well gang, it’s been a fun ride. but as you know, local music can be a fickle landscape: songwriters move out of town, house venues get shut down, or bands abruptly break up. for the past 2 years, connecticut booking agency Manic Presents has sponsored “Manic Mondays”, a weekly series at Cafe Nine in New Haven. if you’ve never been before, the idea was pretty straightforward: cheap (and free) shows that featured local and touring bands sharing the same stage on monday nights. for the touring bands, it was a great way to fill out a monday night (often difficult to schedule because of its typically smaller audiences at the start of the work week), and for local bands, it was a chance to play on a good stage, with a good sound engineer, to a new set of ears and eyes. and this brings us to a real good-news/bad news situation.
okay, so here’s the bad news: Manic Mondays will not continue into 2020. and the good news? Manic Mondays’ final installment, scheduled on December 30th, will feature a stacked bill, with Ports of Spain, Snake Oil, Elison Jackson, American Elm, and Witch Hair.
on Manic’s instagram post announcing the show, they write: “After 2 years of memorable free shows at @cafenine, our weekly #ManicMondays music series will be coming to an end. But we’re not done just yet!! Join us for the final installment of the series: ‘Not Another Manic Monday’ on December 30th featuring some of our favorite CT bands – Ports of Spain, Snake Oil, Elison Jackson, American Elm, and Witch Hair! More TBA. Free with RSVP (or $5 at the door) via manicpresents.com”.
a few months ago, when asked on the Redscroll Records podcast, there seemed to be no plans to change or end Manic Mondays. i have asked Manic (via social media) for clarification about the series’ future, about if it will continue at another venue in 2020, but i was left on “seen”. [sad emoji]
on a personal level, this is indeed sad news. Manic Mondays have provided some of my favorite 2019 gigs so far: the dynamite SAP / Hellrazor / Didi show — the beautiful, loving Lil Sluggers / Minor Moon / Western Dens show — the packed-house Jacque Le Coque / Leggy / Habibi show — the excellently loud Crag Mask / T-Wrex / Tunic gig — the phenomenal Straight to VHS / Blis / Weakened Friends performances. but beyond those stand-out nights, Manic Mondays represented something special. it was often perceived as a proving ground for up-and-coming bands, eager to play outside of the normal DIY spaces and audiences. the belief was that if you put on a great show at a Manic Monday, you might get drafted into opening for a band at the Space Ballroom, where you would, again, get a chance to play for unfamiliar faces. whether that was indeed the case is beside the point; it was a symbolic common ground, where Manic was able to throw a bone to local bands in a low-stakes setting.
i love Manic Presents — i think our state is lucky to have them, because the company does still enlist lots of great local talent in the bigger Ballroom shows — but the loss of Manic Mondays feels like a move away from that grassroots feeling. business is business, and i can understand how a night of great entertainment with a $0 cover might not be a lucrative investment for Manic or Cafe 9. i suppose on the bright side, this might be an opportunity for the excellent Tiny Box or Couch Yeti agencies (for example) to expand their reach/influence, helping touring bands cover that tricky monday tour slot while simultaneously promoting the local scene.
i’d be up for a Tiny Box Tuesdays series. just sayin’.
