Listening to live music in North Adams

12:00AM / Wednesday, July 24, 2002Print Story | Email Story

This is an article many people might be surprised to see: a profile of music venues in North Adams. Notice venues is the plural form of the word. And I am defining venue as a place where people go to listen to (or dance to) original music, not some smoky bar where the performer is part of a milieu of giant TV screens showing ten different sporting events simultaneously, or the band is cranking out the greatest hits of the 80s. Most towns have those. What Iâ€™m talking about is gathering places where people can hear original music by either local or touring musicians, and the venue owner sees the artists as providing a valuable service to the venue and its clientele. Of course MASS MoCA is the mother of all venues in North Berkshire, and is without a doubt the catalyst for the renaissance of original music venues locally, as it has been for so much other art and original thought since it opened. MASS MoCA is a great venue: it has several different performance spaces, both inside and out; it has a top notch sound and production crew, with the equipment to match, to give an artist everything they could need for a performance; and, in Jonathan Secor, the Director of Performing Arts, it has the courage and vision to bring the most creative and original performers to the area. Over the next few weeks, MASS MoCA will bring the concluding performances of the summer residency of the original music program Bang on a Can, original musical scores to silent movies by a DJ and a guitarist, an evening of Viennese electronic music with a West African singer, and a Cuban music Dance Party, along with several other performances and performance pieces. A complete listing of performances and exhibitions at MASS MoCA is available at www.massmoca.org or by calling 664-4481. MASS MoCA is very well known and has been written up many times, both by The Advocate and other publications. Original music, while still new to North Adams, has at least a foothold in two smaller venues: Joga CafÃ© and Canteen. â€œIâ€™ve always wanted to open a restaurant/bar and I thought North Adams was heading in a direction where I could jump in and it would be viable,â€ said Daniel Weissbrodt, owner of Joga. Weissbrodt opened Joga, located on Eagle Street, just over a year ago. â€œAfter going to places in New York, the space was designed where I would want to hang out here,â€ he said. â€œMusic was something that I always wanted.â€ Weissbrodt had design help from Keith Nogueira from MASS MoCA. The space is a single storefront, considerably longer than it is wide. The performance area is on the right just inside the entry vestibule, and the bar is further along on the right. There are some tables with lounge seating across from the stage area, which is actually level with the rest of the floor. According to Weissbrodt, a semi-enclosed booth across from the near end of the bar acts as a sound chamber. The stereo house sound system has a speaker in each corner, with diagonally opposed corners on the same channel, so nearly every seat has stereo sound. The entire space is non-smoking, although there is an outdoor patio where smoking is allowed. The inside seats about 50 and the patio about 20. Weissbrodt started right off with music when the cafÃ© opened. â€œI wanted to slowly build into an actual venue space, like a Club Helsinki [in Gt. Barrington], like a Knitting Factory [in NYC],â€ he said. â€œNow Iâ€™m getting bands like for instance the Patiokings. They played here one night, the next night the House of Blues in Montreal.â€ Weissbrodt said he is now getting inquiries from touring artists all over who are interested in playing at Joga. Thursday 7/25, Mike Dimmin will be appearing, playing jazz, blues and funk. Friday will be more blues and funk with Jazz Eleven. Next week will bring visits from Mamacita and The Patiokings, both of whom are scheduled to appear at Berkfest. Local jazz guitar phenom Jason Ennis is among those scheduled to appear later in the summer. The Canteen opened last year on Ashland Street. There, the music is part of the total experience. According to Donna Beebe, spokesperson for Canteen, owner Scott Avery plans elaborate â€œTheme Nights,â€ with special menus, decorations and music all designed to transport the patron to another place or time. For instance, Brazilian music from Sonny and Perley with special guest Charlie Tokarz will round out Rio Night tonight at Canteen. Reggieâ€™s Red Hot Feet Warmers played for Mardi Gras Night, and they have had other theme nights such as Irish Night around St. Paddyâ€™s Day. Beebe said that Sonny and Perley play about once a month, and they fit right in. â€œThe idea of The Canteen is a comforting 40s type atmosphere. Sonny and Perley play a lot of that,â€ she said, referring to the jazz and cabaret style tunes for which they are known. For now, The Canteen is only having live entertainment a few nights a month. One additional venue deserves mention: The Railway CafÃ©, the brainchild of Laini Sporbert of North Adams. It features a once a month concert by a traveling singer/songwriter, and it is held in the second floor performance space of the St. Johnâ€™s Episcopal Church Parish House on Summer Street in North Adams. The CafÃ© is taking the summer off, but will resume shows in September. Rumored performers for later in the season include such luminaries as Cliff Eberhardt and Tom Prasada-Rao, among others. Check out the soon-to-be updated website at www.fusf.org/railwaycafe for more information. All the venue operators interviewed had a positive outlook on the future of North Adams, but none more so that Jogaâ€™s Weissbrodt, who was born and raised here, but lived elsewhere for a decade before returning last year. â€œI think the city is going about a lot of things right, the city is heading in a wonderful direction, and itâ€™s not going to go back to the way it was. Itâ€™s gone too far now, itâ€™s gone beyond, itâ€™s to the point of no return,â€ he said. â€œThe 70s, 80s, early 90s were pretty rough on this beautiful, beautiful city, and the people here are amazing, salt-of-the-earth, hardworking people.â€ Hopefully, they are the type of people who will support the renaissance of original music in North Berkshire.

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North Adams School Committee Applauds Award Winner, Hears Budget

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
02:42PM / Wednesday, April 08, 2026

Superintendent Timothy Callahan presents his first Superintendent's Award to Brayden Canales.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Committee on Tuesday voted to send a recommending fiscal 2027 budget to a public hearing and congratulated the newest recipient of the Superintendent's Award.

Drury High School senior Brayden Canales is graduating at the top of his class with 33 college credits and a grade-point average of 4.3.

"In addition to his impressive list of college courses, he has rounded out his transcript with several Advanced Placement and project based learning courses," said Superintendent Timothy Callahan, adding, "I had the honor to be Brayden's principal when he began a Drury."

Canales is a member of both the Nu Sigma and Pro Merito honor societies and received the Principal's Award for having the top five average in his class all four years and the Rensselaer (N.Y.) Institute of Technology award for science and math as a junior outside of the classroom.

He's also been a member of the soccer, hockey and baseball teams and this year was presented the Berkshire County Ice Hockey Officials Association's Sportsmanship Award for his leadership. Canales has also been a peer mediator, student ambassador, among other activities.

He plans to pursue a major in architecture but has not yet selected a college.

The Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Certificate of Academic Excellence is awarded to students who have achieved not only academically but in leadership and community service.

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