Andyman’s was such a crucial C-bus institution that it’s still shocking to me that it’s no longer around. You’d have thought at the very least that, like, some arts council would have come up with a grant or something, to keep it afloat, or maybe an executive order would have drifted across the governor’s desk at the 11th hour, demanding that it remain in operation – this place was seriously on that level, it seemed, in our minds and hearts.
Andyman’s sprang to life in the late 1990s when veteran bar manager/bartender Quinn Fallon agreed to join forces with his best friend, local DJ Andy “Andyman” Davis (of CD101 fame) in purchasing the place. At the time, this bar was a major dive named Hidden Cove, had changed hands often, wasn’t making any money. Fallon and Davis bought this place for a mere $30,000 or so, decorated it exactly as you might expect some indie and especially homegrown rock fanatics to do so, and flung this teensy door open wide. Let’s just say they struck gold with this whole treehouse concept, the loose, shambolic, ultra cozy aesthetic – it seriously felt like hanging out in your living room, or maybe more accurately a friend’s slightly spruced up, basement rec room – and booking a wide array of mostly local talent. It officially opened its doors to the public on May 26, 1999.
In many respects, it’s surprising that I haven’t created a page for the Treehouse until just now. After all, this eventually became such a predictable second home for me that I started getting personal phone calls here, during that whole era where I wouldn’t answer the landline at my actual home and refused to acquire a cell. Which became its own separate problem – the phone calls, that is, not the part about not having a cell.
But, although this site might seem like complete chaos, there is a certain strategy in place, as far as the order of topics I’m tackling. It’s just that this pattern would make no sense to anyone but me. And now is that time. Regarding that first phone call received here (hard to even accurately depict now, if you’re not of a certain age and weren’t around for that ancient epoch; many businesses probably don’t even have a dedicated phone, aside from the an owner/manager’s cell, and it’s even unlikelier still that you would call them nowadays asking if a certain customer was there), this was understandably an eye-opening moment. The bartender, Brandon, answering the ring behind that bar, then handing the phone off to me. This is when it first sinks in, okay, I guess I do spend quite a bit of time here…
Though I would eventually work the door a time or two (I think exactly twice, if memory serves), I was never an official employee in any way, shape, or form. At least in my experience, the bands themselves had to perform the dirty work of lining up their own doorman here, although you would be paid in some cash and unlimited beer for your services. And while I had been here a fair amount of occasions, would slide through a respectable amount afterwards, the real wheelhouse of my haunting these grounds would occur the three years where I owned a house in the same neighborhood, well within stumbling distance. Hilariously enough, if I’m not mistaken, however, that initial phone call of someone tracking me down here via clever detective work (my good friend Matt Montanya), that occurred before I moved over thisaway. Only after which, it’s safe to say, my attendance truly exploded.
But what made Andyman’s Treehouse so special? Well, for starters, to state the obvious, yes there is that tree. My stepdad is still talking about that tree, twenty years after I brought him here. On that occasion, he somehow wound up doing shots with Andyman, who apparently recognized me well enough at that point to tell my stepdad I was “a good kid.” One other side note is that Andyman’s wife worked in the customer service department at various Kroger stores around town, including for quite some time the same one as my ex-girlfriend Jill. So we got a little bit of intel about the inner workings of this place via that route as well.
That’s me on the far left in the photo above, from Halloween of 2005, in the long frilly blonde wig. I cobbled this outfit together in a last minute burst of inspiration and, just before leaving the house, decided it would be funnier to shave off every bit of my goatee except for the mustache – to date, the only night of my life I have ever rocked a solo ‘stache. The light’s hitting it kind of funny in this photo, but rest assured, it looked the same on the right as on the left, though quite clearly nowhere near as rad as the Thomas Magnum edition a couple spots down from me.
This window made for a popular photo op spot. In the 12/31/01 issue of The Other Paper, there’s a review of owner/bartender Quinn’s band X-Rated Cowboys and their debut CD, Honor Among Thieves, where they are posing on the other side of it, i.e. the small middle room with the pool table. I know enough about this place that I can tell you, just to the right of the dude who appears to be smoking in their group photo, there was some old movie poster hanging which had Norman Fell listed as one of the actors. And actually, there’s also an Early Empire article in one of those weeklies where they too pose in front of this window, albeit (if I recall correctly), on the side we assorted dorks are in this Halloween classic.
