers

Starting in the late 70′s, approximately 1976 for those keeping tabs, the brewing of a new form of rock n’ roll began to take shape during New York City’s darkest time. Punk Rock, and its consequential sub-genres, would remain strictly underground during that time period, and like all of our most influential art, only gain notoriety long after its founders have passed.  One of these sub-genres that has recently come to light with its score of obvious grandchildren, which thanks to the Internet, have been making names for themselves.

Compared to the rest of musical history, No Wave was a blip on the radar screen. Starting in 1976, its staple bands were all but finished by 1980-82 (just in time for Hardcore to take the reins).  The term No Wave stemmed from a reaction to New Wave and was noted as a style of art that spanned several mediums focusing on minimalism and Dadaism (think: “this is art because I say it’s art”). For our purposes, it was an important punk-rock sub genre that put emphasis on texture rather than melody. Sound like anything you have heard lately? Noise, math, and industrial have the most to owe to these pioneering bands, but you can hear the echoes in almost anything indie you listen to today. As for the sound itself, it is hard to describe. It could be anything from over use of static in the undertones, to off the wall vocals. Spastic guitar and drum solos can also be found here drawing largely on jazz technique, but taken to the next level. It is music because the musicians say it is, making melody and tones from that which had not been considered before, expanding the front of what was and is possible.

I have been talking about these musicians as a whole now, but lets break them down and drop some names. The first of these contemporary acts to serve as direct descendants to the genre is Sonic Youth. Founding member Thurston Moore has sighted the Theoretical Girls as an influence for the band, which started back in 1981. Good timing. Others to be named here are Mars, Teenage Jesus and The Jerks, and DNA. This by no means is a complete list, as there were many more that came and went during that time period, a few of which actually featured Moore, too. What they all shared was the same confrontational attitude in their lyrics and avant-garde style that, for the most part, was ignored by the New York press, who were too involved in New Wave. It seemed to make punk rock a little bit more palatable for those who embraced it. Something even more interesting about this moment in rock history is that unlike their more brutal and blunt brethren, many of these bands were led by women. Lizzy Mercier Descloux and Lydia Lunch are great examples of such women. Rosa Yemen on the track “Rosa Vertov” is the perfect example of just how odd this music can get as she “sings” over high-pitched chirps and the genres signature sonic guitars.

Aside from Sonic Youth, you can hear the influences everywhere these days, from Liars to No Age, Animal Collective to the Foals. Speaking of the Foals and anything dance rock, check out James White and the Blacks. You may be surprised, especially when listening to that drum beat. I recommend the track “Contort Yourself.” The Pixies and Flaming Lips can also be sited as having been originally swept into this group as Post-No Wave acts. In an effort to gather the movement on to one sweeping compilation, Brian Eno, better known for his collaborations with David Byrne and the Talking Heads, put out No New York in 1978. The record features four bands, three of which I mentioned above, the fourth being James Chance and the Contortions. It also features a number of soloists at the forefront of the movement, often too involved in their own art to label it under their bands name.

At the time no one was paying attention to this indefinable style of music. Like all punk rock sub-genres they consisted of mostly like-minded artists interchanging bands and working together only to be ignored for that time period except by each other and their peers. They were all ahead of their time, and we can now look back and thank those responsible for making it cool to be experimental, and weird, pushing forward anything that resembled a formula.

Check Out:

No Wave, 1976-1980