Burgers at The Replay, laundry at The Jazzhaus

By Jake Lerman

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Shows this Friday:

The Replay à Broken Spindles / Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk / Pharmacy Spirits

The Jackpot à Crocodiles / Bandit Teeth / Big City Livin'

The Jazzhaus à Hearts of Darkness

The Bottleneck à Big Smith

Lawrence is known to have one of the best music scenes in the Midwest. It's hosted countless big name acts and produced several nationally successful bands. What people forget is that none of this is possible without the venues that give these bands a place to play. The Jazzhaus, The Replay, The Jackpot and The Bottleneck have all proved to be fundamental players in our town's musical community. That’s not to say the venues omitted from this article aren’t important. But the interplay between these four have helped shape Lawrence’s music scene for decades. Here's some more information about their history to help you get to know your local venues.

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Photo by Jake Lerman

Former haus of laundry, current haus of jazz: The Jazzhaus, 926 ½ Massachusetts St., once housed a laundromat — despite its steep staircase.

The Jazzhaus - 926 ½ Massachusetts St.

There’s one question you can expect to hear out of anyone their first time at The Jazzhaus, “Why aren’t they playing any jazz?" Despite its namesake, the often-overlooked genre is scarcely heard at this long-established downtown venue.

In fact, the closest thing you’ll get to jazz here are the silhouetted cut-outs of horn-playing musicians that are forever frozen in the venues’ windowpanes. There was a time though when sounds of Bebop, cool and hot jazz alike could be heard bellowing down the steep creaking stairs of The Jazzhaus. Before Rick McNealy and Michael Donovan bought it in 1982, the venue was called Paul Grey’s Jazzhaus and catered specifically to jazz music. Strangely enough, up until 1978 when Paul Grey stepped in, the location housed a laundromat.

But if you thought the idea of a laundromat existing up such a steep set of stairs is bizarre, just wait. Over the years employees have had repeated encounters with “The Jazzhaus Ghost,” who's said to emerge when the bar is empty and only a few employees remain. She always appears in a nightgown near the back of the bar, and has been known to open and slam the bathroom doors. Night manager Brett Pitner says when he first caught a glimpse of her he was out the door within seconds. There have also been many occurrences of strange blurs appearing in bar-goers' pictures when taken near the bathrooms.

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Photo by Jake Lerman

Re-play here: The Replay, 946 Massachusetts St., serves as a launching pad for many up-and-coming bands.

The Replay Lounge - 946 Massachusetts St.

The Replay, as it’s commonly known, came to be when two longstanding Lawrence venues went under in the mid-1980s. The Crossing and The Outhouse, which were standard touring spots for local bands, both went out of business, leaving a massive void in the Lawrence music scene. The Replay was in fact never meant to be a music venue at all, its roots lie in low-key dining. Originally opened as an arcade and burger joint, The Replay evolved when the opportunity to fill the gap left by the venue closings emerged. Owner Nick Carrol jumped at the opportunity and today all that’s left of the old Replay are the few archaic pinball machines, dusty remnants of a bygone era. Since the changeover, The Replay has served a crucial role in the Lawrence music scene. Its smaller stage and basic sound equipment make it a perfect place for “start-up-bands” to get their feet wet. As the bands continue to play and build their fanbases they move on to some of the bigger venues in town. This makes The Replay the place to hear the newest of Lawrence’s up-and-coming musicians.

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Photo by Jake Lerman

Jackpot bonus: The owner of The Jackpot Music Hall and The Replay says The Replay serves as a stepping stone to The Jackpot, which has a better, bigger sound system for bigger acts.

The Jackpot Music Hall - 943 Massachusetts St.

The Jackpot is owned by Nick Carrol, the same man who owns The Replay. He started The Jackpot after the building's previous inhabitant “Coco Loco” went out of business. His hope was to revive a tradition of a Lawrence venue that plays original live music seven nights a week, but Carrol also had something bigger in mind. From the beginning he set out with the intention of helping local bands make $1,000 in a night. This isn’t something that can happen at The Replay with their standard of $2 to $3 cover charges. However with The Jackpot, Carrol invested in a more sophisticated sound system allowing for bigger acts and bigger covers. The extra money helps local bands earn enough cash to go out on tour, thus helping the local music scene gain notoriety.

Oddly, The Jazzhaus isn’t the only venue on Mass. Street that has ghost stories to tell. Carrol remembers going into the venue alone one morning and hearing a woman singing. Assuming it was coming from outside, he ignored it. But when he heard footsteps on the floor right behind him he thought twice. He turned to see no one, but moments later he heard the upright piano at the far end of the bar being played and ran out. These strange occurrences have done little to deter people from frequenting The Jackpot as it’s typical to see hoards of patrons spilling out of the doors onto their new street-side patio.

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Photo by Jake Lerman

Open up to drink it all down: The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., got its start after a bar called Cockburns failed to survive after the drinking age increased to 21.

The Bottleneck -- 737 New Hampshire St.

The legacy that Nick Carrol was trying to preserve when he opened The Jackpot began with Brett Mosiman and Mona Tipton 24 years ago. Mosiman and Tipton were both recent graduates with passions for music. At the time the national drinking age had recently been bumped up to 21 and many of the bars that attracted the younger crowds were being forced out of business. One of those bars was Cockburns, a former fraternity bar, Mosiman says. When they bought it and made it into a live music club, they changed the name to The Bottleneck after the glass slides some musicians would use on their guitars. At the time Lawrence had lost a lot of its music venues and The Bottleneck was a key player over the next five years in reviving the music scene. Over time it gained a reputation as the place to play in the Midwest and made Lawrence a critical stopping point for touring bands. From day one, the venue’s had the philosophy of playing quality music of all stripes and still hosts a diverse calendar.

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