It’s time for another update of our list of music venues in Jersey City, and alas, it isn’t a happy one. Since the last time we rounded up performance spaces, the town has lost a cornerstone: FM, the comfortable, decent-sounding downtown venue that was, for more than a year, the most reliable local spot to catch an independent act. FM had a real stage and lights and a dedicated PA system run by soundmen who took pride in their skills. It was a true rock club in the time-tested style, booked by people with roots deep in the community and a clear vision of the kind of venue they’d like to run and scene they want to cultivate. Its closure, which was covered here by our own Melissa Surach, leaves a void that won’t be easy to fill.
Anthony Susco, one of the prime movers behind FM, isn’t sitting still (he never does). He’s already announced his first bill at a new space above Barcade (163 Newark Ave.), which’ll either be called “Dancing Tony’s House of Fun” or “High Score.” The four-band show happens on Saturday, March 14, and the cover is eight bucks. It’s too early to add the spot to the roster of Jersey City music venues, but Tony’s projects tend to get traction quickly, so there’s reason to be optimistic. By the next JC Fridays, it’s our hope that there will be every reason to include Susco’s club on the list below. In the meantime, we’re also adding the SMUSH Gallery, which has made a commitment to booking live music alongside art exhibitions and dance performances.
By no means is this meant to be an exhaustive list. These are spaces that have caught our eye and that we think you ought to know about, but it’s just a sampling of what’s going on around town. We’ll add to it regularly as new spaces open. If there’s one in the region that you know about and think we should be featuring — or if you’re playing a show yourself — go ahead and let us know at info@jcitytimes.com.
DEDICATED MUSIC VENUES
White Eagle Hall
There are many places in town to catch a show worth your time. But any discussion of live music in Jersey City begins with White Eagle Hall. The restoration is gorgeous, the sight lines are good, the floor is comfortable even when it’s packed (which it often is), the stage itself is world-class and the room has been very reliably booked with strong acts with national profiles — mostly pop-rock, emo, and rootsy stuff but occasionally hip-hop and R&B performers, too. And although the large capacity means that White Eagle Hall is primarily a room for touring acts, they’ve managed to keep things Jersey, booking state favorites and local heroes and periodically handing the hall over to area promoters with big ideas. Outside of NJPAC, which doesn’t host contemporary bands too often, this is the nicest, sharpest, most impressive live venue in the state. And it’s ours, so direct yourself here immediately. (337 Newark Ave., www.whiteaglehalljc.com)
Fox & Crow
For better or for worse, most of the action in Jersey City happens downtown. But the stretch of Palisade Avenue near Riverview-Fisk Park has become a destination in its own right, and Fox & Crow is one of the main reasons why. Like the neighborhood it’s in, Fox and Crow punches well above its weight: The tiny showroom stays booked with an impressive array of regional-level talent, aspirational local artists and the occasional name headliner. While the velvet curtains and black tables suggest speakeasy-like intimacy, this is not just a place for quiet singer-songwriters. We’ve heard some glorious rackets coming from Palisade and Congress. Best of all, audiences here are genuinely attentive and musically curious, which makes it a great place for ambitious writers to try out new material and new ideas. Night owl alert: Shows here often start late, so consider it a nice after-dinner option. Grab a bowl of pasta at Corto, and swing over. (594 Palisade Ave., www.foxandcrowjc.com)
Monty Hall
The shadow of the famous club on the corner of Washington and Tenth in Hoboken hangs over every music venue in Hudson County — and maybe New York City, too. The standard set by Maxwell’s is intimidating, but it’s given club owners something to shoot for. It’s safe to say that any room that’s hosted bands in Hudson County has had some elements meant to be reminiscent of Maxwell’s built into the design. But nobody has gotten it quite as right as Monty Hall, the Maxwell’s-sized club run by radio station WFMU, which is itself a local institution helmed by people who certainly knew their way around the Hoboken scene of the ’80s and ’90s. The black-box space looks, sounds and even smells a little like its legendary forerunner. Bookings tend to be bands that would have played at Maxwell’s if Maxwell’s was still booking bands: adventurous groups consistent with the WFMU aesthetic and its unswervingly free-form sensibility. If you like WFMU (of course you do), this is a place you’re going to want to visit. (43 Montgomery St., montyhall.ticketfly.com)
AN ART GALLERY THAT REGULARLY HOSTS MUSIC
SMUSH
The friendly, intimate SMUSH is best known for what’s usually up on its walls: adventurous, emotionally provocative, playful visual art. But Katelyn Halpern, the curator of the gallery is a dancer with a taste for multimedia experiences, and she sees the room as an interactive performance space as well as a den of visual delights. To that end, she’s steadily booked musical acts — and to her credit, she’s drawn to styles that aren’t always well represented on stages in Hudson County. That means jazz and electronic music, a little hip-hop, some pure sonic experimentation. It’s a lineup that looks and feels like Jersey City, and that’s something that bookers downtown might do well to learn from. (340 Summit Ave., smushgallery.com)
BARS AND RESTAURANTS WITH FREQUENT MUSIC NIGHTS
Pet Shop and PS Wine Bar
Yes, indeed, it was an actual pet shop. Before its transformation into a home away from home for local punk rockers, the building on the well-trafficked corner of Newark and Jersey was home to a … well, let’s not get too deep into it. Instead, it’s probably best to concentrate on what the building has become: a handsome, dark, pleasantly rough-hewn space capable of hosting musical events on its two levels. Upstairs is for the punk bands; downstairs PS Wine Bar can accommodate punk, too, but it’s also provided quiet acoustic singer-songwriters a suitably candlelit setting. Pointedly, the menu is vegan. Let’s just say they’ve got some ghosts to exorcise. (193 Newark Ave., www.petshopjc.com)
Porta
The capacious Porta Pizza used to put rock bands on the roof. There’s still plenty of music here, and some of it is even live, but the pizzeria has changed formats. These days, it’s mostly deejays spinning electronic stuff, though there are still occasional performers in the main space and jazz musicians during Sunday brunch. Porta was originally an Asbury Park brand, and they’ve been true to it: This is more of a Shore-like scene than what you’re likely to get outside of the Downtown pedestrian plaza. And by that, we mainly mean electro-beats, the sonic equivalent of thick mozzarella. (135 Newark Ave., www.pizzaporta.com)
The Factory
Speaking of places that can be a bit of a scene, The Factory on Communipaw is certainly not designed for wallflowers. But because of its regular Latin nights, it’s become an essential part of musical Jersey City. Some of the groups that’ve played here, bless them, have made no attempt whatsoever to cross over. You’re likely to hear real salsa and bachata here alongside the DJ-driven club music, and accordion and sax next to the synths and turntables. The frequent Sunday brunch entertainment has been particularly exciting and might leave you wondering why there aren’t more local places that host music of these styles. The Factory demonstrates that the talent is here. (451 Communipaw Ave.)
