My favorite place in Manhattan, Tonic, is closing tonight. I won’t be able to go tonight, but I went on Monday and Thursday and I guess that’s enough. It’s hard for me to explain exactly what Tonic means to me. Tonic is a music venue on the lower east side of Manhattan. They primarily specialize in “avant-garde, creative, and experimental music.” This may not sound like your cup of tea, but to me this is something wonderful.
Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It was always around, at home, at church, and at school. I started playing piano in 3rd grade and trumpet in 6th. I was even a music major for a couple of years in college. I’ve always loved jazz, jazz gets me going, it makes me feel good and it helps me relax. My problem with jazz started about five years ago, that’s when it all started to sound sterile, like it was stuck in a rut. Although I wasn’t aware of it at the time, I had reached the end of the rope jazz wise, at least according to some people. That’s when I went exploring for new music, and I discovered that jazz wasn’t dead, it was thrillingly alive: I had just been looking in the wrong spots. I discovered groups like The Chicago Underground, Medeski Martin and Wood, The RH Factor, Christian McBride, Soulive, Liquid Soul, DJ Logic, The Roots, John Scofield, John Zorn, Isotope 217 and more recently Sex Mob and Millennial Territory Orchestra. Some of these groups and artists are of a more traditional vein and some are harder to connect to jazz, but that’s where they all come from. In my mind the best musical experience (besides playing) comes from live performances not just albums. So as I found more and more music I started to look for places to listen the artists. Several of these artists play lots of places, but the place where they feel the most free to experiment and explore new directions in front of an audience is Tonic. This is what I discovered when I started looking for a place to hear live music.
Unfortunately, due to geography, I was unable to go to Tonic and hear it for myself. So I started looking around and I found a couple of albums recorded live at Tonic. I looked some more and found some bootlegs from Tonic. I resolved that the first time I visited Manhattan I was going to a show there, so I did. We got there early and it was fantastic. Tonic is located in an old winery and the performance room is quite small. We were sitting about ten feet from the stage. There’s no better way to experience live music than in an intimate setting. Seeing a rock performance in a stadium is cool I’m sure, but there’s no way the audience feels as connected with the music as they do when the place is small. I haven’t been to many shows there, just four. But every performance has been spectacular. Tonic will likely reopen in Brooklyn, but not in Manhattan. They can’t afford the rising cost of rent. Who knows when they’ll actually reopen, it could be a month or never. In my opinion, Manhattan, which is one of the coolest cities in the world, just lost a little bit of cool. Goodbye Tonic.
Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It was always around, at home, at church, and at school. I started playing piano in 3rd grade and trumpet in 6th. I was even a music major for a couple of years in college. I’ve always loved jazz, jazz gets me going, it makes me feel good and it helps me relax. My problem with jazz started about five years ago, that’s when it all started to sound sterile, like it was stuck in a rut. Although I wasn’t aware of it at the time, I had reached the end of the rope jazz wise, at least according to some people. That’s when I went exploring for new music, and I discovered that jazz wasn’t dead, it was thrillingly alive: I had just been looking in the wrong spots. I discovered groups like The Chicago Underground, Medeski Martin and Wood, The RH Factor, Christian McBride, Soulive, Liquid Soul, DJ Logic, The Roots, John Scofield, John Zorn, Isotope 217 and more recently Sex Mob and Millennial Territory Orchestra. Some of these groups and artists are of a more traditional vein and some are harder to connect to jazz, but that’s where they all come from. In my mind the best musical experience (besides playing) comes from live performances not just albums. So as I found more and more music I started to look for places to listen the artists. Several of these artists play lots of places, but the place where they feel the most free to experiment and explore new directions in front of an audience is Tonic. This is what I discovered when I started looking for a place to hear live music.
Unfortunately, due to geography, I was unable to go to Tonic and hear it for myself. So I started looking around and I found a couple of albums recorded live at Tonic. I looked some more and found some bootlegs from Tonic. I resolved that the first time I visited Manhattan I was going to a show there, so I did. We got there early and it was fantastic. Tonic is located in an old winery and the performance room is quite small. We were sitting about ten feet from the stage. There’s no better way to experience live music than in an intimate setting. Seeing a rock performance in a stadium is cool I’m sure, but there’s no way the audience feels as connected with the music as they do when the place is small. I haven’t been to many shows there, just four. But every performance has been spectacular. Tonic will likely reopen in Brooklyn, but not in Manhattan. They can’t afford the rising cost of rent. Who knows when they’ll actually reopen, it could be a month or never. In my opinion, Manhattan, which is one of the coolest cities in the world, just lost a little bit of cool. Goodbye Tonic.
