Bemoaning the decline of the city’s live music scene has been a favorite pastime for music-loving Ann Arborites for at least a generation, going back to the demise of legendary nightspots like Joe’s Star Lounge, Mr. Flood’s Party, and the Pretzel Bell. The recent replacement of Live at PJ’s with the much less music-heavy LIVE touched off a new round of keening. But there’s always been music in odd corners of our town for those who know where to look, and quite a bit is bubbling up from the local rock and jazz scenes right now. In fact, you could go out every night of the week and hear good music just on Ann Arbor’s west side.
Start your music-hopping week on Tuesday evening at the Zal Gaz Grotto Club on W. Stadium. A Masonic social club may not sound like a promising place to look for unique musical resources, but the Tuesday shows by Paul Klinger’s Easy Street Jazz Band represent something you’ll rarely find outside of New Orleans: traditional jazz with a direct connection to the beginnings of the music. Klinger performed with Detroit’s New McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, an outgrowth of the original McKinney’s Cotton Pickers of the roaring Jazz Age.
Step (carefully) across the road and you’ll find Wolverine State Brewing tucked behind Great Lakes Cycling and Fitness. This brewpub bills itself as the only place to meet the Ann Arbor Beer Wench in person, and they’ve got the cheapest craft brews in town. But if that’s not enough for you, the pub often features roots bands on the weekends and bluegrass on Tuesday nights. They’ve even done experiments like “Shakespeare Unplugged,” a brewpub adaptation of famed Shakespearean scenes.
A bit farther up Stadium, where it merges with Maple, the Quarter Bistro serves the nearest facsimile you’ll find in these parts to New Orleans cuisine. On Thursday and Saturday nights, it also features good folk and alternative-rock songwriters, among them Detroiter Teddy Richards. Some know Richards as Aretha Franklin’s son, but he’s not overjoyed at that billing—he has a career and a style of his own.
Turn west on Jackson for Weber’s restaurant and its venerable bar, the Habitat, which has live music several nights a week. Sundays bring some of our town’s remarkable collection of young modern jazz musicians, while weeknights and weekends bring dance bands and solo piano players early. This place has been going since the 1930s, and if you want to see where townies go for a night out, this is the place to do it. At the other end of the hipster spectrum—and not quite downtown—is the James L. Crawford Elks lodge at 220 Sunset. This historically (and historic) African American branch of the Elks order hosts live bands—often rock on Thursdays, jazz on Fridays, and R&B on Saturdays, plus late-night underground DJ parties that draw big crowds.
That’s five. Still ready to dance? Try the Creekside Grill and Bar near Jackson and Zeeb, which hosts the II-V-I Orchestra the last Sunday of each month—as starched and sharp an example of the classic swing ensemble as you could ever hope to see. Want to make your own entertainment? Friend Stephanie says that the karaoke at Belmark Lanes on Jackson attracts really good singers, “not hipsters who sing David Bowie badly and try to act like they don’t care.” Or you could take a night off and get ready for another week in a town that’s increasingly vital musically these days.
