ADIEU

Sigh, another local coffeehouse venue for acoustic-type music, Daily Perks in Rochester, is closing, its lease expiring at the end of the month. This follows the end of the Blue Dahlia in Canandaigua earlier this year and the Chocolate Bar (which was also a top-notch candy store) on Conesus Lake last year (not to be confused with the Rochester fondue emporium of the same name.

I always feel a little guilty when I hear of such a venue's departure because, while I have enjoyed and appreciated it, my schedule and general lifestuff prevented me from getting there often and supporting it -- I think it's been at least a year, maybe two since I'd been to Perks. (I think it was to hear Chuck Abell.) Sigh. I know at least one person on my f-list, omnamahshivaya, has been a near-regular, though.

I've always liked the relaxed coffeehouse atmosphere as a venue for live music. The archetype for me has always been Common Grounds in Bath, N.Y., a weekend coffeehouse an acquaintance operated in a space adjacent to his home where he used to run a farm market. It more or less grew out of weekend get-togethers he would have with three or four musician friends. Larry ran it for a number of years and brought in everybody from local folkies to African dance/chant troupes to a glass harmonicist. It's where I first heard Lisa Bigwood, Bill Brown, Todd Stratton, Becky Reyes, the Seneca Moon String Band and many others. The coffee was pretty much bottomless, and Larry now and then would make gigantic, homemade deep-dish vegetarian pizzas, each one with a generous amount of garlic gloves. Larry eventually closed it in the mid-1990s, but it remains the standard by which I measure all coffeehouses. (Though that's really not a fair comparison, as Common Grounds wasn't a business and didn't have to turn a profit to survive.)

I'll try to get out to the Perks once or twice this month, if only to send it off.

Words: The Everlasting Man (G.K. Chesterton)
Sounds & Images: "Point Blank" (Bruce Springsteen)
State O'Mind: Unsure