Rocking Out

World Café Live is the Delaware Valley’s newest destination for music-lovers of all ages.

By: Matt Smith

TIMEOFF PHOTOS/MATT SMITHI

John Fogerty performs at World Café Live, a new music venue at 3025 Walnut St. in Philadelphia.

Encore, Encore    On the last show of a tour, a performer is usually in a celebratory mood — offering multiple encores and playful cover songs. Third-to-last gigs are usually less inspired, as was the case with Butterfly Boucher at World Café Live last week.    The Australian singer-songwriter, whose given first name really is Butterfly, has been touring hard behind her debut CD, Flutterby. She opened for fellow Nettwerk Records artist Sarah McLachlan’s summer tour, and begins an ambitious European trek this weekend. So goes the life of an up-and-coming artist.    Backed by a guitarist, drummer and keyboard player/computer operator, the bass-slinging Boucher’s hour-long set of hook-laden pop songs was solid, if unspectacular, and there was no encore. She did rock out somewhat hard at times, and the World Café Live acoustics definitely passed the test with flying C chords.    Joined only by a keyboard player, singer-songwriter Griffin House offered a short opening set of mellow, heartfelt songs sparsed by friendly banter and a bit of audience participation. He probably would have played an encore if given the opportunity.

   World Café Live IS your parents’ music venue.
   The $15 million, 40,000-square-foot complex in a converted Art
Deco factory at 3025 Walnut St. in Philadelphia is both palatial and cozy —
the architectural offspring of a Las Vegas showroom and a Borders bookstore. It
includes new studios for 88.5 WXPN-FM, the popular non-profit "Adult Album Alternative"
radio station, and the independent, for-profit World Café Live, named after
XPN’s popular syndicated World Café program. The club is comprised of Downstairs
Live, a 350- to 700-capacity hall, and Upstairs Live, a more intimate 100-seat
café.
   The project is a joint venture between the University of Pennsylvania-run
WXPN, developer Dranoff Properties and local entrepreneur Hal Real’s Real Entertainment
Group — in concert with three area architectural firms.
   On the creative side, former WXPN staffer Bruce Ranes serves
as music director. Mr. Ranes, a Baby Boomer himself, confirmed that World Café
Live is an "adult" venue.
   "A lot of adults still love music and want to see shows," he
notes, "and many of them, like myself, we’re getting tired of cramming into these
big arenas or sometimes stadiums, or going to venues where you have to stand,
the floors are sticky, the bathrooms are kind of grungy — less than ideal
conditions to see the show.
   "If one is an adult in their 30s, 40s or 50s, you want to be
able to see the kind of music you enjoy — whether it’s an artist you grew
up watching or maybe a new discovery — and to be able to sit in a comfortable
seat with clear sightlines. You want clean bathrooms, and if you feel like it,
getting a nice drink or dinner to have as you enjoy the concert. You want a convenient
place to park near the venue, and to be accessible to mass transportation… If
you’re going through a mental checklist of what an adult music-lover would want
from a venue, I think you could go one by one and say, ‘World Café Live
has that.’"

TIMEOFF PHOTOS/MATT SMITHI

World Café Live in Philadelphia.

   A Tuesday-night show at Downstairs Live by Butterfly Boucher
and Griffin House ended just after 9 p.m., in time for concertgoers to catch the
10 o’clock news or catch a train back to the suburbs at 30th Street Station, located
just two blocks away. However, the simultaneous performance by The Weepies at
Upstairs Live was still going strong as the Downstairs Live audience left the
building.
   The shows at Downstairs Live will generally feature established
performers, most with some WXPN pedigree. Jonatha Brooke and John Cale have already
played there, with Bruce Cockburn and Shawn Colvin still to come this fall. The
programming at Upstairs Live is, for the most part, more musically adventurous
— and free.
   "It’s fair to say that World Café Live will feature a
fair amount of artists that XPN has played, continues to play or maybe have just
started to play," says Mr. Ranes, "and that’s probably going to a good majority
of what you could expect to see at World Café Live. But we’re going to
go above and beyond that, and feature not only artists but also programming that
go beyond the typical XPN scope, which in itself is very wide."
   Upstairs Live is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven
days a week, and Mr. Ranes promises a musical entrée Monday-Sunday as well.
"The idea is that you should never be able to call up and say, ‘Do you have any
music tonight?’ because the answer is ‘Yes’ every night, and sometimes even in
parts of the daytime, whether it be a national act or prominent local act downstairs,
or an emerging or local act playing upstairs… We also want to be a community
center for the Philadelphia music scene, a place where musicians of all genres
converge."
   To the rest of the Philadelphia music community, the $64,000
dollar question seems to be this: What effect will World Café Live have
on other venues that have benefited because of XPN, such as The Point in Bryn
Mawr or the Tin Angel in Old City?
   "I’d like to think that it’s better for the Philadelphia music
community," says Mr. Ranes. "We’re expanding the palette… There are more choices.
I think, ultimately, the presence of World Café Live will benefit the entire
music scene in Philadelphia."
World Café Live is located at 3025 Walnut St., Philadelphia. For information,
call (215) 222-1400. World Café Live on the Web: www.worldcafelive.com