The Waiting Room opens Friday
by Tim McMahan
A mere month after taking possession of the building that used to house Marnie’s Place, D Dubs and the legendary Liftticket Lounge, The Waiting Room in the heart of Benson, is ready for business.
Its owners — Jim Johnson and Marc Leibowitz — are ready for business as well.
Since getting the keys from the landlord, a visibly worn but excited Johnson had spent 12 hours a day, every day, cleaning, painting and repairing the facility, from building a gorgeous new bar to upgrading the stage to remodeling the bathrooms. And when we visited last Thursday at the venue, he wasn’t through yet. There was still more work to be done. The Pepsi guy was scheduled to show up the next morning; more tables and chairs were on the way; a collection of posters from past One Percent Productions shows (what the duo is known for) had yet to be hung and the booze hadn’t arrived yet (nor had their liquor license).
But the most important element — the venue’s monster stage, sound and lighting system — was in place and ready for liftoff. Using an iPod plugged into the soundboard, Johnson and Leibowitz ran a brief test of the system, playing tracks by Red House Painters, The Replacements and Frontier Trust, finally settling on Beck’s Sea Change. Even with one of the large stage speakers still yet to be hooked up, the sound was pristine — huge and full-bodied — and very loud.
“It’ll be even louder when the bands are playing,” Leibowitz said. “It’s basically a souped-up version of Sokol Underground’s PA in a room half the size. It has the same speakers, but the amps are better. The monitors are the same, the board is a lot better and there are twice as many stage lights.”
Here is a link to the full article at The Reader
http://www.thereader.com/lazyi.php?suba ... =&ucat=25&
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