The Sonic, Iconic, Harmonic, Multiphonic Club That Once Was Tonic: One Year Later

When Tonic closed its doors one year ago today, music lovers in New York didn't just lose a stage, they lost a gathering place. There are still plenty of spots in town for jazz, improv and against-the-grain rock, but nothing is so central and so social as the little club on Norfolk was.

After financial struggles, structural problems and - most importantly - rising real estate costs on the Lower East Side, Tonic threw in the towel in April, 2007. It was Friday the 13th. John Zorn led a huge improv night and they played 13 pieces. The line outside stretched down the block. Where those people were a year before no one knows.

But isn't just the stage we don't have anymore, it's the flyer table. Pictured above during its final days on the job, the table probably kept as many people up to date as any website or magazine. It was a little square of offerings - not just information, but artifacts, reproduced representations of the artists' aesthetics. Hopelessly late 20th Century perhaps, but no club listing could match, for example, the handcrafting of cellist (and Tonic employee) Okkyung Lee's palm cards.

Below is a little walk through the life of Tonic, including a selection from Eugene Chadbourne's four-day guitar blowout; Loren Connors with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon on his 50th birthday; the little-recorded supergroup Emergency! (John Zorn, John Medeski, Marc Ribot, Ben Perowsky); Zorn again during his 50th birthday month of shows (you can't see, but you can hear him playing while riding on Milford Graves' shoulders); Marco Benevento playing Thelonious Monk from his triple Live at Tonic CD; Peter Brotzmann's trio two nights before the club closed; and more.

Owners Melissa and John still put on occasional concerts, and the Live at Tonic CD is still available. More info at http://tonicnyc.com/. Peter Gannushkin took the flyer table photo. His pictures of the April 14 protest and occupation of the club can be seen at http://gallery.sonicbeet.com.

1999
Eugene Chadbourne / Elliott Sharp / Misha Feigen - untitled (MP3)
from Guitar Festival Summer 1999 (Leo)

Loren MazzaCane Connors / Kim Gordon - Loren's Birthday (MP3)
from Live at Tonic compilation

2000
Emergency! - Columbo (MP3)
from Live at Tonic compilation

2001
Rovo - Vitamine (MP3)
from Tonic 2001 (Tzadik)

Barry Guy - Still (MP3)
unreleased

2002
Marina Rosenfeld / Raz Mesinai - Lover's Quarrel (MP3)
from Live at Tonic compilation

2003
Milford Graves - Talk (MP3)
Milford Graves / John Zorn - Synchronicity (MP3)
from Duo (Tzadik)

2004
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Chat (MP3)
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Ambugaton (MP3)
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Sleep is Wrong (MP3)
unreleased

2005
Folk Songs Trio (Victor Gama / William Parker / Hamid Drake) - untitled (MP3)
unreleased

2006
Marco Benevento - Bye-Ya
from Marco Benevento Live at Tonic (Ropeadope)

2007
Christian McBride - Hibiscus (MP3)
from Christian McBride Live at Tonic (Ropeadope)

Peter Brotzmann / Marino Pliakas / Michael Wertmuller - untitled (MP3)
from Live at Tonic Farewell April 11/2007
self released edition of 300, available here

NB: Brotzmann says at the end of the track "See you next time, hopefully soon, somewhere else." The next next time in New York is April 20 at the Soto Velez Cultural Center (moved from Roulette). The music always manages to find a home.

Comments

[Alan Licht]

Well said (and posted), Kurt.

[License Farm]

I loved Tonic, and along with the loss of Luna Lounge and Collective Unconscious I considered those three stakes in the heart of the Lower East Side. I've been wondering lately, if recession or worse strikes this country, who are these supposed thousands of moneyed people who will buy or rent the condos and other new apts plopped into where cheap culture once flourished? Call it a pollyanna hunch, but when these luxury homes fail to net their owners the pennies-on-the-dollar profits they'd expected when they invested, they will either be left to rot, and thus reclaimed by squatters, or at very least be discounted heavily. You give it a few years; the Lower East Side is coming back.