House shows thrive at 49 Park Ave.

Sam Bloch Staff Writer

The few-block walk from campus seems daunting on a rainy day, and you’ll never see any band there that’s been on MTV, but Wowhaus49, a student-run venue at 49 Park Ave., is one of the most unique concert settings on or off campus. The cover charge is just enough for the artist to buy gas, the audience eats dinner with the performers, and your seat is onstage.

The five housemates who live at 49 Park Ave. see their two-story house, with its cozy, retro-furnished living room and makeshift stage in their sprawling basement performance space as an alternative to the larger acts brought on campus by ViCE and WVKR. The housemates feel these groups do not have a responsibility to bring smaller acts to Vassar.

“[Our shows] are like old house parties,” said Hannah Horovitz ’07, one of five housemates at Wowhaus49. “You have more of a connection when you’re seeing bands in a living room instead of in an MPR.”

The process of bringing bands to their house and setting up for shows is “very informal,” according to Erika Lamb Rumbley ’07. It often includes the 20 or so audience members and housemates making dinner (“Mexican, usually,” said Rumbley, “because it’s cheap and easy”) and socializing with the band in their living room beforehand.

“Everyone that we’re bringing are friends,” said Sophie Bristol Pickens ’06, “but David [Knowles ’08] actually has contacts. Whoever’s in contact with the band takes responsibility for setting up, but other people help out.”

According to Pickens, the house had traditionally been a student-run venue. “Erika and I found the house, and my friends told me it had been called ‘The Rock and Roll House,’” she said. “And part of the original idea of the house is that we would all live here together and have shows in the basement.”

Knowles was inspired by the DIY ethic of his friends at home in Portland, who put on house shows and distributed each other’s records during the summer. He did not see a need for bringing smaller, less expensive acts to campus, however, until he moved in late this summer.

“When I got here this year, I [realized] there was a need because WVKR and ViCE weren’t…bringing smaller acts to campus as much,” he said. But more than trying to fill a specific niche, Knowles just wanted acts he liked, including now-Wowhaus49 alumni Jason Anderson and One AM Radio, to have somewhere to play at Vassar or in Poughkeepsie, despite a minimal profit for the bands.

“I said to [Anderson], ‘Here’s the reality: I can’t guarantee you any money, maybe enough to pay for gas, but you will get dinner, a place to stay, and to play for people who want to see live music,’” he said. At the One AM Radio and The Wind-Up Bird concert on Oct. 25, he walked around the living room, soliciting money from audience members in a baseball cap for the acts. He and the other housemates make no profit from any of their shows.

But the housemates have higher hopes for Wowhaus49, and they encourage students to contact them—Pickens is the off-campus liaison for ViCE—to try to bring their friends to the venue, or even playing there themselves. And most of all, they’re always looking for more people to attend their shows.

“You don’t have to be friends with people in the house,” said Horovitz. “It would be great if random people showed up. It’s definitely open to everyone.”

Buddy Ship and Red Wizard will play at Wowhaus49 on Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.