Ypsilanti's Elbow Room seeks to broaden musical scope as new management takes over
The Northern Skies, of Grand Rapids, warm up at the Elbow Room on Friday.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
Not much has changed at Ypsilanti’s Elbow Room bar, now under new management, and for fans that may be just fine.
There’s been some painting, a new mural graces the wall behind the stage, a new sound system has been installed, and classic record album covers line the wall behind the bar.
What’s different, said Ryan Sparks, one of three individuals (the others are John Dunn and Ryan Cavanaugh) now charged with running the Elbow Room, is the venue’s approach to live music.
“We’re looking to book all kinds of music, all styles,” said Sparks. Previously, the Elbow Room concentrated mostly on harder rock.
ELBOW ROOM
- Location: 6 South Washington Street, Ypsilanti.
- Hours: Open 7 nights a week, 9 p.m.-2 a.m.
- Nightly schedule: Thursday: Hip-hop; Friday-Saturday: Live music; Sunday: Dubstep (a subgenre of electronic dance music). Monday-Wednesday: TBA, with open mics to fill in (drum kit available).
- Events: For now, the best way to find out what bands are booked is to “friend” the Elbow Room on Facebook and hope updates have been posted.
Now, though, more hip-hop, electronica, bluegrass, punk, folk and rock acts will be on the bill, with open mic sessions to fill in any gaps, as the bar’s schedule — admittedly still a work in progress — begins to fill up, he added.
The goal, Sparks added, is to offer live music seven nights a week.
Although a change in management (Andy Garris, who previously ran the bar decamped to the nearby Savoy in June) prompted some confusion over the summer — with phones disconnected and the Elbow Room’s website taken over by individuals who may or may not have been associated with the Savoy — Dunn said there are no hard feelings.
“It’s not an issue with Andy. I feel great about it,” said Dunn, who hopes someday to buy the business from owner Marion Campbell. “For him to be right up the street is all right with me. (The Elbow Room) was good before, and I don’t want to change it.”
The appeal of the Elbow Room goes deeper than offering just the chance run his own business,” Dunn added.
Ryan Cavanaugh pours a beer for a customer at the Elbow Room.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
“I was born and raised here and I couldn’t let the bar be vacant, or have it be run by someone that didn’t like it,” he said, explaining that a longtime friendship with owner Campbell led to an offer to put his mark on the South Washington Street fixture.
Fans of the funky watering hole will probably be delighted no big changes are in store, other than tweaks in the bar’s musical direction.
“I liked the way it was before, under Andy,” Sparks said. “We have pretty much the same style. We’re trying to open it up (musically) to get more people. We don’t want to discriminate against any kind of music.”
The new team isn’t daunted by a lack of management experience. “We’ve all worked in bars — it’s definitely a learning experience, “ added Sparks.
Roger LeLievre is a freelance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com
Comments
Ron Granger
Thu, Oct 21, 2010 : 1:42 p.m.
"One is the domain paid for and the second is the trademark name "Elbow Room." He paid for the domain so he owns it and that's fine." -- Why would an employee who manages the elbow room, and I assume counts the cash every night, pay for the website out of his own pocket? That makes no sense. He was an employee paid by the elbow room. He setup the domain for the elbow room. The domain promoted his employer's business. So the case for "work for hire" seems very strong. Trademark status is completely irrelevant. Spin it however you'd like, but, legal issues aside, I think it reflects very poorly when one business usurps the brand of another.
roadsidedinerlover
Thu, Oct 14, 2010 : 11:31 p.m.
I would like to ask the owners of The Elbow Room (Ryan Sparks, John Dunn and Ryan Cavanaugh) PLEASE do NOT let your smoking customers stand IN FRONT of the entrance. There should be an area in the rear for them where I do not have to smell that crud when I come to your bar. I will definitely make to The Elbow Room to hear a wider variety of music. Electronica...Very cool and same for the rest of the choices.
AndyYpsilanti
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 : 9:35 p.m.
The Elbow Room is a DBA (doing business as), an assumed name. There is no trade mark registered for it. The liquor license is issued to The Flagship of Michigan Corporation. Not a very sexy bar name. Also, there are other Elbow Rooms (or Elbo Rooms) all over the country including Dallas, Chicago, Fresno, and Indianapolis, all of which have some sort of Elbow Room website. So no, probably not going to be any lawsuits over the website. In fact, as far as I can tell, there's nothing stopping anyone from opening up another Elbow Room in the area, if they wanted to try. Kind of like Ray's Pizza in New York. And funny, if you go to Savoy their desperation looks an awful lot like continued and growing success for Mr. Garris, as attendance has been steadily climbing since he took over management. The crowd (and even some celebrities, once in a while) have followed him down the street, and brought their friends....
Lokalisierung
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 : 4:59 p.m.
