Open Mic at Herrell’s

Walking down Brighton Avenue on a weekday night, you may happen to glance through the window of Herrell’s Renaisance Café. What you can see, instead of the faces of coffee drinkers staring into their cups, is the backs of the musicians who make Herrell’s one of the most unique locations for live music in the Boston area. Then you see their audience — those who have come to see the performers, those who are just getting a cup of coffee and studying, families with children getting ice cream and those who having entered for a quick purchase and have remained to listen to the music they stumbled upon. It’s decidedly different from the feeling you get at Espresso Royale, the GSU or the Late Nite Café. For regulars, the performers are a matter of course; every week, Monday through Thursday nights from 8-10 PM. the sound of the shop’s rotating round of musicians fills the café and wafts into Allston through its open door.

Located at 155 Brighton Ave., the club is filled with tables that seat two or three people and walls covered with comic portrayals of famous paintings and ads for local music and arts events. The music at the coffee shop, which is also an excellent ice cream parlor, was inaugurated about five years ago by Tom Bianci, the local bass player and singer who can often be seen playing in the Park Street T station or at the Corner at the Middle East in Cambridge. Around that time most of the other local coffeehouses — Seattle Joe’s, The Fire House Cafe, The Casual Cup — had closed, and Bianci starting eyeing Herrell’s as a new forum to play in publicly. “I was a local Allstonian looking for a gig. At the time, Mark Cooper was the owner of Herrell’s. He liked the idea of having live music at the shop but didn’t have the time to book it. I figured I could not only play there, but book it also. Voila! Instant gig.”

Bianci introduced live music to Herrell’s as well as the Monday open mic night. Mondays gave performers of all ages and inclinations the opportunity to play for a receptive audience; it was through word of mouth about the open mics that this reporter became acquainted with the scene at Herrell’s.

When Bianci decided to give up overseeing the booking, he selected Ari Charbonneau to be his successor in the job — she had been a frequent performer at the coffeehouse, and Bianci saw her as a natural choice.

“Ari, the booking agent, is a generous soul who really does a great service by her generous support of live, local music,” said Damian Israel Shiner, whose band Shiner Jones (www.shinerjones.com) is one of the regular features at Herrell’s. The Boston trio, which has been featured on both the “Best of Boston 2001” and the “Prisoners of Allston” compilations, enjoy playing in a place that’s close to their home.

“As far as we’re concerned, the Herrell’s gig is a great opportunity to play for a diverse crowd of walk-in traffic. We always meet new people playing there and invariably make new fans. We really dig … that we get to play for our immediate community. Whenever we play there, we play as a very stripped-down acoustic act, only our bassist is amplified with his 10-watt microbass amp — it gives us a chance to really work on our dynamics for a live, listening audience. I really can’t say enough good things about our experience playing Herrell’s.” Having played several times at Herrell’s myself, the thing I found most curious was the number of people who come in and will listen for a while over the course of two hours, leave tips, and let you know they appreciate you. It becomes an opportunity to see how music influences and alters people on a personal basis.

Seeing the music at the establishment is something important not only for Herrell’s itself, but for local college students and residents as well. Charbonneau books acts ranging from folk to blues to spoken word. She looks for artists whose music will work well in the intimate, living room setting, which can hold maybe thirty people, and draws on both musicians she knows personally and people who approach her to play. The musicians provide entertainment for the in and out flux of customers, giving them something more to do than just stare at the wall while they eat their ice cream. The presence of a live performance gives the restaurant a special kind of pulse — and one different from other local bars. Without the smoke or alcohol or late hours of most other venues for live music on weekday nights, Herrell’s is home to a broader range of audience — families, students doing their homework, evening readers.

“You become part of the Herrell’s fish tank,” Charbonneau said. “When you come in, if you’ve been here just once before, you feel comfortable.”

Charbonneau, who has been described by the Weekly Dig as “the essence of inspiring, intelligent folk music,” now plays almost every Monday night at Herrell’s, playing her acoustic guitar and singing both her own music and a varying selection of covers. A full time musician, Charbonneau can also be seen at The Kendall Café, Club Passim and The Middle East, as well as in local T stations.

“It built up my armor,” she said about subway performing. “Dealing with different people who talk to you, or harass you. You learn to make it part of the show.” The Northboro, Massachusetts resident recorded an album, Mystory Inside the Tree, in 2000, which contains tracks recorded at Soundsmith Studios in Jamaica Plains as well as live cuts from Club Passim in Cambridge. The album is available from her website, www.acoustichic.com, which also contains a calendar of gigs and press clippings.

Aside from the Charbonneau’s Monday evenings, the schedule of performers changes every month, posted on a calendar in the shop. One can almost always expect to hear something different as new people seek to play for the audience Herrell’s affords them. With ice cream, coffee and music, Herrell’s might be one of the least known, most comfortable places to spend a weeknight in Boston — a part of the off-campus world you might not know about, but something worth discovering and something one may end up often returning to after experiencing.