Our friends at Creative Loafing launched their 2014 music issue this week. It’s billed as a comprehensive guide for music lovers. Along with listings, the Loafers focused on a handful of their favorite music spots – including my personal fave – the Side Door at the Palladium.
CL Editor David Warner, who has spent some time at our Side Door cabaret tables, wrote the piece. And what’s great about this feature is that I still think a lot of folks in Tampa Bay don’t know there’s a great listening room for jazz, blues, folk, comedy and more.
The Side Door lineup for summer kicks off Aug. 1 and runs on weekends through Aug. 29. Check our website for complete listings. Some highlights are the great ‘60s band Coo Coo Ca Choo, bluesman Selwyn Birchwood, acoustic guitar wizard Richard Gilewitz and many more.
For the entire story and the music issue you can click to the Creative Loafing site –and see a great shot of the jazz band La Lucha at work – or check out this excerpt:
The Music Issue 2014: The Palladium & Side Door Cabaret
St. Pete’s iconic and beautiful venue retains the flavor of legendary NYC jazz clubs.
Posted By David Warner on Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 2:17 PM
“This is like a New York jazz club!” exclaim visitors from up north the first time they see the Side Door Cabaret, according to Palladium Executive Director Paul Wilborn.
Victor Wainwright of Southern Hospitality in the Side Door
It’s true. Like such legendary boîtes as the Village Vanguard, Side Door is small, dark and intimate, with cabaret tables, a 185-person capacity, and no seats too far from the stage. It’s also underground, sort of: You enter from the main lobby of the Palladium and descend the stairs to the ground level. (When the Palladium began hosting jazz downstairs in 2004, patrons entered through a side door facing Third Street; that proved problematic, says Wilborn, “but the name stuck.”)
The Palladium was once a Christian Science Church, and the Side Door was its Sunday school. The building was purchased by a team of civic-minded ’Burgers in 1998 for the purposes of establishing it as a performing arts center that, unlike the Straz or Ruth Eckerd, would cater to local artists. St. Petersburg College took over the facilty in 2007, and shortly thereafter hired Wilborn to run the place. With his experience as journalist, performer and one-time City of Tampa arts czar, he has proven to be the ideal guy for the job.
This past season, he says, was the Palladium’s “best financial year ever,” with big crowds drawn to the 850-seat Hough Hall for events like the Palladium Chamber Players series and the St. Petersburg Opera season, while increasing numbers discovered the Side Door.
Ranging from jazz to blues to Broadway, the Side Door’s programming places special emphasis on “people who are on the rise,” says Wilborn. He remembers blues artist Selwyn Birchwood’s first concert drawing just 40 people; now he’s selling out and charting on Billboard. Bluesman Damon Fowler and jazz guitarist Nate Najar are among the other Side Door mainstays whose stars have risen.
Fran Snyder, founder of the Listening Room Festival, has held a number of showcases at the Side Door. He compliments the staff and appreciates the fact that Wilborn (“a straight-up gent”) programs only one music event at a time at the Palladium, so that the Side Door doesn’t face competition from upstairs. That’ll be especially true this summer; the Palladium has shut down its mainstage programming for the rest of the season to accommodate expansion of its rest rooms — good news for anyone who’s ever had to maneuver past the ladies’ room line in the lobby.
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