Walk through the hallway in the back of Union Pizzeria and you won’t hit the kitchens or the bathrooms — you’ll find Evanston’s newest live music venue.
Brick walls, soft lighting and, on a recent night, the faint smell of incense, create a swanky atmosphere in the 3,000-square-foot room, which seats anywhere from 150 to 250 people. Located at 1245 Chicago Ave., in what was once home to a car dealership, clothing store and rug purveyor, it also includes a professional recording studio.
The Society for the Preservation of Arts and Culture in Evanston, or SPACE, is a collaboration among four local Chicagoans: Craig Golden, the owner of the Lakeshore Theater; Stuart Rosenberg, a former NPR host; Dave Specter, a Chicago blues musician; and Steven Schwartz, the man behind Campagnola and Union Pizzeria. The venue showcases a variety of entertainment, from music and theater to discussion groups and hoedowns.
SPACE opened in April, but this quarter is the first that Northwestern students will be able to take full advantage of the new venue. “It’s convenient,” Music freshman Gaby Hornig said. “I like how it’s really open and easy to see the stage.”
Jake Samuels, SPACE’s general manager, hopes to build an Evanston scene with one or two college-oriented shows each week. When most students left last summer, “a huge chunk of music lovers in Evanston disappeared,” he said. Since the quarter started, SPACE has been working on capturing the Northwestern audience through street teams, free t-shirts, student interns and, of course, Facebook.
A recent University of Indiana graduate, Samuels grew up in Evanston. He found Bloomington to be an entirely different scene, with five or six venues for live music. “We can’t bring everyone to Evanston, but we want to make it so kids don’t always have to go downtown to shows,” he said.
Samuels also hopes to create a dialogue with students by featuring Northwestern performers. So far, Northwestern artists such as Sars Flannery, Kelsey Wild and Janelle Kroll have played on SPACE’s stage. The most successful shows, Samuels says, are those featuring both a band that draws students and an act that appeals to Evanston residents, such as last month’s Theresa Andersson and the Northwoods show, which won the club its first standing ovation.
Joshua Moshier, a 2008 Northwestern grad, has performed twice at the venue with his 11-piece jazz group, One Louder. A jazz pianist and composer, Moshier says it’s easiest to draw a crowd at places like Café Ambrosia or on campus. “I’m totally behind it,” he said. “It’s great to have a venue that treats the music at a high level and preserves the nightclub atmosphere.” But, he said, it doesn’t matter if there’s a new venue if people don’t support it. In his experience, it’s hard to get students off campus. “Dempster might as well be on the moon” to some students, he said. “But if it’s really a drag, you can take the El.”
Attendance fluctuates depending on the artist and the day of the week. Kelsey Wild and Matt Duke drew a crowd of about a hundred, while a recent rainy Friday with The Alternate Routes brought about 35 attendees. “It’s really cool, and a great performance opportunity for Northwestern students, but it needs to be better advertised,” said Kate Kirschner, a Music sophomore who came to see opener Peter Terry last Friday.
A former intern and two-time performer, Peter Terry has known about SPACE since it first opened, when he and a group of friends got an impromptu tour with one of the owners. He loves SPACE because it’s a chance to see “somebody who will be famous in three years” like Angel Taylor, who recently signed with Aware Records, John Mayer’s label. He envisions SPACE becoming a hang-out like Villapianos, the pizza joint in That Thing You Do.
Terry says, “If people come one time, they’ll come back.”