12-06-2001 The Drum Media

After almost three years since it started at its home of La Bar, Club Acoustica is now celebrating a dozen shows (in a year and a bit) for their showcase nights at The Basement. Helping them celebrate this Wednesday 13 June at The Basement will be Lior, Paul Greene, Jay Smith, Jeff Duff and Matt Tonks.

It can be argued that Club Acoustica is responsible for the 'Renaissance' of acoustic music that seems to be happening about our fair city. Together with their support mechanism, including venues and record companies, it has evolved with better talent and the name is getting more well known.

In that time it seems a community has built up around Club Acoustica. “It draws you in rather than pushes you away. I’ve played a lot of rock. It’s loud. You can’t talk, you just stand there and drink which is what the publican wants. You stand there and listen to really loud music, which is great, but it’s not particularly communal is it?” poses Michael Hardwick, one of those behind Club Acoustica.

“What we’re doing is a lot more communal. The artists come off stage, move around, talk to their friends, meet a few people, cross pollinate with the other artists of a similar interest and so on, start sharing gigs with each other later on.”

“That’s exactly what we’re finding,” adds Martin Contempree, also a part of the Club Acoustica family. “They’re starting to put bills together and travel wherever. Also someone like Gavin Hammond, has gone on to produce Dominique Fraissard’s album, is working on producing Brett Hunt’s album, Paul Greene works with Raoul Graf and Um & Ah Records. There’s a real sense of community, a lot of people cross pollinating and playing on each other’s albums.”

“In a general sense the community is also happening with the punters as well,” Contempree continues. “We’ve seen that come through in a number of different ways. Number one, six months ago our bottom line crowd would have been 40 or 50, it’s now an average and a big night is 80 or 90. And when you’re got 80 or 90 people coming out to listen to acoustic music on a Thursday, in a very nice room with a relaxed atmosphere and ambience and the feel on stage, and you marry that with five amazing artists, it creates a real sense of ‘wow’.”