After identifying a lack of a cohesive musical community at the University, students Olivia Awbrey,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Olivia+Awbrey@@ Dan Klee@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Klee@@ and Simon Adler@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Simon+Adler@@ decided to start a venue of their own to harbor creative and musical appreciation. Twice monthly, the threesome will convert Awbrey’s house on East 27th Avenue and Hilyard Street into a venue they call The Painted Porch, which features live music, a giant canvas for mural painting and home-brewed beer.@@is this legal? alcohol- and venue-wise?@@ The featured beer is a hefeweizen and an IPA from University student Ryan Tarbet’s@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Ryan+Tarbet@@ home-brew company, Big Bear Brewing Company.@@http://www.bigbearbrewingco.com/@@
Last Thursday was the venue’s first show, called The Home-Brewed House Show, featuring the bands Simple Joys@@http://www.myspace.com/simplejoy@@ and Wintertime Carousel.@@http://www.myspace.com/wintertimecarousel@@
“About 30-35 people showed up; it was a little bit cold,” Adler said. “We had a fire, and everyone drank homemade beer. I had a good time playing, and everyone seemed to enjoy the evening. It was everything I hoped it to be.”
Awbrey described the overall atmosphere of the first event to be “bonfire-y.” Adler fronts Wintertime Carousel, while Simple Joys is composed of Awbrey and Klee. The latter two are busy recording their first EP for their band, which should be released in December.
“Dan and I met last year at an open mic,” Awbrey said, “and we started playing music together and going to open mics together and backing each other up, and eventually — over last summer — we decided we wanted to actually be a band and have a name, so last June we started calling ourselves Small Joys.
The Painted Porch was the brainchild of Adler, who felt as though the University’s current music scene wasn’t what it could — or should — be.
“We wanted to make a place where people can listen to music and casually drink a beer and talk, somewhere other than at a bar,” Adler said. “We want to build a sense of community between musicians and music lovers.”
The result was constructing a space that embraces and encourages music and art.
“It’s kind of amazing,” Adler said. “At the beginning of the year I moved into this house, and my friends and I were staring at my back porch — which is where we have the stage — and my friend was like, ‘You could foster a musical community here!’ and three months later, Simon called me was like, ‘Hey, you want to have a house show?’”@@all in one breath@@
The three founders of The Painted Porch wanted to make a place where all artistic realms where appreciated, not just music.
“We have people paint on the giant canvas that we have up in the garage,” Awbrey said. “We wanted to give an opportunity for people who don’t necessarily play music to be involved in the whole thing.”
“I enjoy having the sense of community surrounding me,” she said. “I think that one of the things that happens when you’re hosting something like this at your house, is it opens up a lot of opportunity to have more friends and meet more musicians, and that’s always been important to me.”