The main entrance, located on what was technically the backside of the building, basically poured in from the direction of whoever’s holding this ray gun. The photographer must have been more or less blocking the men’s room door. And the jukebox was located right beside Darth Vader here. As one might suppose, this puppy was stocked with an impressive arsenal of prime slabs, some obvious and others not so much. I can remember at least a couple specifics about it, like how on 2-3 separate occasions I tried to play Beck’s Lost Cause, but there was evidently some glitch and it would spin a totally different track instead. Which I forgot about until it happened again. Also, in the way it’s oddly majorly gratifying, like you were somehow personally involved with their creation or something, a night where I was somewhat aglow after picking out a handful of cuts, and different random people came up to me to rave about the choices. One of these I know was Jesus and Mary Chain’s Sometimes Always, which I’d never heard anyone else pick before, wasn’t even aware of anyone knowing much less liking this song…but would subsequently hear in here on a semi-regular basis, including a night where it was blaring when I entered the bar. Funny how that can almost make you feel like a band’s producer, or at least their publicist. If nothing else, it became a small sliver of the soundtrack.
But anyway. With this photo as again our reference point, to the left of me would be the bar. Behind us, you took a single step down into the pool room, and could continue more or less straight on out of it, to the obscured patio area which faced Chambers Road. To the left, also accessible and fanning out as a wide open space from the bar, a sort of living room-esque chill space with couches, an Elvis lamp, odd trinkets like these Kiss figurines with giant hands in a glass memorabilia case. Shooting off to the right of the pool room, meanwhile, a single step back up into the performance area, which also featured that infamous oak tree in the middle of the room, standing 3 and a half feet wide, tall enough to extend outside and tower over this local music mecca.
Sometimes, national acts would even grace the “stage” here, the most prominent of which that I can recall is possibly Cracker. More commonly, though, it was instead a secret handshake type place, which visiting musicians might attend on the down low, to hang and soak up some suds along with supremely homespun vibes. If you were lucky (ish)(maybe?), you might even rub elbows with them. Like for instance I remember some friends telling me Nash Kato of Urge Overkill was in here once, standing beside the bar in his ridiculously oversized shades, a scarf so long it touched the ground on both ends, basically acting like a pretentious dick. Also, in one interview I recall Quinn was guffawing about how Creed tried to book an afterhours party here once, when they were relatively new, and he declined – on the grounds that, as he explained it to Andyman later, they were “some assholes I’ve never heard of.” In between these two extremes, the local and the internationally famous, I might offer the example of Columbus Crew player Kyle Martino, who circa 2004 was just learning the guitar, and came here to polish up his act on open mic night.
If you were in search of the most pristine audio sound imaginable, then this was not your place. For example there was a night I brought some friends here and Paul Radick considered the sound so shitty he claimed he couldn’t even watch the otherwise decent band. And did not, as he dipped out to go sit on a couch instead. But, I don’t know, it wasn’t really that bad, and like the establishment as a whole, the vibe was tremendously warm. A little wooden rail even wrapped around that massive tree, in the middle of the room, for some extremely intimate seating options. Plus, if you were in here on a night where it was snowing, that giant hole cut through the ceiling meant the flakes would often be swirling around inside this space. Totally awesome. Basement-esque paneling in most of the rooms, if I recall correctly, and carpeted just about everywhere.
Andy was a big dude with an ever bigger personality, a person you basically couldn’t miss if he was anywhere inside this building – or any other, I’m sure. He would tragically die in a drowning accident, in the summer of 2010, at the age of just 42. Quinn, eh, I can see where others have found him maybe a bit smarmy, but all I can tell you is he was always cool to me, and I also thought he was quite hilarious. He would go on to, though protesting his bar-owning days were behind him, eventually open another music club years later, called Little Rock – it is now the permament home for that backdrop sign, from the Andyman’s performance area, the one with the earth image and all those signatures everywhere.
I don’t remember exactly when the bar closed. Davis and Fallon sold it in 2008, but it limped on for a while under new owners, I think as just “The Treehouse.” My last visit must have occurred in 2010, which would have been during that era, though I guess it’s telling that I couldn’t even say for sure what the place was called then. But when I research this matter online now, it seems that by early 2009, it had indeed dropped the “Andyman’s” portion of its name. And was just known as the Treehouse, then later, apparently, as the Tree Bar (complicating matters still further: even back when it was Andyman’s Treehouse, if you used your debit card here, it would show up on bank statements as simply TREEBAR) before giving up the ghost entirely.
I’m somewhat torn on whether to include the show dates and Youtube videos et cetera from 2009 onward, because it’s sort of the same thing, except not really. To me, it’s a completely different enterprise. You might stumble across videos as late as 2015 where these musicians are still saying they played “Andyman’s Treehouse,” and not to be a purist snob or whatever, but the two guys who began that who concept are long since out of the picture by that point. The bar might look the same, except it’s changed names once or twice by then, too, so no, you didn’t play Andyman’s.