"old Elbow Room website was/is being utilized by the people that set it up, operated, and paid for it. So I guess you are saying it's not fair for them to use their own property." There are 2 things here. One is the domain paid for and the second is the trademark name "Elbow Room." He paid for the domain so he owns it and that's fine. He should set it up to redirect to another website suck as "savoy.com" or whatever.
Ron Granger
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 : 2:52 p.m.
The Savoy will always be associated with shady practices to me because they continue to use the elbow room's brand and website to promote their business. They may think it is "cute", but it reeks of desperation. It is the opposite of professional. The website was setup by an employee of the elbow room as a "work for hire". As such, it belongs to the elbow room's owner. Just because the owner has not taken the former employee to court over the website does not excuse the desperate act.
Cash
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 : 7:45 a.m.
http://calendar.metrotimes.com/Events/e16175/Ypsifest A day away but better late than never.....YpsiFest article from Metro Times.
AndyYpsilanti
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 : 7:24 a.m.
Ok, first. @Beer&Loathing, first, as Cash suggests, The old Elbow Room website was/is being utilized by the people that set it up, operated, and paid for it. So I guess you are saying it's not fair for them to use their own property. The new management at Elbow is perfectly capable of setting up a new site with a new domain, just like Mr. Garris did when he took over; remember the website used to be ypsirocks.com. There have been a whole lot of changes at Savoy since it's change in management, starting with a new website at savoyypsi.com. They have been updating it weekly with their show information, featuring mostly local bands. I don't think Savoy needs to worry about the Pig, they seem to be doing just fine now that they have a manager experienced in running a venue, as oppose to a night club. That said, I think they do have some advantages over the Pig. Savoy is nearly twice the size, has a larger stage, better lights, better bar layout, bigger bathrooms, better service, lower prices, and you don't have to go into a musty, nasty basement to use the bathroom or play pool. It's also not located in Ann Arbor, which I personally think gives it a huge advantage. I find your comments on the sound man interesting. Are you in a band that's played there? The sound has gotten better as time has gone on. One thing Savoy doesn't have compared to the Pig is years of history. I think you'll see Savoy continue to grow as word spreads about the room and the people running it. It's come a long way in a few months. But I digress. Look, I'm not saying that the author here IS biased, I'm saying that he APPEARS biased, as does the coverage of this story in general. @Speechless, I think you are on the right track. There should have either A)been a hard news story run at the same time including the facts of the closure if you are going to run an editorial piece biased towards anybody or B)the author of the editorial piece should have acted more like a journalist later and added information to the later story in order to balance it. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the days when news organizations considered it their highest principal to report the whole story. Then it should have been over. I'll say it again, this story has been handled like gossip, not news. There is a bar on East Cross Street, now closed, that has been through about five management and name changes in the last three or four years, all under the same owner. All the changes occurred suddenly and because of disagreements between the owner and management. Once it was even shut down because the manager hadn't settled with the previous owner-manager and the new owner-manager had to suffer the consequences. Not one of those instances made the news. Why did this one? I guess we will have to agree to disagree. Sorry if I made my earlier post seem like a personal attack. But I just don't see the news worthy-ness in the change in management, outside of the gossip page aspect of it. And the practice of publishing articles telling only one side of the story only enforces that appearance. It should have been over with the last article. This would have been a perfectly serviceable entertainment/community interest/business story had those paragraphs not been included. Sorry if I was insulting, but I see this as a failure of the editorial staff.
Cash
Wed, Oct 13, 2010 : 7:02 a.m.
This issue I think is one of the problems with this site...that is determining what is news, what is opinion, and what's just gossip. This is a serious matter in my opinion. Where the article is placed, makes it appear to be headline news here, but in reality it's someone's own viewpoint or story. Instead of being scolded about reading the fine print beside the story, why not separate stories by news vs opinion/freelance? In this case, again, I think the ship has sailed and retreading the story over and over again is, well, beyond weird. Bob, I might add that the article regarding "Artoberfest" wasn't posted until Saturday, the day of the event. By then most of us had gone about our daily duties and missed the event.
AndyYpsilanti
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 11:49 p.m.