South House
Many bars and eateries north of the Mason-Dixon line affect a southern style. But few in New Jersey take it quite as far or are as meticulous about the details as South House. That means chicken and waffles and grits on the menu, Carolina-style swings out front and, periodically blues, R&B, jazz and Southern rock inside the restaurant. For instance, this summer, South House brought trumpeter Shamarr Allen up from the ninth ward of New Orleans; local blues harmonica champ Vin Mott led his band through a set in early September. In another extension of Southern hospitality, shows here tend to be free. Chasing regional authenticity might be hard in a place as polyglot as Jersey, but that doesn’t mean that the race isn’t worth running. (149 Newark Ave., www.southhousejc.com)
Corgi Spirits
Corgi is a local company that manufactures gin, whiskey and vodka and packages its products in very appealing bottles. The brand’s distillery isn’t easy to find: It’s at the southern end of the Lafayette neighborhood, right in the middle of an industrial zone and across Caven Point Ave. from the light rail headquarters. Nevertheless, Corgi has attracted some intriguing acts to the lounge, not just the jazz you’d expect to find in a room built for cocktails but some local pop-rock, too. It’s possible to imagine the music series at Corgi’s becoming a Jersey City mainstay. For the moment, it’s a pretty well-kept secret (which you’re now in on.) (1 Distillery Dr., www.corgispirits.com)
The Hutton
This friendly, low-key restaurant and bar in the middle of the Heights feels like Fox & Crow’s modest and somewhat bashful cousin. The musicians who play here are the sort who’d otherwise appear at the Fox and Crow parlour: acoustic singer-songwriters, jazz players, folk acts, Irish music, anybody who doesn’t need heavy-duty amplification to get their point across. At times, booking activity at the Hutton has been as heavy as that in any room in town. Early this summer on any given night they were open, the bar was likely to have a strummer or a singer in the back. Unlike Fox & Crow, there’s no extra room for shows, but the main space is so pretty that we doubt you’ll mind. (225 Hutton St., www.thehuttonjc.com)
The Archer
The Archer is located on the Newark Ave. pedestrian plaza, but the bar and restaurant has taken pains to cultivate a personality sharply different from that of the bigger clubs. It’s dark, there’s a heavy-duty hunting theme, the sliders are made from bison meat and the vibe in the room is resolutely grown-up. The unusual qualities of The Archer extend to the live music, which is provided by the Go Bailers. They’re a bluegrass band with serious skills and a deep repertoire, and they’ve made this bar an attractive Wednesday night stop for anybody with a taste for traditional country music. (176 Newark Ave., www.archerbar.com)
Madame Claude Bis
Much like The Archer, Madame Claude Bis is a place you’d go to see the house band – but what a house band it is. Manouche Bag is as close to a local musical institution as Jersey City has got: a tireless, crackling French gypsy jazz outfit led by the owner of the restaurant, making songs that pair perfectly with wine and crepes. Those who remember the jazz nights at the warm but tight original location of Madame Claude will agree that the outfit has only gotten better as it has migrated into its new digs behind White Eagle Hall. This is a quintessential Jersey City experience and one that ties the current bustling iteration of the city’s music scene to its D.I.Y. past. (390 4th St., www.madameclaudejc.com)
Headroom
The downtown warehouse district seems like an obvious place for a live music club. Yet since the end of Uncle Joe’s, a closure that still stings, all these years later, there hasn’t been much music reverberating around these cobblestoned streets. Headroom is trying to change that, and those who remember the space when it was called Transmission know that it’s got everything necessary to be a dedicated venue. There’s a stage, a big backroom and a large bar where patrons can wait before going in. They’ve already enlisted a worthy ally: singer-songwriter Debra Devi, a superb guitarist and local blues mainstay. She’ll play at Headroom again on March 26, and she’s bringing some pleasantly noisy friends along. (150 Bay St., www.headroombar.com)
Are you regularly booking live music at your establishment? Think the stuff you’re hosting has artistic merit? If so, we want to hear from you. Let us know, and we’ll visit your place and add it to the guide.
Header: Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus at Monty Hall, Jersey City Times file photo