Other businesses have since called 887 Chambers Road home, yet if I’m not mistaken, it is at present just an empty shell. The magic, I feel confident in saying, you will never reclaim here – but I wouldn’t exactly be opposed if some enterprising soul decided to open these doors again and give it another shot.
Click on the year below to jump ahead. Otherwise just keep a-scrollin’:
1999
September 11 – Fred Haring and Dan Baird show (Baird, the former Georgia Satellites frontman, produced Haring’s forthcoming album); Andy Harrison, Watershed, Franklin County All-Stars, and Quinn Fallon also play.
October 29 – an Andyman-a-thon benefit for local children’s charities, this one features Lucid’s Dream, Fletch, Jamie Walker, Ron Arps, Born Digital, Jason Clayton, Elliot 12 Trees, Rod Paulette, Anna Paolucci, Bobby Cloyd, Jim Rico. Oh yeah and also Quinn dressed as Gene Simmons, playing a few Kiss numbers.
November 6 – The Stepford Five play and according to one band member (see comments below), he thinks they closed with an Afghan Whigs tune. Miranda Sound and The Vague play also.
December 15 – charity event featuring Keith Jenkins, Colin Gawel, Hope Vitellas, Jason Clayton, Quinn Fallon, and Jim Rico
December 16 – Benefit show on behalf of Columbus Coalition for the Homeless.
2000
January 15 – Willie Phoenix, Jason Clayton
January 29 – The Stepford Five. Billy Peake, Christian Hurd, and John Riccardi open
March 25 – Fletch
April 1 – At 4pm, Rhinocerous play a free show for bartender Chey’s birthday. Then there’s a later show called “Attention Deficit Disorder Night” featuring Quinn Fallon, Christian Hurd, Keith Jenkins, and Jason Clayton – the joke being that their sets only last one or two songs.
May 26 – Willie Phoenix plays again, this time in honor of his own birthday
June 9 – a second Attention Deficit Disorder Night. This time around, the musicians play two songs before leaving the stage, but there are approximately eight rounds of this (not sure how it worked the first time around). Chuck Oney, Joe Oestreich, Keith Jenkins, and Josh Kayser are the performers.
June 16 – Prevent Blindness Ohio Benefit with Billy Peake, John Riccardi, Christian Hurd, Rick Kissinger, Bobby Cloyd, Jon Chinn (of Pretty Mighty Mighty). Also each member of The Stepford Five doing one song solo.
August 29 – Acoustic Stonebyrd
September 8 – Sin-o-Matic play a loud show, at a time where this bar is still mostly known for acoustic nights. Wolfgang Parker opens.
October 23 – Andyman-a-thon show with local musicians dressed as their favorite rock stars, performing covers.
November 11 – another Andyman-a-thon. The first of the ’80s Power Ballad Nights. The Stepford Five play as a complete unit for the only time at one of these. Also features Billy Peake, Chuck Oney, Quinn Fallon, Wolfgang Parker, Bobby Cloyd, Rick Kissinger, and Rhonda Everitt.
November 30 – Mamontovas plays an acoustic set, followed by a normal one from Willie Phoenix
December 9 – latest Andyman-a-thon show, this one features The Vague, Watershed, X-Rated Cowboys, Jack Neat, Emperors of Bad Luck
2001
As of January 2001, Quantum Parker was here every Tuesday. Colin Gawel played every Wednesday from 7-11pm. Their Friday and Saturday night shows start at 10 and have a $2 cover charge.
January 5 – Columbusmusic.com’s Showcase Weekend kicks off at Andyman’s Tree House. Watershed, Detroit All-Stars, Scott Gorsuch, Jon Chinn and The Ryan Horns Band perform. Entry is just $5 at the door, for tonight and tomorrow each. According to Rob Harvilla of The Other Paper, Chinn played a straightforward but solid set, Watershed went over extremely well (crowd members sing along, keep time on beer bottles, etc) and Gorsuch rocked. Accompanied sometimes by second guitarist Andy Harrison, he blew through some originals and a Jeff Buckley cover in sloppy yet compelling fashion, beatboxed on one song, and in another instance had this dude in a black leather looking coat (can’t tell for sure, but this might actually be co-owner Quinn) hold up a lyric sheet. Then Joe Oestreich of Watershed returned for some reason to play a Cheap Trick cover (I’ll Be With You Tonight) before Gorsuch encored himself, playing his own tune Popular. Finally, Ryan Horns Band closed things out on a mellow note, strumming some decent but not especially memorable modern folk music.