Ok, first. @Beer&Loathing, first, as Cash suggests, The old Elbow Room website was/is being utilized by the people that set it up, operated, and paid for it. So I guess you are saying it's not fair for them to use their own property. The new management at Elbow is perfectly capable of setting up a new site with a new domain, just like Mr. Garris did when he took over; remember the website used to be ypsirocks.com. There have been a whole lot of changes at Savoy since it's change in management, starting with a new website at savoyypsi.com. They have been updating it weekly with their show information, featuring mostly local bands. I don't think Savoy needs to worry about the Pig, they seem to be doing just fine now that they have a manager experienced in running a venue, as oppose to a night club. That said, I think they do have some advantages over the Pig. Savoy is nearly twice the size, has a larger stage, better lights, better bar layout, bigger bathrooms, better service, lower prices, and you don't have to go into a musty, nasty basement to use the bathroom or play pool. It's also not located in Ann Arbor, which I personally think gives it a huge advantage. I find your comments on the sound man interesting. Are you in a band that's played there? The sound has gotten better as time has gone on. One thing Savoy doesn't have compared to the Pig is years of history. I think you'll see Savoy continue to grow as word spreads about the room and the people running it. It's come a long way in a few months. But I digress. Look, I'm not saying that the author here IS biased, I'm saying that he APPEARS biased, as does the coverage of this story in general. @Speechless, I think you are on the right track. There should have either A)been a hard news story run at the same time including the facts of the closure if you are going to run an editorial piece biased towards anybody or B)the author of the editorial piece should have acted more like a journalist later and added information to the later story in order to balance it. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the days when news organizations considered it their highest principal to report the whole story. Then it should have been over. I'll say it again, this story has been handled like gossip, not news. There is a bar on East Cross Street, now closed, that has been through about five management and name changes in the last three or four years, all under the same owner. All the changes occurred suddenly and because of disagreements between the owner and management. Once it was even shut down because the manager hadn't settled with the previous owner-manager and the new owner-manager had to suffer the consequences. Not one of those instances made the news. Why did this one? I guess we will have to agree to disagree. Sorry if I made my earlier post seem like a personal attack. But I just don't see the news worthy-ness in the change in management, outside of the gossip page aspect of it. And the practice of publishing articles telling only one side of the story only enforces that appearance. It should have been over with the last article. This would have been a perfectly serviceable entertainment/community interest/business story had those paragraphs not been included. Sorry if I was insulting, but I see this as a failure of the editorial staff.
AndyYpsilanti
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 11:34 p.m.
Ok, first. @Beer&Loathing, first, as Cash suggests, The old Elbow Room website was/is being utilized by the people that set it up, operated, and paid for it. So I guess you are saying it's not fair for them to use their own property. The new management at Elbow is perfectly capable of setting up a new site with a new domain, just like Mr. Garris did when he took over; remember the website used to be ypsirocks.com. There have been a whole lot of changes at Savoy since it's change in management, starting with a new website at savoyypsi.com. They have been updating it weekly with their show information, featuring mostly local bands. I don't think Savoy needs to worry about the Pig, they seem to be doing just fine now that they have a manager experienced in running a venue, as oppose to a night club. That said, I think they do have some advantages over the Pig. Savoy is nearly twice the size, has a larger stage, better lights, better bar layout, bigger bathrooms, better service, lower prices, and you don't have to go into a musty, nasty basement to use the bathroom or play pool. It's also not located in Ann Arbor, which I personally think gives it a huge advantage. I find your comments on the sound man interesting. Are you in a band that's played there? The sound has gotten better as time has gone on. One thing Savoy doesn't have compared to the Pig is years of history. I think you'll see Savoy continue to grow as word spreads about the room and the people running it. It's come a long way in a few months. But I digress. Look, I'm not saying that the author here IS biased, I'm saying that he APPEARS biased, as does the coverage of this story in general. @Speechless, I think you are on the right track. There should have either A)been a hard news story run at the same time including the facts of the closure if you are going to run an editorial piece biased towards anybody or B)the author of the editorial piece should have acted more like a journalist later and added information to the later story in order to balance it. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the days when news organizations considered it their highest principal to report the whole story. Then it should have been over. I'll say it again, this story has been handled like gossip, not news. There is a bar on East Cross Street, now closed, that has been through about five management and name changes in the last three or four years, all under the same owner. All the changes occurred suddenly and because of disagreements between the owner and management. Once it was even shut down because the manager hadn't settled with the previous owner-manager and the new owner-manager had to suffer the consequences. Not one of those instances made the news. Why did this one? I guess we will have to agree to disagree. Sorry if I made my earlier post seem like a personal attack. But I just don't see the news worthy-ness in the change in management, outside of the gossip page aspect of it. And the practice of publishing articles telling only one side of the story only enforces that appearance. It should have been over with the last article. This would have been a perfectly serviceable entertainment/community interest/business story had those paragraphs not been included. Sorry if I was insulting, but I see this as a failure of the editorial staff.
Speechless
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 8:02 p.m.
The tension seemed to begin a few months ago when a Deuce-category, non-news news article wistfully celebrated (what many readers gathered was) a final night of revelry before permanent closure of the Elbow Room. To this day I hold up that piece as a choice example of how to spin a story that delivers to readers certain elements of "information" gleaned in no small part from what the author chooses to leave out of the narrative, rather than learned through the actual written content of the article or review. Such a technique also provides respectable wiggle room for the author when some of what's been silently implied turns out later not to be factually accurate. This story telling approach became problematic. It morphed an appreciative, nostalgic, personalized review into an unofficial news item that left behind incorrect impressions about key aspects of the story's background. As a reader and an outsider to the drama between the Elbow Room, Garcia, and the Savoy, the follow-up coverage of the Elbow since then gives the appearance, to an extent, of making amends for the "closing night" miscue.
