Standing in an expansive, sawdust-strewn building near the corner of Shaw and Kingshighway, on the very edge of The Hill, JB Anderson sees a project that’s not-all-that-far from reality. Asked an opening date for the very-much-in-construction Gaslight Lounge (above), he’s direct in saying “mid-November.” When an eyebrow is raised to the response, he’s quick to note the many reasons that his projection will hold up, all of them delivered confidently by this seasoned general contractor.
“Yeah, yeah,” he says, guiding a tour through the many rooms of 4916 Shaw. “We’re basically having our mechanicals done by next week and the following week it’s all about covering walls and painting. And we’re keeping a lot of it rustic.”
The Gaslight Lounge, as the name might suggest, is going to be a bar, as Anderson says, based on drinks “like manhattans served in rocks glasses. Classics. It’ll have a mid-century feel. It’s a little bit of a shout-out to the Gaslight Square district (right), where booze and music held hands.”
But the Gaslight Lounge is going to be far from just a bar. Let’s count the reasons why.
One. It’s going to be homebase to Anderson’s GC2 construction business, with a huge backroom that’ll be home to projects from “fabrication to furniture repair,” or whatever other needs may come his way.
It’s also going to offer the first standing space for the food truck Cha Cha Chow, which Anderson describes as “southwestern style...primarily about tacos and variations of tacos. They’re really known for their spicy southwest burger. It’s finger food: tacos, burgers. When we were looking at the space, we knew we had to have a food option, and didn’t want to offer up small bowls of spaghetti. So they were a good choice.” Cha Cha’s space will offer a simple counter, not a sit-down space, as such. Folks can carry it out, dine in the lounge and, later, on a projected biergarten, which is currently a six-space parking lot.
The lounge, itself, will be headed up by Matt Stelzer, one of Anderson’s partners in the multi-tiered Gaslight and a principal owner in Morganford’s popular soccer bar, The Amsterdam Tavern.
And now we come to the Gaslight’s most-unique feature and one that’ll distinguish it from not only every bar in St. Louis, but almost any other in the United States: the Gaslight Lounge will feature a recording studio. As in: a fully-operational, per-the-hour, day-and-night recording studio dropped into the center of the complex. In fact, when discussing the studio aspect on his tour of the space, Anderson steps through a low-rise wall, literally passing from one concept to the next, stating that “the whole core of what this place is about is centered around this wall.
“The real concept of the studio is based around the studio,” he muses. “A long time ago, when living in Chicago, I had the idea for this kind of concept, where musicians could play and record. Back then, that meant recording CDs. And the jukebox would be a compilation of everyone who came through and recorded there.”
Anderson, whose family hails from Granite City, has tons of friends who are musicians. Family members, too, like his brother Dana Anderson, who’s an absolute staple in the music clubs of Edwardsville-to-Alton. But even in conversations with Dana, JB felt that the concept of a studio was going to catch a bit of flak from some musicians, those who assume the studio to be a place of solitude, of personal space. At the Gaslight, not much more than thick glass is going to separate the artists and the viewers.
“When I came up with this a while back,” Anderson says, “I heard ‘what? Musicians won’t want to play with people watching them.’ But what this will present is basically a view behind the curtain, into the making of music. When we were developing it further, it really opened up. We could do live skits, or have School of Rock performances; those folks pay a lot for their kids to be in a pro studio, but it’s generally behind closed doors and then there’s one concert. Here, their parents or grandparents could watch them in a pro studio. We’ve talked about partnerships with promotion companies and labels. You have regional acts that are touring around, maybe we could provide some live tracks for their fanbase…”
These are exactly some of the ideas presented by Brian Krumm, a Collinsville native and University of Illinois alum who grew up in bands in-and-around St. Louis. These days, he’s in Chicago, where he heads up the Great Crusades, who play in both the US and Europe, where they actually enjoy their best success. A generation’s worth of touring has given him a good feel for what some adventurous musicians might envision as a real twist on common touring.
“JB reached out to me early and I immediately thought of it as a place I’d be interested in being involved in,” says Krumm, now the venue’s artist relations representative. “I just naturally had a lot of people that I thought would be intrigued by it. He initially told me the concept and I to wrap my head around it. ‘Is this a performance space? Or just for recording?’ Now, I think it’s a very intriguing combination of everything. The lounge will be an exciting place for people who love music and are interested in how it’s created. As I got to know the space better and saw the public space, it made a lot more sense. People are drawn to rooms that showcase how music is created, how it’s documented.”
Krumm will begin his work through a network of contacts built in Chicago and spreading outward. He feels that many bands, like his own, long for something interesting to do when on the road and the Gaslight’s crazy-quilt of ideas will suggest no word more than “interesting.”
“There’s the desire for touring bands to get out of the backstage or tour bus environment,” he says. “After driving, you have soundcheck, dinner, the gig, then you’re going to the hotel or the next city. It’s great to socialize or have special events for fans, or even for the clientele already there. The space is not going to be a good fit for some people. But for me, personally, and for other musicians, they’ll be into it. Sometimes a studio can be sterile and you want the outside perspective. Even in sessions we do, we’ll go to the length of inviting some people to stop by; that makes it more casual. There’s a sense of excitement and sharing with others.”
Anderson, with a wide range of building experiences, is making sure that each aspect of this new Gaslight is being built to spec. The Cha Cha Chow kitchen’s come together from scratch and is on the way to having its bones fleshed out. The studio’s being built with double-walls, two layers of baffling insulation and every other accoutrement needed for 24/7 music recording (done next to a workshop). And the bar, with Stelzer leading the charge, will feature a half-dozen draughts alongside the centerpiece cocktails.
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All of that’s happening in a building that was a warren of low-rent offices in its last life; by blowing out the walls, Anderson keeps finding new/old touches that’ll become eye-catching. What’s eye-catching now, of course, is the building’s location: it’s a one-minute walk from the under-demolition Kingshighway Bridge. While other food-and-beverage businesses that dot Kingshighway are already feeling the after-effects of the bridge work, Anderson figures that “99% of the cars going into The Hill from the south” are heading right by his new front door. By mid-November, he hopes they’re stopping by for a round.
“My brothers and I are primary owners the whole building and Matt’s a minority owner, too,” he says. “We were wanting to do it old-school and say ‘give me some skin in yours and I’ll give you some skin in mine.’ All the businesses should be working towards the same goal. If the studio is full, people are going to be in here for a drink. If the lounge is full, they’ll be watching the studio. Cha Cha’s clientele is going to want to grab a drink and ours will want to eat. We wanted this casual, real tie between the businesses.”
But the name, “Gaslight.” It’s loaded. It’s full of history in a town keen on nostalgia. It’s especially meaningful here, as you can see landmark O’Connell’s, the last business in the original Gaslight Square, from this new Gaslight’s front door. The historic connection is that close. But it’s not that pressure-ful, says Anderson.
“Pressure,” he repeats. “No. We saw it as an ode, rather than having to live up to something. With this being so abstract, with a lounge and live music, we wanted the name to reflect what we’ll do here, that eclectic nature.”
Pause.
“Or we could be crazy.”
