The Balcony, Oxford, OH -- R.I.P.

According to Facebook, The Balcony, where we put in countless hours cutting our teeth on the stage, will be torn down following its last night of business on November 14^th, 2009.

I remember hand-delivering our first press kit to Nes, who as The Balcony booking agent was quite an imposing figure for my 19-year old self. A few persistent follow-ups, and Nes booked us for a Wednesday night, where we met the inimitable Doug Patton, self-described “little ol’ sound man from Oxford,” who delivered our best piece of advice…“you guys need to get some tuners.” Fast forward a few months and we graduated to Saturday nights, playing four-hour shows that started with an acoustic set, followed by two electric sets, and finished with some kind of improvised, we-ran-out-songs-thirty-minutes-ago encore.

Artists from Buddy Miles to Kings of Leon played The Balcony, as well as countless local acts. After becoming friendly with the staff, I got to hear many of them for free, standing at the soundboard with a Jack & Coke in a plastic cup. But, one of my favorite memories was playing acoustic happy hour on Fridays, where a few friends would stop in, the sunshine would stream through the windows, and we would play for $50 and a belly-full of Ozzie’s food.

A few photos…