Columbia Holiday Soirée: What to expect

What: Columbia Holiday Soirée: A Mad Men Era Vintage Costume Ball
When: Saturday, December 16th. Doors at 7:00 p.m., show at 8:00 p.m.
Where: The Blue Note
Tickets: $20 General Admission | Ages 21+
Featuring: Amalgamation Jazz Orchestra and DJ Jen Ha playing ’60s era hits!

Word on 9th Street is that the holidays are here, so it’s time to celebrate! At The Blue Note, we do it big. We roll out the red carpet, pour lavish cocktails, strike up the jazz band, serve exquisite hors d’oeuvres, decorate for Christmas, lay the white linen tablecloths and dress to the vintage nines so that we may strike a pose at the photobooth.

We swing, we shimmy, and get down to vintage hits that never went out of style.
I guess you could say we’re the cat’s meow.

 

Our annual event was originally inspired by the style and sophistication of the ’60s and the AMC television series, Mad Men. Although the show and era have ended, this spirit lives on through the hottest vintage holiday soirée in Columbia.

This year, we’ve even teamed up with Candy Cane Crib to ensure The Blue Note is the merriest and brightest building on 9th Street.

We want you and your in-crowd to join us for a night to remember. Invite your friends, freshen up on your dance moves and get ready! Not sure what to wear? Stop by Muse Clothing. They’re prepared to help you dress to impress. We’ll also have a coat check ready upon your arrival.

To get you in the holiday soirée spirit, here’s our playlist:

To recap, we made a Holiday Soirée List
(and checked it twice!) :
Red Carpet ✅ Jazz Band ✅ Fancy Cocktails ✅
Photobooth ✅ Christmas Lights and Decorations ✅
Vintage Hits spun by DJ Jen Ha ✅ Hors D’oeuvres ✅
White Tablecloths ✅ Coat Check ✅ Vintage Style ✅
A Dazzling Holiday Party to Remember ✅ ✅ ✅ YOU⁉️

Be fashionably early. Get your tickets here.
Let your posse know you’ll be there. RSVP here.

P.S. Need to learn some slick dance moves? All the kids are doing ’em.

The Last Waltz: A Thanksgiving Tradition

THIS FILM SHOULD BE PLAYED LOUD!

On November 25, 1976, an audience of 5,000 packed in to Winterland Ballroom — an ice skating rink that also served as a concert venue — to watch The Band perform for one last time.

It was an extravagant event. The audience was served a Thanksgiving dinner with live music, ballroom dancing and readings from various poets under the lavish lights of the chandeliers in the hall.

But the true beauty of the event was the fact that a group of people that certainly had their differences managed to work through them and come together to deliver a night of celebration.

It was dysfunctional, but human.

And isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about? Even though you may not enjoy your uncle’s company sitting next to you at the dinner table — whether he’s discussing his political views or refuses to put down the bottle of Jack — he’s still family and you recognize that both of you are there for one common purpose.

The Last Waltz gave viewers a glimpse at these unstable relationships but showed that the musicians forgot about all of that bad blood before coming on stage and giving it all they had.

From Van Morrison’s high kicks in his tight maroon suit to Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson trading a series of guitar licks during “Further On Up The Road”, what occurred on stage that night transcended any drama that occurred off of it.

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THE IDEA

On Friday night, The Blue Note will be presenting its second annual live recreation of the film with no detail spared.

Over the years, Blue Note local talent buyer Pat Kay frequently covered songs from the legendary concert in his various bands. But he craved more — a more complete production for a film that deserves to be seen and heard by all.

For years, Kay saved a place in The Blue Note’s booking calendar for the event — dreaming of a way to successfully pull off a worthy tribute for the historic night. But year after year, he was forced to remove the pin from the calendar — until last year.

Kay enlisted the help of former Columbia musician Sean Canan to play as The Band with his “Voodoo Players”. And slowly but surely, the parts began to assemble as Kay pieced together all the details from the film to eventually create his fantasy.

Between finding the chandeliers to mimic the original set and putting together a cast of local musicians to serve as the famous guests, Kay worked tirelessly to produce a quality product that even Richard Manuel would be proud of.

What was once just a pipe dream for Kay became a reality.

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THE SHOW

The design of the show allows for creativity and adaptation with a lighter focus on Robbie Robertson and instead more on the overall community that came together to honor the legacy of The Band’s career.

The set is structured very similarly to the original concert. The first part of the set will feature songs from The Band’s discography performed and backed by Sean Canan’s Voodoo Players and the The Funky Butt Horns. The second part of the evening will make room for the plethora of local musicians on hand to portray the iconic guests from the film. The guests were hand-picked by Kay to match the vocal styles and on-stage personalities of the artists they were chosen to portray.

Each performer left it all on the Winterland Ballroom stage 41 years ago. You can expect the same from this batch of artists on The Blue Note stage Friday night.

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Listen to last year’s recording here to get you ready for Friday’s show!

What we’re stoked for: Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

When: Thursday, June 29. Doors at 7:30 p.m., show at 8:30 p.m.
Where: The Blue Note
Tickets: $12 in advance | $15 day of show
Openers: The Flood Brothers

Black Joe Lewis playing at The Blue Note in 2010. Lewis discovered his love for the blues after learning to play guitar as a teenager.

The first time I heard of Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears was when a friend of mine put on “Booty City.” I listened for a minute and learned two things. 1) With the exception of two lines, the entire song is made up of Lewis singing the hook “Right on everybody, won’t you take me to Booty City.” 2) It was catchy and I liked it. I decided I could overlook the repetitiveness of the song, though I can’t listen to it on repeat, and I added a few of his hits to my playlist of the moment on Spotify.

The group’s sound is a contemporary take on blues, soul and funk. A Texas native, Lewis draws inspiration from the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Wilson Pickett and James Brown. Their most recent album, Backlash, returns to their contemporary take on soul and “punked-up” R&B. Lewis joined forces with Grammy Award-winning producer Stuart Sikes (The White Stripes, Cat Power, Modest Mouse) to record the album, revisited deep-seated influences. “I wanted to go for more of a soul/blues/rock-and-roll sound compared to the last one—the kind of stuff I was doing back in the day, but with the songwriting a little more evolved,” Lewis says.

Lewis says the album is about the ugly reality of “dealing with the backlash from the things you’ve done in the past.” The album is joyful, chaotic and full of Lewis’ high-energy screams. Given his track record and previous show at The Blue Note, it’s safe to say that his performance is sure to follow in the same path.