Live at Ipanema, a concert series hosted by the Ipanema Café located at 917 West Grace Street, offers Richmond music fans the opportunity to see various local and out-of-town acts for free and provides the performers with high quality multitrack recordings that they are able to use however they wish.
Live at Ipanema, a concert series hosted by the Ipanema Café located at 917 West Grace Street, offers Richmond music fans the opportunity to see various local and out-of-town acts for free and provides the performers with high quality multitrack recordings that they are able to use however they wish.
The series runs performances on the first Sunday of every month (Including this Sunday, 10/6) and then posts recordings and photographs of each show on their website, free of charge.
Here’s some Audio from 9/8’s Those Manic Seas show:
The concept was developed back in 2010 by owner of the Ipanema Café, Kendra Feather, and recording engineer and Richmond native, Allen Bergendahl, but was halted in 2011 due to a lack of interest. However, the series returned at the end of 2012, and has been hosting regular shows ever since.
I sat down and talked to Allen Bergendahl about his involvement with the project and what we can expect from Live at Ipanema in the future. When I asked him about how the series has changed since it was started he said, “the project has evolved in the details but not in the broader scope, we always did a multi-track session to make somewhat of a studio quality recording in a space that was available to everybody, it was never intended to be for sale, the shows are always free.”
The first iteration of the project featured a rotating lineup of photographers, which resulted in drastically different styles of images for each show. When the series started up again last year, the decision was made to bring in PJ Sykes, a professional music photographer, as a permanent member of the team. “lining up a new photographer every time was challenging, it was just as hard as finding bands, so I didn’t want to mess with that, I just wanted somebody that I knew was going to be good and be reliable,” said Bergendahl. “So PJ was an obvious choice…and he’s turned out to be an excellent choice…he’s a badass with photography, but he’s also great with all of our social media stuff, helps me with getting set up, helps me get the shows promoted…having an accomplice really helps get the ball rolling.”
In addition to the photography, Live at Ipanema has also recently begun incorporating videos of their performances. With the assistance of The Horn, a VCU student run publication that features information and videos concerning local music, Live at Ipanema was able to capture video of one of their recent performances, featuring the bands Floodwall and Night Idea. Bergendahl emphasized that this was something the project hopes to continue in the future.
Night Idea
Bergendahl said the current structure of the Live at Ipanema events was by no means static, and altering the formula in the future was not out of the question. “Any evolution that’s going to happen is going to be organic, that’s how we’ve been doing it so far and I think that’s going to continue,” said Bergendahl. “But what we’ve actually been pushing towards is to get within a broader scope, get some more media attention….and hopefully with that well be able to bring in some higher caliber acts.”
Many people around town and around the country make a habbit of taping live shows – especially at the local ones, and while part of this project is about generating online buzz, Bergendahl admits it’s a tool to drum up attendees. “Primarily we want people to show up”, he said. “I want people to come and see these bands, because in my opinion their very good…I’m not going to have bands in there that I don’t think are good…and I also think that when you have more of an audience there…it changes the bands experience and perspective as their playing.”
Live at Ipanema returns the first Sunday of October, and will feature performances by Valdosta, headed by David Shultz of former …and the Skyline fame; as well as Philadelphia’s Psalmships. The event begins at 9 PM and is free to attend. Ipanema is located at 917 W. Grace St–for more info, click here.
