In September, the future of the Surf Club was looking bright. The Kenilworth Avenue roots music roadhouse in Edmonston, Md., had regained the right to sell alcohol on nights it featured live music. But Thursday afternoon in an email to members of the Twistlist roots music listserv, Surf Club owner James Byrum wrote:
I want to thank everyone for [...]
Good news, roots rock fans: Starting tonight, Edmonston, Md., venue Surf Club is again hosting live music you can drink to. Owner James Byrum wrote to local roots music listserv Twistlist on Sept. 15 with the good news:
Thanks to the Prince Georges County Liquor Control Board, the Surf Club is once again hosting live bands with [...]
The Surf Club still has not permanently regained an entertainment license allowing it to present live music and sell booze in the same evening, but the club’s owner James Byrum announced on the club’s website Monday that tomorrow's tribute show to what would have been Buddy Holly’s 75th birthday (the rock pioneer was born Sept. 7) [...]
Capitol Heights nightclub MSG is staying closed. Yesterday, its owner asked a Prince George's County circuit judge to suspend the new law that police used earlier this month to shutter MSG following a fatal shooting outside the venue, the Examiner reports. The judge denied the request.
Owner Eric Pickens has another chance today, however, at a [...]
For the first time last week, Prince George's County authorities used expanded powers related to dancehall licensing to shutter the Capitol Heights nightclub MSG following a fatal shooting that police said took place outside the venue. Those powers fall under a July 19 bill passed unanimously by the Prince George's County Council that increased license fees, requires [...]
Tonight offers fans of old-school blues, soul, and rockabilly some interesting choices. Strathmore is presenting “Blues at the Crossroads: Robert Johnson Centennial Concert.” The show features Colorado jam band Big Head Todd & the Monsters performing with special blues guests David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Hubert Sumlin, and Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm. These folks all worked on [...]
Local combo Hillbilly Jazz returns to Hyattsville roadhouse the Surf Club tonight. Hillbilly Jazz was the Thursday night house band there from 2003 until 2009, when this longtime honky-tonk dropped live music and became simply a drinking bar for the neighborhood (that is now mostly Hispanic). But as noted here, last August Surf Club owner [...]
In July 2009, the Surf Club, a Hyattsville roadhouse that had been presenting live roots-rock, blues, and zydeco, transformed into a neighborhood bar catering to the area’s Spanish-speaking population—but with no live music. More than year later, on August 26, the club suddenly featured a D.C. Blues Society-sponsored gig with Louisiana bluesman Kenny Neal. Tonight, live [...]
The Myspace site for the Surf Club (aka the Surf Club Live and previously Chick Hall’s Surf Club) now plays Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a Changin,” but perhaps it would make more sense to play something in Spanish. Concerned about small turnouts for the blues-rock, country, and other roots styles he has [...]
Whenever I tell folks I like New Orleans brass bands, I gotta convince them that the groups are funky like old-school DC go-go combos, not sedate like old-fashioned Dixieland troupes. That is the case with Mama Digdown's Brass Band, who are appearing at the Surf Club Thursday night (conflict of interest note—I told them about [...]