January 6 – Showcase Weekend continues at Andyman’s. Fletch, Clayton Band, The X-Rated Cowboys, and John Morgan are tonight’s scheduled musicians. Harvilla’s Other Paper piece explains that tonight’s crowd is fuller and rowdier, though John Morgan kicks things off as if continuing the Ryan Horns Band vibe of last night – more of an old fashioned sound, albeit in this instance Morgan is ripping through his instumentals with incredible dexterity. He relates that Clayton delivered a credible rock set, replete with numerous guitar solos, and that X-Rated Cowboys (apparently just two guitarists and a drummer at this juncture) were a little shaky initially, though eventually settling into their standard crass groove. Finally, Fletch closed things out with a mighty set, expanded lineup and all, with her on acoustic and two more electric guitar players.
January 12 – Chris Mulvoy, Steve Poulton, and Angelo Palma
January 13 – “Fetch” is listed, although I suspect this may be a typo and was actually Fletch instead.
January 19 – Microphonics, Ukelele Man, and Fred Haring
January 20 – Delyn Christian
January 26 – Harold Chichester, Christian Hurd
January 27 – Billy Peake, Jon Chinn
April 13 – Jack Neat, to promote his Three Way CD coming out the same day.
April 19 – Tim Easton
June 1 – something called Leroy’s Dinner Theatre, which I guess can be described as some kind of variety show: bands Le Petit Hurlemonte and Apocalypso play, but then there’s also a spoken word performance by Julie Otten
June 22 – a night called “I Didn’t Get Invited To The Prom,” featuring five bands who applied to play Comfest, but were denied: Superstar Rookie, Salthorse, The Black Swans, Parker Paul, Ohioanna
October 11 – open stage with Jim Volk
October 12 – League Bowlers
October 13 – Good Kissers, The Randys
October 15 – Jamie Walker’s Keyboard Karnage
October 16 – Poophouse Reilly
October 25 – open stage with Jim Volk
October 27 – CD release party for Parker Paul’s Wingfoot, featuring him, Black Swans, and Christopher Forbes.
October 29 – Jamie Walker’s Keyboard Karnage
October 30 – Poophouse Reilly
October 31 – Colin Gawel
November 1 – open stage with Jim Volk
November 17 – an Andyman-a-thon benefit show, this one themed an “80s Power Ballad” night. Hosted by Keith Jenkins (Stepford Five) and featuring many other local musicians. This is the 2nd of three such planned events for the year.
December 8 – final Andyman-a-thon event of the year. This one is dubbed the “X-Mas Bash” and features Prison Tattoo, Aaron Pauley, Joe Oestreich, Aaron Pickering and Doug Beale (Johnson Brothers), Matt Surgeson and Josh Kayser (Jive Turkeys), Todd May, Jon Chinn, X- Rated Cowboys
December 15 – X-Rated Cowboys play a CD release party for their debut album, Honor Among Thieves. Fletch also peforms.
2002
January 12 – Ben London plays solo just a few hours after his similar show at Used Kids Records. Here, Pat Dull and the Media Whores and Salt Horse also perform.
February 6 – Adam Stokes
April 15 – Adam Marsland, The Vague
May 3 – The Stepford Five acoustic show. Also Twincam.
June 27 – Tim Easton and Kosher Spears
June 29 – just Tim Easton, no Kosher Spears
September 26 – Pee Wee Fist, Moviola
October 24 – Mark Eitzel, The Black Swans.
I wasn’t aware until reading Jerry Dannemiller’s review in the 10/26 Dispatch, though, that Eitzel used to live in Columbus. As far as the show itself, he relates that aside from early volume related troubles, it was mostly a success. I’ve Been A Mess is singled out as the emotional highlight, while later selections such as Theme Show For Any Song on the Discovery Channel were a bit more on the lighthearted and comedic side.
November 9 – another ’80s Power Ballad Night, this time with Rick Kissinger, Chuck Oney, BA Baracus, and The AquaNet All-Stars (Jamie and Ben from The Honeys, Mike Lovins from The Roomful, and Keith Jenkins).
December 21 – next installment of the ever popular Andyman-a-thon shows – leading up the actual stunt itself, which is his 48 continous hours on the air at CD101. All in the name of children’s charities as always. Manda & the Marbles, Scott Gorsuch, Pretty Mighty Mighty, X-Rated Cowboys, The Sun, The Jive Turkeys and The Johnson Brothers play this one.
