House concerts in your areas?

[hammer]

Over the past two years I've hosted several house concerts at my place primarily for bluegrass groups from the Czech Republic.  They've been great experiences with both the Malina Brothers and Druha Trava playing 2-sets in my front yard in from to 75-100 concert-goers.  Last night I attended my first house concert (outside of my own) in St. Paul, MN with the local alt.-folk group,  The Pines, playing.  Five hundred (500) people showed up (including the mayor) to a wonderful venue smack dab within the middle of a city neighborhood with each attendee donating $10.  All proceeds go to the band with a couple of local sponsors picking up the costs of holding the concert for the home owners so it was a nice evening for the group.  Attendance was so large that we were spread out over the backyards of three different homes.  You might wonder what the neighbors would think but this was really a community event with everyone in the immediate vicinity pitching in.  A great night, great, music, great people, and a wonderful (though jam-packed) venue that calls itself the Grand Oak Opry after the massive oak tree that concert goers sit under.


I'm wondering whether this is something unique to the Midwest or if, as is often the case, events like these have been taking place on the east and west coasts for years and just reaching the Midwest.

[lbpesq]

We put on a party/concert/benefit each year on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend.  We have three or four bands play, put out food and drink, and get about 100-150 people over the course of the day/early evening.  We don't really have any neighbors, and we have a hill that's sort of a small natural amphitheater, and we can make as much noise as we want.  All the bands play for free.  Proceeds from donations and an auction go to expenses and the rest to California NORML (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws).

If anyone around here wants to come, send me an email and I'll send an invite.  Wolf/Sonicus is playing with me and some other musicians doing a Dead set, and Harry/Hieronymous' band is playing.

Bill, tgo

[keith_h]

My neighborhood doesn't do anything like that. The Durham neighborhood of a guitar player who I use to backup has an annual block party that covers a 4-5 block square area. We would play each year along with Will McFarlane who also lives in the neighborhood. I addition to us a number of the people that lived there played instruments in college and would play sets as well. It was fun as you had everything from the alt-rock/country we played to Will's blues along with some jazz and acoustic folk. Then there was the free food and drink. You can't go wrong with that.   

[edwardofhuncote]

The House Concerts I've played or attended around here are much smaller scale... 30-50 people, max. There's a fairly healthy community for that type of venue in nearby Blacksburg, Virginia. (Virginia Tech Campus is there...)

I do enjoy playing them. I think the more intimate setting forces you to connect with the audience more so than a bigger stage does. 

[rv_bass]

We have a thing called Porch Fest around here.  People make their porches available for bands to set up and play.  It's an all day event with bands playing on porches all over town.  People just wander through neighborhoods and get to hear all kinds of music for free.  It's a fun day.

[David Houck]

The house concert phenomena has been going on, and growing, for a number of years.  Some artists prefer these over other venues.  As Gregory indicated, they are usually small scale, maybe 20 to 30 people in someone's living room.  Last year I read through a website where artists and hosts could connect and book events; and a few years ago I read through another site that an artist put together describing how she books herself, touring the country almost exclusively via house concerts.

Alembic artist Trip Wamsley does solo house concerts, and Michael Manring does as well.  I've seen videos of both on youtube performing at house concerts.

I have thought that if I were to play out again it would be via house concerts.  As Gregory said, they are a more intimate connection between artist and audience; and I don't really want to play bars or restaurants again.

[gearhed289]

There's a guy here in Chicago that's been doing this with progressive rock bands from around the world (he also has a web site - progrock.com - that streams progressive music, old and new). Very small house parties with the bands playing in his basement. I attended one a couple months back with some Aussies - members from Southern Empire and Unitopia. It was a really cool experience. I could not attend the last one which reunited members of Mars Hollow, now called Life After Mars. I'm looking forward to more of these.

[pauldo]

I invited the Tedeschi Trucks Band (via Instagram  ) to come play at our farm.... still waiting for their response.