Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Era Recognition in Wetlands Preserved


Wetlands Preserve was a night club in Tribeca that will likely go down in history as being as significant or as important location to music as CBGBs or the Filmores. Or perhaps it is much like the late 40s Bird-centric bebop scene on 42nd St as one of the many talking bobbing heads in a commemorative documentary called Wetlands Preserved.

Larry Bloch the originator of the club/activist center hub is a skinny intense Deadhead guy. The place was his for its first seven years. The film shows how he mushed together Grateful Dead ethos to create a kind (as in "oh oh and I want to know is are you kind?") vibe. I realized when they showed the artists who had played there regularly in the late 80s/early 90s: Blues Traveler, Phish, Widespread, Dave Matthews Spearhead, and Joan Osborne that during those years I was up here in PDXtown having my own private Wetlands.

Still, I kind of lapped up the trivia and anecdotes about the place. Such little cultural wavelets orginated and emanated from there more than hippie jam band. There was a wave of Ska started there. Roots came from Philly to host shows debuting the likes of Jill Scott. Hardcore punks and left wing writers would perform there.

Overall, I liked this film directed by Relix magazine Dean Budnick. The hagiographic and self important nostalgic tone got on my nerves on a couple occasions, but the film does what it seems to attempt to do. Get you to do a Woodstock mud people skinny dip in media related to the Wetlands. I'm not sure how many times the fact the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is mentioned as the home of the VW bus that the sold souvenirs and gave away activist pamphlets. Yup now it lives under and in the shadow of the Phish New Year's Eve hotdog in its Cleveland shrine.

I do give Bloch credit for is running his club like a Dead show every night. Long sets. Play til dawn. Lots of guests and combinations of artists. Benefits and socially conscious exhibits and food drives. Pieces of Wetlands showed up first at the HORDE tours, resides mightly at High Sierra, Bonaroo and other fests. They also provide the form and structure of String Cheese Incident, Phish and Widespread shows. It is not a mainstream legacy, but one I am glad I was able to have some great and glowing times with as well.

The club opened in Feb 1989, changed owners in 1996 and had its final concert on September 10, 2001. It was going to be its last week anyway, but 9.11 clinched the deal and shuttered the place for good. And soon it became a Swedish furniture store (no, not that one) and a bunch of apartments. But as I said before, all that really went away was a geographical center, a new wave of improvisational rock will always be on endless tour.
posted by well-executed buffet at 6:12 PM
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