2003
February 15 – The Caribbean
May 16 – Adrian Crowley, Milan Karcic, The Black Swans
May 23 – Moist Star CD release show
June 2 – Barn Burning, The Black Swans
July 18 – The Damnwells, Mrs. Children
August 16 – Audio Van Gogh
October 22 – Rosa Chance Well
Despite the poor recording quality, you can tell these guys are playing some decent jangle rock. Although even so, I have to admit the background footage of the pool room is nearly as interesting to me.
December 11 – Daryl
December 26 – Christine Costanzo
2004
January 3 – Compiler
March 13 – moveon.org voter fund benefit show. It’s a whole slew of solo performers from local bands on tap: Sue Harsche, Jake Housh, Ron House, Jerry DeCicca, Jerry Dannemiller, Ryan Horns, Chris Forbes, and Lou Poster.
April 6 – The Method And The Result, Dan Gerken, Billy Peake
May 1 – The Whiles, Trapper John, Miranda Sound
May 10 – Chris Brokaw, Hal Hixson, The Black Swans
May 22 – Cavendish
July 15 – Jack Rose, Christina Carter, Jerry DeCicca
September 17 – another moveon.org event, this one in support of the Democratic Party. Whether this is your political bag or not, the lineup is still mighty diverse and jam packed with talent: Columbus Power Squadron, Log Almighty Players, Catalpa Boys, Fort Recovery, 3 Amigos, Barry Hensley, Cassie Jacobs, Ricki C.
October 2 – The Black Swans, Moviola, Sword Heaven, Alwood Sisters
October 8 – AIDS benefit show featuring The Bygones, The Pleasure, The Hoodwinks, Bum Wealthy, Elliott 12 Trees, Olly, Paul Goll, Garnett and the Midnighters
October 29 – Halloween bash where attendees are encouraged to dress like dead rock stars. Admission is $7 and all proceeds benefit the Andyman-a-thon. As far as performers, we have The Black Swans, X-Rated Cowboys, Fletch, $3 Shirt, Ron Arps, BA Baracus, The Shatters, Trapper John, Glare
October 30 – Early Empire, Teeth of the Hydra, Pretty Mighty Mighty, The Judas Cow
December 18 – ’80s Power Ballad Night featuring Keith Jenkins, Chuck Oney, Christian Hurd, the irrepressible Quinn Fallon, Jamie Walker, Billy Peake, Brian from Kopaz, Rick Kinzinger, Ian Hummel, and Jamie Cambpell. A CD101 Show For The Kids tying in with the Andyman-a-thon charity drive.
2005
The big city-wide indoor smoking ban goes into effect early this year. Andyman’s Treehouse sits in this weird zoning anomaly called Clinton Township, however, which means they are exempt – for now.
March 19 – Tupalev, Last Hotel, Box
April 8 – The Method & Result
May 5 – Miranda Sound, Tiara
May 6 – The Randys
May 7 – The Midnighters, Stella
May 27 – my buddy Travis Tyo arranges for me to work the door at tonight’s show. I’m paid $30 and all the beer I can drink.
June 22 – Hoy, Lori
July 9 – Nick Castro, The Black Swans, In Gowan Ring
July 14 – Christian Hurd, Keith Jenkins
August 13 – Unfinished Wood CD release show
August 16 – Slow Dazzle, Eric Metronome, Jordan O’Jordan
August 23 – Josh Lederman y Los Diablos
September 3 – Electric Grandmother
October 13 – Cerulean, Earwig, Trapper John
December 1 – Joe Kile
December 16 – Homeless Families Foundation Benefit show with Colin Gawel and Joe Oestreich of Watershed performing, as well as Joe Peppercorn, Bob Sauls, John Vincent, R.J. Cowdery
December 17 – the latest ’80s Power Ballad Night. This time around we have Keith Jenkins, Chuck Oney, Happy Chichester, Joe Oestreich, Poophouse Reilly, Rick Kinsinger, Evil D., Tom Boyer, Bullet Jones, and Jamie Campbell
December 31 – Trainwreck, which is Kyle Gass’s side project, is listed in one prominent directory. However according to the Dispatch, X-Rated Cowboys and Lab Rats play. Then a couple weeks later they have yet another different listing that mentions Cinema Eye and Lab Rats instead. Although I suppose it’s possible all of these things are true.
