The sound of B-town

In a college town with one of the top music schools in the nation, there is bound to be local music talent. Throw in a variety of bars and live music venues, and almost every day of the week offers an opportunity to catch a listen.

Inside talked to the owners of four live music venues around town to see if there are any unifying characteristics of the bands and performers making music in town. Is Bloomington a bluegrass town? Is it an indie rock town? Maybe a hip hop town?

It turns out it’s more of an everything town. But from what we gathered, each venue manages to offer its own unique assortment of “everything.”

The Bluebird Nightclub
216 N. Walnut St.

Type of music:
“A huge variety,” says owner Dave Kubiak. “That’s probably the most unique thing about it.”

The Bloomington scene:
“Because of the music school, there is a uniqueness to play different types of music because the students are a little more cultured and have a broader scope of what to play,” Kubiak says. “You get a lot of students down here who are musically inclined.”

The Bluebird scene:
“It’s really a hybrid of different things.” Kubiak says. “Most clubs try to stick to one type of music, and largely because of the size of the Bluebird, it’s a more unique place in that we have to keep it entertaining.”  


Max’s Place
109 W. Seventh St.

Type of music:
“Basically anything that’s off the beaten path,” says owner Travers Marks. “We don’t really go for big cover bands. We like classic rock, but we don’t usually book it. We don’t like top 40, but bluegrass, reggae, blues, jazz, any weird combination thereof, singer-songwriters, that’s Max’s Place.”

The Bloomington scene:
“It’s a breeding ground,” Marks says. “It’s a place where you are not likely too make much money playing, but you’re going to be able to find the people you need to start the band you always dreamed of.”

The Max’s Place scene:
Marks says two simple words sum up the restaurant’s niche within the Bloomington music scene: Hirsute (meaning shaggy) and liberal.  


Rachael’s Café
300 E. Third St.

Type of music:
Cafe owner Rachael Jones said the restaurant has had every genre of music except country. Jones says people looking to soak up music at Rachael’s can expect to hear punk, folk, Irish, hip-hop, as well as plenty of local independent acts.

The Bloomington scene:
“I feel blessed with how many places there are to go,” Jones says.

Jones also says the Jacobs School of Music has a positive influence on the talent and musical diversity of many of the bands that play in Bloomington — especially when the bands are made up of students.

The Rachael’s Café scene:
“We are so many different things,” Jones says. “We are a coffee shop in the daytime and a music venue at night. We also are not limited to people 21 and over. Any age can come. In fact, we had a women’s music night recently, and there was a girl playing that was younger than 10.”  

 
The Bishop
123 S. Walnut St.

Type of music:
“We’re not too genre specific,” says owner Stephen Westrich. “(We have had) everything from rock bands, indie rock bands, alt-country, hip-hop. But if we lean towards one thing it’s an indie rock environment, I guess.”

The Bloomington scene:
“I guess I would say that we’re lucky to have an abnormally productive music scene,” Westrich says. “I grew up in a town the same size of Bloomington, and there was nothing going on. It’s unusual the amount of quality coming out of here.”

The Bishop scene:
“In terms of places that regularly do live music, we only do original music,” Westrich says. “We definitely embrace local bands like nobody else does and we really solely concentrate on original music. We’ve turned down things we know would bring us 200 people, but we don’t do them. There’s an audience for those kinds of things, but we brand ourselves as something different.”