Punch Brothers

Ex-Nickel Creek member Chris Thile's new act, Punch Brothers, will play Kirk Avenue Music in November.

For a year and a half, 202 Market was Roanoke's most consistent venue for quality live music.

From the beginning of its run, the restaurant and bar featured some of the world's best and most influential musicians -- Hubert Sumlin, Graham Parker, Maura O'Connell, Jimmy Thackery, John Cowan, Col. Bruce Hampton, Hackensaw Boys, Bill Kirchen, Darrell Scott, Tim Reynolds, Michael Burks, Chris Smither -- and some brilliant up-and-comers.

Sadly, not all of those acts drew the crowds they deserved. But more on that later.

That part of 202's history is coming to an end, slowy but definitely. Gary Jackson, the onetime Cellar Door soundman and productions promoter, left the venue recently.

He has joined forces with Roanoke businessman Ed Walker, and the two are presenting shows at a new venue, Kirk Avenue Music. A couple of the aforementioned acts are already on the Kirk Avenue schedule, and you can expect more to come.

The long, rectangular room on Kirk should hold 100 to 120 people and will serve alcohol, Jackson and Walker said. On Tuesday, Jackson was working on the room's acoustics. My prediction: When he's done with it, the room will sound great, as 202 has. Jackson said the focus will be on music, and it's not meant to be background music.

The new joint is a part of Walker's office space on Kirk, and profits beyond band and staff payments will go to the Downtown Music Lab, which Walker founded nine years back. Walker said he is ecstatic to be working with Jackson in a project that will help the music lab, which recently moved, at least temporarily, to Jefferson Center after struggling to pay the rent at the Dumas Center.

"How exciting would it be if we could pump an extra $10,000 into the lab?" Walker said.

Kirchen, master of hot country music guitar picking, will bring his Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods to debut the room on Friday. Coincidentally, both Jackson and Walker had longstanding friendships with Kirchen before they had even met.

Smither, a reknowned Americana singer/songwriter/guitarist, is scheduled for Oct. 23.

November shows include bluesman Jimmy Thackery and ex-Nickel Creek member Chris Thile's new act, Punch Brothers. Jefferson Center artistist director Dylan Locke booked the Thile show.

Jackson said in an e-mail earlier this week that he is psyched about the opportunity to help the Downtown Music Lab.

"I know somewhere out there in this area is another Springsteen/Joni Mitchell talent slowing maturing, and the lab is a perfect garden in which to grow," he wrote.

Changing scene

Jackson has some shows booked at 202 through March. But last Saturday, you could see the nightspot in what is probably its ultimate form -- a disco, upstairs and down.

And there's not a thing wrong with that. If dancing to canned music is your thing, have fun.

But for months, 202's attempt to combine the two was distracting at best. In August, Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials brought their Chicago-style music to the market. Lil' Ed Williams, a great showman, would break the band down to its lowest volume while he did a monologue or played a solo. From upstairs, you could hear the pump, pump, pump of the bass line that was making booties shake. But you couldn't hear Williams great band showing its dynamic mastery.

Without a room designed to house two different kinds of shows, the whole thing just became obnoxious. And that was not an isolated incident in the club's history.

Before this gets to sounding too much like a slap at 202 owner Steve Rosenoff, let me give him the credit he deserves for trying, and for sticking with it for what will be two years by the time Jackson's last act carts its gear off Rosenoff's stage. I saw a bunch of great shows there, and you can't root against anyone who hosts that much live music.

But the idea of bringing in big-ticket tourings acts was probably doomed from the start.

At first, management expected patrons to adhere to a pretty strict dress code. No collarless shirts, no shorts -- that kind of thing. So you'd have casually dressed acts -- The Hackensaw Boys and Col. Bruce Hampton and the Quark Alliance, for example -- playing to what was essentially a dinner crowd. I saw it happen, though it's hard to say whether that perception lingered among music fans turned away at the door of those earlier shows.

No doubt, the food at 202 has gotten raves from a lot of corners, but the people who came for dinner didn't necessarily come for the show, and the people who came for the show weren't necessarily interested in having dinner.

Then there were the sightlines. If you had a seat on the main dining floor, you had a superb view of the band. But if you were sitting at the bar, there were wide, brick columns staring back at you.

A room that received The Roanoker magazine's 2007 platinum award for best live entertainment also received two gold awards for its dining. But something had to give. Jackson decided to leave.

"I just got to the point where there was nothing more I was willing to offer," Jackson said in a recent interview. "I tried to do like my father said: Leave it in better shape than how you found it."

Executive chef and general manager Chad Scott said that 202 Market will continue to have bands, but not as frequently. Bands will play on Fridays. But 202 decided to devote more of its nighttime lineup to DJ music, and Rosenoff will focus on booking more local acts, Scott said.

"We're just trying to give the public what they want," Scott said. "We're trying to make a wide range of demographics happy, because we do have one of the most modern, progressive venues in Southwest Virginia. And we have a wide variety of people come in here."

A new light system is synchronized to the music. It's bringing in the dancers, he said.

"We figure we can do both," he said. "We can do live music, and we can do a little bit more of a club scene on Saturday nights. ... We'd rather please a wide demographic than a small demographic."

Rosenoff said that the electric open jam will continue, moving from Wednesdays to Tuesdays beginning in November. Range Da Messenga and Duality's open mic night will continue on Sundays.

"I love it," Rosenoff said of Duality's show. "Great musicians, great crowd, great show."

Over at Kirk Avenue Music, Jackson said he and Walker hope they can find a core of true music lovers who are willing to come out a couple of times a month to hear great stuff. To learn more about the new venue, or to reserve a ticket to shows, e-mail kirkavenue@gmail.com. And get the joint's show listings at blogs.roanoke.com/cutnscratch.

Changing scenes -- this is the way it goes in clubland. Twenty-five years ago, The Roanoke Times ran a "best of" feature that included reader votes for best nightclub. The winner was The Top Rail in Salem. Second place went to The Roadhouse in Roanoke County. Finishing third was the Cin-Ter in Salem. The Hideout in Radford finished fourth, and Billy's Barn in Roanoke County was fifth. None of those rooms exist today, though a myspace.com page exists claiming to be a resuscitation of the Top Rail.

It won't accept my friend request.