2006
January 7 – Coltrane Motion
January 15 – The WMDs
February 20 – Voxtrot
February 28 – Cola Coca Death Squad
March 6 – Mi and L’au, Jerry DeCicca
March 10 – The Black Swans
March 17 – Trapper John
March 18 – The Stepford Five, Jon Chinn, Autumn Under Echoes
April 6 – The Wells, Jason Quicksall, Chris McCoy and the Gospel
April 7 – Bullet Jones, The Doggers, Sarah Asher, Aaron Hibbs
April 8 – Early Empire CD release party
Tonight is the long awaited Early Empire CD release party. A five song EP titled Resolutions and a Gun, it’s the first thing they’ve put out, after 4 years together (and official releases from The Handshake and The Judas Cow are still nowhere in sight, even though they too have both been around since ‘02). Recorded it a long time ago, but money hassles and just general dicking around even after the thing was pressed have kept them from booking this until now. As among the first 15 people in the door, our $5 cover charges mean we get this CD for free – I had no idea, but gladly accept.
Slow at first, talking to Quinn about this article I read recently saying he and Andyman are trying to sell this Treehouse. “Yeah, I’ve been in this business pretty much my whole life – eighteen years – it’s time to try something else,” he says, mentions devoting more time to the X-Rated Cowboys, etc.
Tony Bair comes up and does fake boxing moves, which I match. “Hey, I heard you guys’ stuff, man, you gotta look up this one friend of mine, he goes by Nate Dominion!” Tony enthuses, “his stuff reminds me of yours, like really off the wall, you guys should get together. You can get his email off our MySpace page…..”
Copper asking me about my experience at the Anderson’s, says he couldn’t find the place, was thinking about applying. I tell him about the ultra-precise filets, ridiculous cutting list, etc. He’s mildly discouraged, but intrigued by the potential (top dollar, I tell him, for it is) pay. Talking about how he plays street hockey in the abandoned Big Bear warehouse lot on 3rd, tore up his hamstring, should have taken a few months off, but came back after a month and tore it up again.
Elissa’s wearing this puke green shirt tonight, okay, and when she showed up at the door earlier, she had this red backpack on. Except I didn’t know it was a backpack, not initially, all I could see was this diagonal red strap cutting across the front, which even has buttons all over it. Therefore…it seriously looked to me like a Girl Scouts outfit. “Okay, I want a box of Thin Mints, and two boxes of Do-Si-Dos,” I joke, as she punches me in the arm.
The reason she’s rockin’ the backpack tonight though is that she wanted to bring her new Hi-8 camera to the show. She’s walking around all night filming stuff, pregame footage, then the bands playing, et cetera. She and I are singing along with Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak which somebody played on the jukebox. I think she’s totally awesome and am really into this now. The only downside is I know she slept with Ultimate Donnie over there in the deli, and I’ve heard rumors about Gold as well, but, eh, for some reason I just don’t care when it comes to her. I don’t know, our personalities just seem to click.
Talking to Carracher about the motorcycle he recently purchased, he’s sitting at the bar. On opening day, the Indians night game we all watched over at the Glass House (before rainout), everyone (Carracher not present) was sweating this purchase, saying it “was too much bike for him,” and worried because he tends to space out, they were saying. But I don’t know, he seems like about the most straight-laced no nonsense dude in the world to me, and is surely proud enough, confident enough talking about his bike at this moment.
Vena Cava are the opening act tonight. I saw them in ’98 at a Superstar Rookie show at Little Brothers, and remember being considerably unimpressed. I think in my journal I might even have said they were horrible. Tonight, as it turns out, just two of the four members are playing, though I don’t initially know this; I wander back about three songs into their set, and assume they’d suffered a gradual defection of other members.
Whatever the case, I find my attitude concerning this group, aftere all these years, instantly thrown overboard. Who knows, maybe had all four members been present, I wouldn’t have felt the same way. “The other two are on vacation in Florida,” the singer/guitarist explains, a guy I later introduce myself to, after the set, name Keith.
“Really?” the drummer says.
“Well, one of them is, the other one’s stuck closing a Borders bookstore tonight.”
Wearing some kind of archaic plaid sport coat over a white tee shirt, a vertically rectangular goatee spotted mostly with grey and the wildest yet most natural looking bedhead ever – which means it most likely is a genuine bedhead, not some look he’s affecting – Keith’s voice has this husky genuineness to it, and his guitar playing, while not the greatest on the planet, manages to wring out these terrific little passages now and then, from the whole less-is-more camp mostly during these moments, just a line picked out w/ the right kind of mournful effect on it. A cornucopia of effects pedals down by his feet, and most of their songs feature at least one extended, high energy jam, but the aforementioned bits are what impress me more than the latter.
“This means we can play songs we never get a chance to,” Keith adds, in reference to the missing members, “this one here goes waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy back, it’s one of the first ones I ever wrote.”
“How far back?” someone in the crowd questions.
