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The Roxy, the metro space’s latest reside music venue — situated in downtown Rochester — is slated to open on June 16-17. (Photo courtesy of The Roxy)
Glenn Wilhelm is standing inside The Roxy in downtown Rochester on a sunny afternoon, a bottle of Windex in hand.
“It’s a good sign sawdust is coming to an end and cleaning is starting,” he notes with fun.
The Roxy, the metro space’s newest reside music venue, is slated to open on June 16-17 with two sold-out nights of dueling pianos. The 18,000-square-foot-venue on Walnut Blvd. — constructed as a church in 1850 and most famously the house of the Village Shoe Inn — already has a stacked schedule of nationwide acts (Colin Raye, Aaron Tippin, Colt Ford, Albert Cummings, Jack Russell’s Great White, the Verve Pipe, Popa Chubby, A Flock of Seagulls, Buckcherry), tribute bands, comedians (Bill Bushart) and extra introduced into early November.
Wilhelm can also be lining up non-public and group occasions for The Roxy and hopes to construct to the purpose of getting the ability energetic 4 or 5 nights every week frequently.
“I really felt there was a need for entertainment in downtown Rochester,” says Wilhelm, 53, who’s been a resident for 20 years. “We have a lot of great restaurants, but I thought they were missing the entertainment piece of the puzzle. So I’ve been keeping my eye on Rochester for a number of years.”
Janelle Hopkins of Holt-based Meridian Entertainment, which is reserving The Roxy’s nationwide acts, provides that there’s been appreciable curiosity from acts to date. “We’re looking at rock, country, blues, tributes, jazz, comedians — pretty much all the genres,” she says. “It’s a nice venue. The set-up is really nice. I do think it’s going to bring people from outside the community into Rochester.”
Wilhelm just isn’t a newcomer to the enterprise. He owns the Oakland Kitchen and Bar in Oakland Township in addition to Younger’s Irish Tavern in Romeo; the latter has a small music venue upstairs that hosts principally native acts however whetted Wilhelm’s urge for food for extra. “I was looking for something a step up, where we could do some larger acts and have some national acts and things like that,” he says. He purchased The Roxy’s constructing a couple of yr and a half in the past and commenced building in August, doing a lot of the work himself with some buddies and along with his spouse Katie doing a lot of the design work.
“The location is a real key to what we’re doing,” Wilhelm explains. “I think there’s a good circle here where we can draw from people locally and get people to come from outside. It’s a walkable area, so people can come and park once, have dinner somewhere and then come to the show.” The Roxy — which takes its title from the historic theater in Los Angeles in addition to others world wide which have used the moniker — will provide a restricted, “snack” oriented menu in addition to a full bar.
The venue features a Roxy Lounge within the basement, whereas the principle room, with a capability of 900, has a balcony that wraps round three-quarters of the constructing. Wilhelm and his cohorts restored the church’s textured tin ceiling from the mid-Nineteenth century and constructed new stage and bar service areas. The Roxy has already employed about 30 staffers for occasion nights, and Wilhelm expects so as to add one other 15 or so earlier than the doorways open in mid-June.
And after all of the constructing and planning, that date can’t come too quickly.
“It’s exciting, and it feels like a lot of other people are excited,” Wilhelm notes. “Being in the building every day you see the changes; people who aren’t are shocked at how much has gotten done. It’s starting to feel ready. I can’t wait ’til we get people in here and get the music playing.”
The Roxy is situated at 401 Walnut Blvd. in Rochester. 248-453-5385 or theroxyrochester.com for schedule, tickets and different info.
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