Listening Rooms in Baton Rouge

New music venues prioritize the listening experience over the viewing

August 29, 2016 12:00 AM

All photos by Jeffrey Dubinsky

When planning an evening out in Louisiana, the question “Do you want to go see some live music?” is perhaps only second to “What do you want to eat?” The trouble with this query, however, is in the verb: see. With an often-raucous bar crowd thronging in clusters around a stage—individuals having their own shout-spoken conversations, seeing live music is the norm. Fortunately, there is an alternative for those who keenly realize that music is not meant to be seen, but heard.

Fourteen years ago, Chris Maxwell landed on the term “listening room” to describe the music venue he had just opened in a defunct tattoo parlor that was directly beneath his son’s Government Street apartment. After hearing two touring musicians describe The Blue Door Listening Room in Oklahoma, Maxwell explained, “I decided [the term listening room] was the best description in the world of what this is. You’re getting a listening room. You’re not getting a concert hall; you’re not getting a bar. This is an environment where you can hear the drop of a pin—you really hear the music.” Since then, The Red Dragon Listening Room (its moniker drawn from the red dragons painted on the tattoo parlor’s walls and floor) has set the standard in Baton Rouge for this increasingly popular brand of live music experience, as several venues have followed its veteran lead.

After fourteen years, The Red Dragon, now located on Florida Boulevard in what might be mistaken for a warehouse at first glance, still feels like a secret. Behind the heavy, steel doors, dim twinkle lights illuminate rows of misfit couches, folding chairs, and mismatched wooden theater seats occupying nearly every square foot of the room. There is no need to make room for anything but seating at The Red Dragon. Maxwell operates under a rare business model—for the music industry anyway—in that his venue is not a business at all. He sells nothing; guests are encouraged to bring their own refreshments to enjoy during the show; and the one commodity that people do pay for, the “seat donations,” as Maxwell calls them, go to the artists. Maxwell said, “The traveling artists get one hundred percent of the door, and the local opener gets a bucket passed. It’s been as high as $948 in the bucket.”

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This arrangement might appear at first blush to be without reward for Maxwell, who has, on occasion, lost money on shows that didn’t meet the traveling artist’s fee through seat donations. However, his lifelong love of music—particularly folk, Americana, and singer/songwriter—is what motivates him to continue. It pleases Maxwell to match a touring artist with just the right local opener, considering himself a sort of “musical Cupid.”

Unlike with bars, whose attendance impacts the bottom line, listening rooms are not in competition with each other over patrons. In fact, the opposite often proves true. “We owe a lot to Chris Maxwell,” said John Burns, who, along with Kevin Sweeney, runs Dyson House Listening Room . “He inspired us; he wants the entire listening room community to do well.” Though only seven months old, Dyson House, located on Jefferson Highway near Towne Center, has enjoyed rapid growth and popularity. Sweeney partially attributes its success to the location, but its attraction is mostly due to the vibrant local music community that brings strangers together and keeps them coming back: “You have the opportunity to meet some new people in [this] environment. It’s pretty appealing, and I see it happen every show where strangers are not strangers anymore.” Burns added, “We wanted [Dyson House] to be comfortable, more like a living room environment—like friends sitting around, putting an LP on the turntable, and listening to the music.”

Burns and Sweeney further note that a portion of their regular crowd is made up of local musicians who come out to support each other, even when they are not playing. “That’s the ultimate compliment,” Burns said. Local singer/songwriter Clay Parker, who, along with Jodi James, played the first show at Dyson House, explained the appeal of listening rooms to musicians: “When you play a room like Dyson House, you aren’t competing with a business. Everyone is there for one reason, and there seems to be more appreciation from the audience for what you are doing because it is the reason they are there.”

Sweeney feels as though the listening room model is “a niche that is maybe a little more than a niche” and noted, “Other listening rooms have opened where people [felt] there was a void to fill too.”

One such void has recently been filled in Prairieville by The Harvest Moon Listening Room. When Jason Hall and Julie Hodges ran into complications opening a farmers market, they made a decision, out of necessity, to use the building they’d rented on Highway 42 in a different way. Hall said, “Ascension Parish is the home of Swamp Pop music. We noticed there wasn’t a venue in the area capturing the music of the area.” While only in its second month, The Harvest Moon has already started filling its summer calendar with a strong roster of local and regional musicians.

Hall and Hodges, who have not abandoned their original farmers market concept, eventually imagine Harvest Moon becoming a multipurpose art space: renting booths to artists, hosting events, and bringing the community together to support all forms of creative expression. In the meantime, Hall is happy to be able to provide a performance space for local and regional musicians “coming up and not having enough places to play.”

The simplicity and accessibility of the listening room model suggests the potential for more opportunities for musicians—and audiences—in the future. Evidence of this is already apparent; while only a handful of venues in the area are branded “listening rooms,” more and more small venues and art spaces are opening their doors to host intimate musical experiences for audiences in the Baton Rouge area. So next time you head out for a night of live music, don’t just go see a band play, go hear it instead.

Dyson House Listening Room

7575 Jefferson Highway

Baton Rouge, La.

(225) 925-8429

facebook.com/dysonhouselisteningroom

Red Dragon Listening Room

2401 Florida Street

Baton Rouge, La.

(225) 939-7783

reddragonlr.com

facebook.com/reddragonlisteningroom

Harvest Moon Listening Room