Keith’s mouth flies open in a dismayed smile as he ventures, “‘88? ‘89? I don’t know, it was right around then, back when I was still living at my mom’s house.”
“So last year, then,” the drummer jokes.
Wearing a dapper tophat from roughly the same smoking-a-pipe-by-the-fireplace era as Keith’s sport coat, the drummer is nothing short of amazing, armed w/ a steady supply of perfect, original, impressively creative beats, without overplaying. My only complaint is that their songs are often structured as verse-chorus-verse-chorus-extended jam to the finish line, but that’s a minor one. Glad I had a chance to catch them again, here almost a decade later.
“You caught us in our infancy,” Keith laughs, when I track him down by the pool table later, explain my first experience.
“Same four guys?” I question.
“Yep, same four guys,” he says. A pretty nice dude – Travis and Chris were remarking earlier that they’d met him a bazillion times, and he was cool, but they felt bad because they could never remember his name.
Bumping into Tony Allman in the restroom: we both issue near simultaneous sarcastic, “well, well…..”s, and I add, “they’ll let just about anybody into this place, won’t they?”
The Pretty Weapons play second, and are a hard act to classify. Travis tells me beforehand they rock, but need a different singer (“he sounds like a bad Geddy Lee”), whereas Spain swears they’re heavy, but not good. Having watched them now myself, I’m not sure what to think. First off, the bass player does have about the most phenomenal sound I’ve ever heard in such a setting. I honestly had to leave the room at one point because I thought my kneecaps were going to melt. He’s playing some obviously heavy – literally, physically weight-wise – full bodied bass, and his amp has that logo of the little dude wearing, like, an ancient Roman battle helmet. Like a Stratego piece, whatever brand that is. And the guitarist and the drummer – they were a trio – could definitely play, but the songwriting surely needs more work. Like they’ll get on this cool groove, and sure, it takes chops to play it, but they ride out this same groove w/o any changes, and often no vocals, for sometimes up to two minute long stretches, and after awhile you start to figure – yeah, so what. I didn’t mind the vocals so much, actually, but thought the drum chair in particular could use an upgrade – Vena Cava’s was better, for instance.
Dan Bandman’s here w/ this cute brunette he just started dating, really nice. The story of how they met is odd and funny, which makes you think, as the old rule of thumb goes, they’ll stick around. He was buying a guitar off someone and she was the gopher, for whatever reason, bringing it to him at this coffee shop on behalf of the seller, and they hit it off, she stuck around, chatted, the rest is history.
“Good for Dan,” Spain tells me, “she’s gotta be better for him than that other nut he used to date, I hear she was a psycho.”
“Who, Kara?” I laugh.
“Yeah,” Spain nods.
Anyway, talking to Dan & his girl before the Pretty Weapons play, stage right on the other side of the tree. Leaving the room during my kneecap melting episode, I encounter Spain sitting at the bar. He’s told me, earlier, that Matt Miner is all about the Pretty Weapons, which doesn’t surprise me; now he wants to know what I think.
“Well, it’s like, they rock, but are they good? I don’t know. They get on these grooves and ride them forever, it’s like, big deal.”
“Exactly!”
“I wish Miner was here so I could debate him,” I lament.
“Matt Miner tries to come across as being into all this extreme music, but you’ll find he is actually really very conservative in what he listens to,” Spain says, which is funny, because Miner says the same thing to me about him almost verbatim. But Kevin has a point, talking about how Miner claims to be into total noise merchants like Sword Heaven but that he has a hard time believing Matt “gets home after a long day at work, and says to himself, hmm, I think I’ll throw on the Sword Heaven record to wind down to. I just can’t picture him sitting around actually listening to that stuff at home.”
Early Empire play a smoldering set, of course. Chris drunk and commiserating, before one song, that the Dispatch bought out Columbus Alive and are about three weeks away from completely overhauling that weekly, cheesing it out. Copper distressed because someone drew an arrow to him on the flyer above the men’s room urinal, w/ a caption that read, “fire this man.”
Chris telling me he’s had writer’s block for a year and asking me for advice. “You’ve got to find some way to break up your routines,” I tell him, “you know what really helps me, walk around the library aimlessly and don’t even pay attention to what section you’re in, then if some book catches your eye, whatever it is, pull it out and start reading it. It sounds crazy but it works.”
