A look inside the Mission’s brand new Preservation Hall West, opening 10/4/2012
September 24, 2012
Written by Kyle Fortinsky
Midway through leading a spirited tour of the Mission’s brand new Preservation Hall West at The Chapel, located at 777 Valencia St. and set to open October 4th, renovator/developer/overall man in charge Jack Knowles paused and glanced at the floor, short of words for the first time that day. His eyes then shifted up to the beautiful arched ceiling of the building’s main room and simply said “I just…I believe in live music, and I believe in the Mission.” Poignant words for a guy who is filled with entertaining one-liners and speaks quickly, but also the perfect anecdote from someone who’s about to open a premier concert venue in the heart of San Francisco.
The idea spawned a few years ago during a visit from Knowles’ longtime friend Ben Jaffe. Jaffe is the Creative Director for New Orleans’ iconic and historical Preservation Hall, and the son of its original co-founders Allan and Sandra Jaffe. As Knowles is wont to do, he took Jaffe to his favorite San Francisco neighborhood. “Any friend who visits me here, I take them right to the Mission. What the Haight and North Beach once were to the city’s cultural history, I believe the Mission is that of today.” While Knowles waxed about the new vibrancy Valencia St. had seen recently, they passed 777 and Jaffe was immediately taken by the old building. That instant, Knowles says, “Ben goes, ‘I want this to be Preservation Hall West!’” By that point Jaffe’s idea of opening a second Preservation Hall had taken to him across America, but he’d yet to pull the trigger on a location. San Francisco won.
The site of Preservation Hall West is a 1914 building originally constructed as a mortuary. When you walk in, your first stop will be the small foyer where standard admittance procedures (ID check, box office) take place. From there you have two options: take a left into a mid-sized dining area complete with a full, wrap around bar, or go straight through to the concert floor and stand amid what will surely become the Hall’s trademark, 40-foot ceiling. From here you can walk upstairs to an elevated viewing area with an additional bar. This section will quickly become the most sought after positioning and, as Knowles explains, was not built with VIP-ers in mind. “Truthfully, I think a lot of VIP areas are kind of boring. I’m not a big fan of separating fans of music, so this area is as open to you as it is to me.”
(((folkYEAH!)))‘s own Britt Govea has been brought on as the Hall’s talent buyer, a perfect hire in our minds, and it’s exciting to think of the constant eclectic schedule we’ll be presented with. Knowles has also thought a lot about who will play inside those walls. “It’s important to maintain the Preservation Hall spirit of jazz, New Orleans,” he says. “But I want all kinds of music in here, and collaboration too. Play your show, maybe sit in on the next set. We’ll have a piano by the bar, maybe someone will finish their show and then sit down and play the piano.”
Owning two notable Oakland resturants, A Cote and Rumbo al Sur, Knowles is also heavily focused on the Hall’s dining aspect. When the doors open in less than two weeks, The Chapel restaurant will be serving light bar fare, with a full opening Knowles says is targeted for “hopefully next June.” The restaurant will also feature an outdoor seating area and take up a large portion of the 777 Valencia building. Until then, it will remain partitioned off from the music hall and initial dining space.
The Mission getting a top flight concert venue is inarguably an amazing addition to an already red hot neighborhood. What makes the whole venture even easier to root for is Knowles’ child-like excitement surrounding the venue’s accessibility not only for the fans, but also the musicians. “I see this as a place where musicians can come play, walk outside and immediately have all this,” he says pointing up and down Valencia. “I want them to experience the Mission. Right now, if they play one night in San Francisco, they might not have time to come down here and explore.” Knowles also likes the idea of keeping musicians here for an extended period of time. “We want to have residencies here. Musicians can play multiple nights, they can stay in the Mission…we want them to be proud of this place.” Further exemplifying this stance, as he treated those in attendance to a champagne toast, Knowles raised his glass and, doing that same pause he did in the main room, said “Thanks for coming, and now we’ll toast to the San Francisco music scene.”
Preservation Hall West at The Chapel opens October 4, 2012 with a full weekend of music in conjunction with the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. There are also two other confirmed shows for October, and you can check out the complete schedule below.
Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Robert Earl Keen
Preservation Hall West at The Chapel
October 4, 2012
9:00pm, $30
Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Steve Earle, Allison Moorer
Preservation Hall West at The Chapel
October 5, 2012
9:00pm, $30
Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Elvis Costello, Jim Lauderdale
Preservation Hall West at The Chapel
October 6, 202
7:30pm and 10:30pm, $150
Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Justin Townes Earle, Amanda Shaw and the Cute Guys
Preservation Hall West at The Chapel
October 7, 2012
8:00pm, $30
Woods, White Fence, Magic Trick
Preservation Hall West at The Chapel
October 17, 2012
9:00pm, $15
Here We Go Magic
Preservation Hall West at The Chapel
October 27, 2012
9:00pm, $18
The booking policy sucks, indie rock, boo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jazz, Jazz and african diaspora. Bunch of boring, no jazz and people who know nothing about rhthym!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jazz is a gumbo of all types of music & constantly evolving through the influences of popular music
plenty of jazz did happen once upon a time in those halls when it housed New College of California…. (also many many poetry readings, hundreds of well known and respected poets, from Beats like Gregory Corso to Alice Notley (now published by Penguin) and various up-and-coming young(ish) poets now with books out and often teaching who were once enrolled in Poetics there studying with Tom Clark, David Meltzer, Lynn Hejinian, Gloria Frym…
Weird how investors with so much supposed passion for ‘Preservation’ could neglect to mention those poets, isn’t it P. Dunagan? Perhaps they know very little about the true past of the place and western city, and instead choose to line their pockets with $150 Elvis Costello tickets and some glib feeling of having rescued some thing. They might do better to call it ‘Cultural Erasure Hall’.
Um, Kyle, have you looked at the (((folkYEAH!))) schedule of shows? Eclectic, I would argue, it is not. No Jazz, no music, in fact, that does not fall under the (overly broad, granted) umbrella that is “indie rock”.
What in the world is happening to San Francisco?!
There are Hip-Hop, Salsa, Afrobeat, Balkan any innumerable other types of music in the world, much of it would be great in this new room.
Oh well.