Club Acoustica - Reviews

Over the past couple of years, Sydney has seen the steady rise in interest in original contemporary music performed acoustically, not just amongst artists but audiences, an interest that saw Velvet Records release a compilation CD of local acoustic acts and several of those acts organising combined nights of acoustic performances.

As those acts were starting to flex their muscles, so too were Michael Hardwick and Martin Contempree on the one hand and Joseph Calderazzo on the other, setting up regular nights dedicated specifically to acoustic performance - Club Acoustica and Tuesday Nite Club respectively. Recently, the two nights got together and formed the Sydney Acoustica Movement.

"That came about from a recognition that we were both running in a similar vein", Contempree explains, "and rather than run at cross purposes, because we don't compete in terms of the market, we'd form an amalgamation under the banner of the Sydney Acoustica Movement (SAM) which gives us double the strength, double the resources and, I suppose, double the crowd pulling power. We want to be able to co-promote and build together while still running our separate club nights. It's a great chance to bring all the artists in together, find out who is really working, and then who we can work on developing over time."

I've profiled Club Acoustica in these pages a couple of times and I have to admit that I've also performed there as a, to use the term loosely, Spoken Word performer, but I haven't covered the Tuesday Nite Club at the Iguana Bar, Kings Cross.

"I've been running the Tuesday Nite Club two years now", explains Calderazzo. "The Iguana Bar started off as a band venue but that only lasted six weeks - the police came in every week telling us we had to turn it down! The owner decided we should close and I convinced him we try it acoustic, so it wasn't a commitment to acoustic at all initially. However, I've been playing acoustic music about ten years now and over that period I've got more into it so that it's all I do now. So I am committed to acoustic music and this worked in really well."

"It was always going to be acoustic from the beginning", Hardwick explains about Club Acoustica. "Some of the other events that were wanting to present acoustic music fell short of showcasing. We started about six months after Joseph, and we didn't initially know about his night."

The next step was to take that idea of showcasing emerging and established artists, from not only Sydney but all around Australia, and that's where the Sydney Acoustica Movement's combined muscle comes in, with what they hope will be a regular monthly showcase night of the best acts from both clubs at The Basement.

"We'd done some tribute nights at La Bar which had done very well", Contempree explains, "and there was some initial interest in our Van Morrison tribute night from The Basement. New entertainment bookers had come into La Bar and while we still wanted to keep the Sunday nights going there, Michael and I were looking around at various other rooms. The Basement had a night available and we suggested a Club Acoustica evening and they got behind the idea, and asked if they could put in one artist, and within two weeks we had the amalgamation happening and we're fairly confident that it will establish itself as a regular monthly showcase on Sundays at The Basement."

The Sydney Acoustica Movement launches Club Acoustica and its association with The Basement on Sunday 27th February 2000 with a stellar line up headed by Steve Balbi of Universe, Elliott Weston & Dave Williams from Welter, Kylie Burtland, Dominique Fraissard, Blue World and King Curly.