April 20 – Jonathan Hape, Eric Metronome
May 5 – Mark G. Turns
May 12 – Keith Jenkins and the Moving Parts, Jon Chinn, The 1803
June 23 – Semi-Precious Weapons
July 11 – Willie Phoenix
July 18 – Say Hi To Your Mom, Dirty on Purpose, The Polyatomic
July 21 – Early Empire farewell show
July 22 – Electric Grandmother, The Lindsay, and Greenlawn Abbey
July 23 – Tigersaw, This Is Smoke Signals, Matt Hubbard
September 8 – Los Caminos
September 21 – Yummy Fight, The Stragglers, Slim Red Soul
September 22 – Unkown, Matt Beckler, and Micah Schnabel
September 23 – Chris McCoy CD release event, with The Townsmen
September 26 – Willie Phoenix. Or else/also Ryan Cox, Josh from The Doggers? My notes are conflicting and confusing.
September 27 – open stage night
September 29 – Cracker, The Whiles. Admission was $15, possibly a record for this establishment.
October 5 – Richard Buckner and Doug Gillard, Joe Anderl & The Universal Walkers
October 27 – Halloween bash and benefit in support of the Andyman-a-thon charity drive. The Whiles, Fletch, Elliot 12 Trees, Jamie Campbell, Unit 1, Postcard, Teamtim, The Slang, Pretenders to the Throne, Hells Bells perform, which Andyman himself acting as MC throughout the night.
November 3 – Poop House Jug Band
December 9 – Shapes and Sizes, Eric Metronome, Joe Anderl. There’s at least a small clip of Metronome’s set:
December 16 – this year’s edition of the ’80s Power Ballad Night, to benefit CD101 for the Kids charities.
2007
January 26 – Mark G. Turns CD release(s) party to celebrate his dropping three albums on the same day: Just Like It Is, Stop Spraying Cologne and Perfume on Odor and Funk!!!, and Are You Aware? Can You Accept?
January 27 – Sarah Asher
An artsier approach with this clip, to say the least. But you know, I kind of like it – a lot of these other videos all tend to look the same. Whereas this individual seems to have just set an unfocused camera down and walked away. Plus, more importantly, it allows you to focus more on the actual music.
February 26 – Relay, Lymbyc Systym
March 1 – Little Brazil
March 11 – +/-
March 16 – The Mike McGraner Podcast is this cool series of videos that were filmed at Andyman’s. I’m not going to post all of them here, but this clip here should give you a good idea of what you’re in store for. Quinn Fallon, Nealbot, Twin Cam, and Bullet Jones perform on this particular night, though only those first two make it into this clip:
April 5 – Say Hi To Your Mom
May 1 – Zelazowa
May 4 – another Mark G. Turns CD release event! This time in support of The Message and Hearing Your Words
May 15 – Ole Soap
May 27 – Devilcake
July 6 – Lollipop Factory, Aether, Go Robot Go!, Postcard. Filmed as part of the Mike McGraner Podcast series. Some of Aether’s set was filmed, at least:
July 9 – Weird Paul. His set list is known and runs as follows:
What I’m Gonna Do to You
Cold Drinks
Pay for Your Tacos Quickly and Securely
I Dropped My Almond Joy Bar
Bowl Cut
Robot Armor
Acting Like Mel Torme
I Got Drunk at Chuck E. Cheese
Human Eye
If You Choose Rock ‘n Roll
More Time for MySpace
Wine Coolers
August 17 – Willie Phoenix, Twin Cam (they have one member from Watershed) play Andyman’s Treehouse
October 21 – Adam Franklin (of Swervedriver fame) & Bolts of Melody, Heavy Mole
October 27 – Darynyck
November 13 – Eric Bachmann
November 15-17 : a unique offering in the form of a 3 night residency from Megan Palmer. Miss Molly opens on the 15th; Joe Kile, Luther Wright, and Chris Brown on the 16th; then Church of the Red Museum, Wright, and Brown again on the 17th.
November 30 – Wussy, The Judas Cow, Bookmobile
December 23 – The Kyle Sowashes
2008
January 4 – Steve Shank (AKA Timid Blue). Clearly the video footage is becoming a little more plentiful as the years progress. Although still mostly on handheld cams, and uploaded by fans rather than the bands promoting themselves.
And so it is we also have footage, thanks to one dedicated fan, of The Black Swans playing here on this same night:
And then also Megan Palmer – same night:
January 11 – Willie Phoenix, Ryan Cox
August 22 – Hawkline, The Vague, Adam Marsland
November 1 – Hammer Of The Frauds, which is apparently some thrown together Zeppelin cover band, but dressed in costumes for Halloween. Sean Sefcik, Dan Bell, Billy Peake and “Party Steve” Howell are the fearsome foursome involved. Captain Exploder also plays, but I think that’s a whole separate thing.
