Bunker History

Summertime is a great time for reflection. In the South (I’ve lived in Arkansas and then Texas since summer 2016) it gets hot really early in the day and doesn’t really cool down, so I’m “doing” less things and spending more time “thinking about what’s been done”. Since the IfCM Collective got back from our Montana tour I’ve been buzzing with energy thinking about all of the great places and people we visited with on the trip. June 30th is the end of the IfCM’s fiscal year and while I review and reflect on the past year’s work I wander into thinking about the projects from past years in Northwest Arkansas, upstate New York, Montana, and more. Festivals, camps, classes, workshops, and performances seem like they happened so recently but it’s been more than ten-and-a-half years since we started doing all this “jazz and creative music” business. I don’t think that I can pick a favorite event (maybe you all can help with that), but after talking with my wife Kim about some of her research and writing on jazz places I couldn’t stop reminiscing about one of my favorite IfCM haunts: The Bunker.

Rochester’s 19th Ward is a vibrant and diverse community where Kim and I moved in 2010 that’s nestled in between Genesee Valley Park and the University of Rochester. After renting for a couple of years, we were able to buy a great house with an ample, but unfinished basement. As a drummer who owns earplugs and a few throw rugs I know that a basement is the perfect lair for practicing long hours and jamming with friends. This particular basement had a laundry chute that enabled Kim, our housemates, and later our two eldest children to hear the sound from the basement piped through the first and second floors with startling acoustical clarity. I was able to wedge a throw pillow up the bottom of the chute to dampen some of the marvelous racket when requested. In addition to using it as a drum practice and teaching space Ihad regular band rehearsals for multiple iterations of Quintopus as well (you can hear and see some early highlights through the short videos below):

In December 2011 a decision was made (I take most of the blame, but think that my Quintopus cohorts egged on the idea) to turn the basement into a concert space where we could invite our friends over to listen and play with us. Matthew and I framed a stage, I SEWED curtains to hang on the back wall, and after many middle of the night trips to Walmart to refill the staple gun, “The Bunker” was ready for its debut performance in January 2012 celebrating the Mayoversary (a fabricated holiday coinciding with my birthday). Quintopus performed:

Our friends the Windsor Folk Family performed, AND we did the first Rochester performance of Matthew Golombisky’s compositions for community musicians which ended up becoming the Blank Tape Series of concerts:

Low clearance ceiling. Great lighting. Hallmarks of an excellent venue.

Kim and I hosted many concerts in the Bunker (including the delicious Bunker Brew series) and it was a blast. We played music, hung out, and ate snacks with our friends and new folks from our neighborhood and the greater Rochester community. When we moved to Northwest Arkansas in 2016 I dragged the heavy-ass 4x8 foot panels of stage flooring into the U-Haul and they eventually became the floor for our chicken coop:

March 2020 was a boom for backyard chicken housing.

When we moved to Denton last summer the Bunker stage remained in Fayetteville. But I still have the curtains…

Do you have a favorite IfCM moment or event that you’d like to share? This year is going to be the IfCM’s exciting 11th anniversary and I’d love to hear from you. Ponder that question and fill out this form.