{"id":264979,"date":"2026-04-13T03:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/264979\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T03:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T03:57:09","slug":"a-decade-in-the-back-room-still-holds-space-for-intimate-musical-encounters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/264979\/","title":{"rendered":"A decade in, the Back Room still holds space for intimate musical encounters"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the night The Back Room<\/a> opened in April 2016, Laurie Lewis and Friends played to a crowd inside a small Berkeley room with brick walls, vaulted wood ceilings, thrift-store couches, and barely enough seats for 100 people. There was no bar, no kitchen, and no alcohol service. People brought their own food and wine, settled into mismatched furniture, and listened.<\/p>\n

Ten years later, as the venue celebrates its first milestone anniversary with a 10-day concert series<\/a> (running Thu\/16-April 26), not much has changed\u2014and that is exactly the point.<\/p>\n

Sam Rudin<\/a> opened The Back Room because he believed Berkeley had lost something when the original Freight & Salvage<\/a> outgrew its 87-seat coffeehouse roots, expanding in 1988 and again in 2009 to become a much larger institution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some who miss the living room intimacy that allowed lesser-known musicians to make their mark, and better-known players to get up close and personal with their fans,\u201d he tells 48 Hills.<\/p>\n

Rudin had spent years as a solo pianist and bandleader, first with his own high-energy piano shows and later with Hurricane Sam & the Hotshots. As smaller listening rooms disappeared, he found himself wanting to build one.<\/p>\n

He spent years searching for the right location before finding a space near Berkeley\u2019s Arts District that could recreate the feeling he remembered from the old Freight: comfortable, informal, and attentive.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sam Rudin at the Back Room. Photo by Irene Young<\/p>\n

That history will be celebrated this month with performances from many of the artists who have shaped the venue over the years. The lineup includes Scott Amendola<\/a>\u2019s Anniversary Quartet, Bulul\u00fa, HowellDevine, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, Mamadou Sidibe, Golden Bough, Roberta Donnay & The Prohibition Mob, and a closing-night performance by The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol<\/a>, who\u2019ll be joined onstage by musical director and pianist Joe Warner, bassist Ron Belcher, and drummer Dante Roberson.<\/p>\n

The anniversary series is as eclectic, intimate, and impossible to reduce to a single genre as the venue itself. On any given night, The Back Room might host a jazz quartet, a Celtic trio, a bluegrass band, or an artist coaxing Malin tines from handmade instruments. What matters is not the category but the listening.<\/p>\n

Sponsored link<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is nostalgia only in the sense that I have attempted to occupy the cultural space that the original Freight & Salvage once held,\u201d Rudin says. \u201cBut even in that sense, it is also different. The Freight, for instance, never had jazz, whereas we have quite a bit. But in every other sense, I would argue that \u2018nostalgia\u2019 is not the right word.\u201d<\/p>\n

The multi-genre approach has become increasingly rare in the Bay Area. The Back Room sells neither food nor drinks, so there is little incentive to turn music into background noise. (The venue\u2019s BYOB\/F policy means there are no audience age restrictions.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are not many places like this,\u201d Rudin says. \u201cBut there used to be more. In fact, back in the day, every college seemed to have a \u2018coffeehouse\u2019 that was actually an entertainment venue similar to this. BAR culture often de-emphasizes the music. We also prioritize the atmosphere, but it is an atmosphere that promotes attention, not \u2018atmosphere over attention.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When Rudin put together the anniversary lineup, he wanted it to tell the venue\u2019s story through both the artists and the genres that have sustained it. \u201cIt\u2019s about diversity,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it also recognizes the relationships that we have had with some performers over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Scott Amendola Quartet<\/p>\n

The series opens with Scott Amendola\u2019s Anniversary Quartet, featuring guitarist Ryan Schaeffer, bassist Mat Muntz, violinist Jenny Scheinman, and Rudin himself sitting in on piano. Amendola, who also performs with Floating Parade and Spaghetti, has played the venue many times over the years, and he tells 48 Hills it has become one of his favorite rooms in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

\u201cSam is just such a beautiful guy and really loves music,\u201d Amendola says. \u201cHe\u2019s provided this unique venue for the Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says Rudin has created the kind of venue he loves most: one where everyone feels comfortable, the lineup stretches across genres, and music remains the focus. \u201cMy favorite kind of music venue is one that has everything from what I do to singer-songwriters, rock music, blues, and international music,\u201d says Amendola. \u201cAnd Sam has created a really great listening environment for people to come and appreciate it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s given a lot to the community, and those are the places I love playing, where the person who\u2019s running it is doing it for the right reasons,\u201d Amendola adds.<\/p>\n

HowellDevine, which Rudin once called \u201cthe most exciting blues trio anywhere,\u201d is also part of the celebration, and has played The Back Room regularly since the venue opened. Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band first played there in 2017, when mandolinist Teo Quale was only 11 years old. Mamadou Sidibe\u2019s hypnotic blend of Malian music and his self-designed 14-string kameke n\u2019goni has become a favorite among Bay Area audiences.<\/p>\n

\"\"Miss Faye Carol. Photo by Curtis Jermany<\/p>\n

Perhaps no performer embodies the deep relationship the Back Room maintains with artists more than Faye Carol. Between 2017 and 2020, the legendary Bay Area vocalist, honored each March 13 with official days in both Oakland and Berkeley, played The Back Room more than two dozen times, including a residency. She has performed in giant venues, including the Oakland Coliseum, but says she still prefers rooms where she can see faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI perform there because I really like an intimate space,\u201d Carol says. \u201cI\u2019d like the intimacy to be up close and personal, where I can really relate to the audience, and they can really relate to me. Afterward, you can talk to people, and it just feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Carol, The Back Room matters because it has survived during a period when so many smaller venues have disappeared. \u201cI think it\u2019s an important space, because the owner really believes in music,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s a musician himself, and he really makes it available, so musicians of all stripes can come and do their art there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She points to the venue\u2019s acoustic piano, sightlines, comfortable atmosphere, and resilience. \u201cAfter COVID, so many places have closed up shop,\u201d Carol says. \u201cBut Sam remained and fought through all of that. And it\u2019s just a place that we need. We need more live music places like this where live music flourishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol, whose latest album, Forever Dynamic<\/a>, drops on April 17, believes live music has become even more important in a world increasingly defined by screens, streaming, and isolation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you really immerse yourself in live music, you will be happier for it and realize how much you need it as part of the rhythm of our lives,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t view live music as a luxury. I view live music as a necessity\u2014as the beat of our heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

That communal feeling\u2014of people gathering in the same room, hearing the same songs, and sharing the same silence between notes\u2014is what The Back Room has spent the last decade protecting. Rudin knows there are limits to how much the venue can grow. It cannot get bigger without moving. He cannot legally sell alcohol or most food, not that he wants to. And, as he puts it, he is \u201cold, and getting older.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big question for the next decade,\u201d he says, \u201cwill be whether I can gradually shift some (and eventually all) of this responsibility onto others\u2019 shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, though, The Back Room remains what it has always been: a place where music comes first, where audiences can still sit close enough to see each other\u2019s faces, and where a room built for listening has managed to survive in a region that keeps losing spaces exactly like it.<\/p>\n

THE BACK ROOM: 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERTS runs Thu\/16-April\/26 at The Back Room, Berkeley. Tickets and more info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the night The Back Room opened in April 2016, Laurie Lewis and Friends played to a crowd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-264979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}