Russian Recording

Russian Recording owner Mike Bridavsky is well aware his concert venue is difficult to find.

That’s likely because it was never supposed to be a concert venue at all.

“If I never had another show, I really wouldn’t mind,” Bridavsky said. “It’s a recording studio. My main thing is making albums.”

The studio-turned-venue at 1021 S. Walnut St. is a converted house, wholly unremarkable from the outside and easy to drive right by. This is all intentional on Bridavsky’s part.

“I do like that, from the outside, you can’t tell what it is. That’s on purpose as a recording studio,” he said. “People say, ‘Why don’t you get a sign?’ I don’t need a sign. All my business is word-of-mouth.”

The practicality of staying low-key as a recording studio has translated into
Russian Recording becoming an alluring, mysterious fixture in the Bloomington scene. The excellent sound that comes as a natural result of the venue being a recording space has attracted a devoted cult of concert-goers.

“It’s like a really nice house or basement venue or DIY space, and I do appreciate that about it,” Bridavsky said.

It was something of a miracle of happenstance that Russian Recording began to put on shows at all.

“The Second Story and the Cinemat closed. They both used to have shows, and there was no place to have shows,” Bridavsky said. “So we built a stage and I invested in a PA system, and we had a few shows in that interim period before the Bishop opened up. They went really well, and Dan (Coleman, Spirit of ’68 Promotions) liked having them here, so the tradition continued.”

A wide range of acts from every genre imaginable has graced the stage Bridavsky built since that post-Cinemat-and-Second-Story, pre-Bishop period.

Bridavsky said folk and acoustic acts work best in the studio space, but a number of high-profile bands from louder genres have recently come to Russian Recording as well.

Last year saw performances by lo-fi singer-songwriter Kurt Vile, black metal rabble-rousers Liturgy, indie trio Nurses and one-man drone act Thrones — as well as comedian Sarah Silverman.

The opening of The Bishop has helped fill the void that originally created a need for Russian Recording’s live shows, but it still attracts certain kinds of them.

“I really like having record release shows, especially ones that have been recorded here,” Bridavsky said. “Or if a band wants to play specifically to be recorded, since we record all the shows here, we’ll have some of that.”

The overall quantity of gigs at Russian Recording has also increased, and despite Bridavsky’s insistence that it doesn’t matter whether the venue ever has another show, he likes the trend.

“Honestly, we’ve been getting more and more shows rather than less, and I’m fine with that, too,” Bridavsky said before offering some possible understatement.
“I like having shows.”