A sad time for Youngstown, OH, USA

[swingdjted]

http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/dec/0...hutter-cedars/

An "underground" club is dying after being an important stepping stone for metal, indie, and punk bands and local painters for decades. Cedars Pub and Cafe has had more amazing acts while the bands were still in infancy than anywhere in the entire state.

My screen name is built on the words "Swing DJ Ted". I spent a few years as a weekly Thursday night 10 p.m.-2 a.m. swing dance disc jockey there. Of all the jobs I have ever had, this job was by far best: play damn good music, eat free food, drink free beer, and dance with gorgeous girls dressed up in impressive dance-gowns, and get paid for it.

I also performed there a lot of Tuesday nights on their jazz night, and regularly on weekends with a total of 4 local rock/punk/metal bands from the time I was 16 years old to 21, but also subbed and guest-played until around 25. A lot of my college tuition came from there. When I wasn't performing, I tried to visit there as a customer too as much as possible. Most people who know me say their best times with me were either there or at my camp, which luckily I will likely not lose. I invested a lot of my life in Cedars, and Cedars invested a lot in me.

In addition to the club, which was almost dive-like and humble, a perfect 'underground' setting, the place had a nice patio with all kinds of exotic plants and impressive landscaping making you feel like you were in a tiny jungle. Inside it had dozens of huge paintings that were hung not only to enjoy but to purchase if you liked one enough. Some were giant 5 foot by 7 foot impressionist images of Charlie Parker (Jazz saxophone great), or the Misfits (punk band), or of a rusting steel mill. Some outside were around 20 feet wide and 40 feet tall banners hung on the side of the 4 story building. There was a cafe attached in a different part of the building that served mostly Mediterranean food, still full of great local paintings and sculptures. Each booth had carvings on the wood framework unique to that booth. There were poetry slams, folk bands, performance artists, and damn near anything interesting under the sun there.

This place has survived decades while the copy-cats and competitors have come and gone. A show there is a unique and deeply moving experience that viewers talk about for the rest of their lives, regardless of whether it's punk, jazz, or a string quartet in the jungle like patio.

Prices throughout were affordable, so you could go a lot and not go broke, and the business was doing well despite this and despite a hurting economy. The owner of the building was a family member of the girl running it, and sold it right out from under her for a very low price. The new owner has plans to kick the business out, because it doesn't fit his/her "vision" for the building. That really angers countless people both locally and all over the country. Nobody talked about it being for sale; had I known I could have bought it myself for as low the price was. It would have been worth it to preserve the focus on local art and music and preserve that important piece of Youngstown.

The business is one of the only ones that people feel is worth talking about when outside of the region. The whole city will be different when this place dies or moves. I personally am a mixture of depressed and enraged. This indeed is a very sad time for the city of Youngstown, OH.