As posted on the blog and facebook

Spill.

If Kyle is now a free agent, another venue would be wise to pickup him up.

All I know is that I was supposed to play there this past Saturday. Kyle found out about the closing at 4:30 on Friday and had my show moved to Used Kids by 4:45. Dude is a force of nature.

Eric Bachmann @ Treehouse

Treehouse memorials starting to go up on Facebook. (Feel free to re-post them here, Hemminger and Wray!)

I don't have many details yet, so what I'm wondering is, since technically the Treehouse was being leased, couldn't the building's owner just lease to someone else? Unless the owner himself has just said he's done with it.

Sad news. I always enjoyed time at The Treehouse.

The Treehouse closed - likely for good - this past weekend and it only made sense to write a eulogy for a place which has helped to shape my life over the last 7 years.

I don't remember the first time I ever set foot in the Treehouse, but the first time I ever played there was in 2005. My old band had developed a mutual admiration society with Miranda Sound and they set us up with a show. I was familiar with the place, but you always get a new appreciation for a bar once you've established a professional relationship with it. I really dug the way they did business. They treated bands really well, or, as well as you can in the laissez-faire atmosphere they had cultivated. Do whatever you want in that back room with the silver maple in it (including running your own sound), then we'll give you the door money and you can "get the fuck out."

My opinion of the Treehouse fully solidified, it became my preferred destination when I had the urge (and the cash) to check out what my new hometown had to offer. And I always felt welcome in those early days, despite not really knowing anyone there and not showing up with enough frequency to be remembered. Over the ensuing years, I have played the Treehouse close to 50 times. I've paid countless covers to see bands great and small. I even got to the point where everyone knew my name. This shithole had a hold over me that I just couldn't shake.

Even though I can't remember my own exact initial impressions of the bar, the reactions of bands who saw the place for the first time always rang a few bells in my mind. Most of them would ask if they'd have to turn their amps down, trying to fathom why anyone would have rock shows in this intimate space. More than a couple hit their heads on the low-hanging stage-right speaker that Treehouse veterans had trained themselves to avoid. The place hid its charms like a girl playing hard-to-get, but it usually didn't take long to discover and embrace them.

I guess I had become so enamored with those charms that I was more than willing to overlook the place's flaws (and there were a lot of flaws). I don't presume to speak for the Treehouse's management, but I'd bet that they were of a similar mind. It's all too easy to embrace nostalgia for the way things were and neglect the way things are. If everyone viewed the Treehouse through the same rose-colored glasses, I probably wouldn't be talking about the place in the past tense. It's just really sad to me that the bar's legacy will be as the leaking, stinking, half-hearted, broken-down shell of the place that we initially fell in love with.

Bars come and go. They serve their purpose and eventually outlive their usefulness. The Treehouse was never going to be an exception to the rule. Like a mother bird, it nurtured a corner of the Columbus music scene and raised it into something special. But once that baby could fly, the mother withered away. The Treehouse's demise this past weekend was that tired old bird taking off to find a secluded place to die and making it no further than the edge of the nest before plummeting unceremoniously to the ground.

Thanks for the memories, Treehouse. I may not remember the first time, but I'll never forget the last...


"Waiting on deliverance is just like waiting on a tree that you can't get out from under."
-"Winterwind" by Bottomless Pit (one of the many, many great bands I got to see at the Treehouse.)

i am what u call a gambleing man
and i am gonna wager that my highly discussed disagreement with joe peppercorn played a factor in this

joe peppercorn confess thy sins!!!!

ps why didnot anyone tell me this message board was back??????????

For those looking for an explanation, apparently it was related to building code violations: http://www.theonion.com/articles/junior ... ouse,4728/

Well at least it probably wasn't sex assault like some venues are rumored to have. Break out the chainsaws!

Here is my official statement, Dagger is 100% correct that my disagreement with him was the catalyst for the bar being shut down. He got at me. He can now be like "you mad" and I'd be like "indeed."

So The Treehouse is closed "indefinitely" and now I am getting a flurry of messages saying "hey Joe, what's up with the Treehouse?" Here is where I am coming from:

The bar closing is absolutely none of my business, because I quit last week, before the bar "closed indefinitely." My last shift was Thursday night, before any of this started, and I had already moved my open mic to KOBO before the bar "closed indefinitely." I was working at the Treehouse a lot less in the last year, and was ready for a new atmosphere. I do not know what the owner plans to do with the bar, or whether it will open up again. I hope everything works out for everyone involved. The only thing I know is that I will not be a part of the Treehouse anymore, no matter what happens from here.

It is very sad to see the bar come to an end for me, but I've made my peace. Working there was a humbling experience that taught me a lot. My band played there many times, and had some of our best shows there, I met Jon Stewart there, I saw Bottomless Pit, Rosebuds, Eric Bachmann, Richard Buckner, Cracker, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, Damien Jurado, Doug Gillard, and innumerable favorite local bands play there. I got to play GBV songs for Bob Pollard, and then he drooled on my shoulder. I've had the pleasure of introducing hundreds of performers at the open mic I ran for 6 years there. I had the thrill of working with Parker Paul at the piano karaoke. The Treehouse allowed me to befriend Andy Davis and blessed me with his friendship before he left us last year. Some of my best friends are people I met at the Treehouse. I met Quinn Fallon there 8 years ago and invited him to my wedding two months later. It is the place I first held the Beatles Marathon, which I plan to make an annual thing (this year it will be at KOBO). I love my memories there and look forward to making new ones at new places with everyone.

As Kyle pointed out, the bar is "closed indefinitely," so I am holding off making a long-winded essay about how much I loved the bar until I get word that it is officially done for good. I wish everyone involved the best and look forward to working with other bars in town.

If this is the end of the bar, I am at least glad that it didn't close cuz the tree fell and crushed a crappy band and all of its fans to death.

you and i are VERY different people . . .

Playing there with TV Ghost was a gas brothers!

I agree with leopoldbloom; the bar closing is none of his business. Truth be known I asked for some blueberry cacao shots after seeing The Smurfs movie at Lennox and Peppercorn gave me some real attitude when I refused to pay because he made them with peach schnapps. He acted like they were some kind of pussy shots like cats ass on fire. Then shit got real. Then the bar closed and has not reopened since. So, i'm fucked. Now I have friends playing at Carabar and Ron Barker wont let me drink for free or step in there without sicking his sixteen year old door guys on me nor will he box me in a three round charity match. So Ace of Cups it is! Smurf off, Peppercorn and kiss my ass, Barker.

abstraction, please add as candidate

Stupid technical difficulties...

Joel's got some details about those "technical difficulties" in tomorrow's Other Paper.....

This article better point fingers and name names. I want some drama Joel.

I'm pretty sure the effect on the Columbus Music Scene = zero.

In the last 3-4 years, I've probably been there once. I think it's a terrible place for shows, even though Kyle did book some great stuff.

I've only seen the Red Sox play once since 2003. I hear they play some pretty good games but since I've only seen them once, they must suck.

(just kidding, of course)

I'm pretty sure the effect on the Columbus Music Scene of Jawbreaker never attending a show at the Treehouse = zero.

Bands have played there 4-5 nights a week for the past several years & I don't recall anyone ever asking about you, dude. There's a bunch of great house venues out there that I'll likely never attend, but I'm not arrogant enough to assume that they are insignificant because I don't go there.

Unfortunately, few people in Columbus define "the scene" beyond the people and places they see in their own weekly routines.