Cash
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 4:42 p.m.
Beer&Loathing, Probably the person who paid for it is using it.
Roger LeLievre
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:41 p.m.
AndyYpsilanti: I just want to point out, in addition to the points Bob has made, that I don't hang out at either the Savoy or the Elbow Room, have no preference for one over the other, and I don't know any of the owners/managers/employees of either establishment on anything other than a professional basis. I have no grudge against anyone and my only personal opinion in this matter and one I hope you share is that I wish both venues every success.
Bob Needham
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 2:23 p.m.
cheshirecat -- this is getting way off topic, but yes, several.
cheshirecat
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 1:42 p.m.
Out of curiosity, do any of the AnnArbor.com staff who cover Ypsi as a community actually LIVE in Ypsi? Or...do any of the staff live in Ypsi at all?
Beer&Loathing
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 1:38 p.m.
Also, www.theelbowroombar.com should not be linking to Savoy anymore. That's kind of crooked.
Beer&Loathing
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 1:31 p.m.
Elbow Room is perfect for a town like Ypsilanti. In order for Savoy to even take off, the Blind Pig is going to have to shut down. Savoy has no competitive advantage against The Pig. Until recently, I haven't even see Savoy try to promote the local bands in Ypsi. They never update their website, and their sound guy is a complete jackass. Now, I love Dragon Wagon, for example, but why does he have to make them sound like they're in an arena? It still looks really shady how Andy left, but I guess both sides are to blame for something in that situation. I haven't seen any single person in the media proclaim that Andy is a crook for what he did....I think the only person saying that is you Andy Ypsilanti.
Bob Needham
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 12:03 p.m.
And Andy -- I wasn't just blowing smoke about suggestions for coverage. I really do welcome ideas, although there are always more good ideas than there are writing resources. You're obviously really plugged into the Ypsilanti scene, so I'd welcome your input -- please don't hesitate to drop me a line, ideally a month or so ahead of time.
Bob Needham
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 11:57 a.m.
Andy, aside from the Savoy stories, all those others are from the last two weeks. I guess I should state for the record that I/we certainly have nothing for or against Andy Garris or anyone else involved in either venue. The management change was an unusual situation and I think it's worth the two paragraphs, late in the story, that it got. I hope we can agree to disagree on that. (I guarantee you, if we'd left it out, we'd have a different group of commenters bashing us for ignoring/whitewashing/forgetting about the situation.) Thanks for taking the time to comment.
AndyYpsilanti
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 11:42 a.m.
@Bob, I didn't mean to infer that you never cover Ypsilanti entertainment or Savoy in particular. But a lot (not all) of the articles you use as examples are one or two paragraphs in the events section, and spread out over months. The recent saga of the Elbow Room has had at least 5, most of considerable length, and all suggesting that Mr. Garris had done something wrong without anything other than the statements of the ownership to back that up. The Andy Garris paragraph had no business being in this article, let alone allowing the ridiculous article about the Elbow's Website. It's like you're running a gossip site, or the NY Post; how can we work a little controversy into this otherwise pedestrian story about a business reopening under new management? I would not have made any comment on this article had it not been so obviously slanted. Had you not mentioned Mr. Garris, I probably could have let the inaccurate statement about the music slide. But as it is, this article reads like it was written by someone with a grudge. For all the times I've seen comment removed because of personal attack on this website, you would think the editorial staff would be experts at identifying personal attacks. But the one here still made it through.
Bob Needham
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 10:51 a.m.
I always welcome suggestions for specific things to cover; please don't hesitate to contact me at bobneedham@annarbor.com with any ideas -- the more lead time, the better. (Of course, we can't cover everything that might be worth covering, and that's true of every community in our area.) Within the next few days, we've got a feature on Dreamland slated to go live, as well as a preview of "Hamlet" at EMU. Here are a few other recent Ypsilanti entertainment stories, in case you missed some: Artoberfest to showcase local artists in Ypsilanti Locally shot 'Stone' not opening here this week Shadow Art Fair organizers plan different event for winter Riverside Arts Center hosts 'Breast Night of Broadway' cabaret fundraiser Kid Cudi's short set tantalizes the crowd at EMU Songwriting festival draws newcomers, established star to Ypsilanti District Library 'Judge Mathis' to be roasted at EMU Songwriting festival returning to Ypsilanti District Library Mega-Guide to Kid Cudi's concert at EMU Pianos 'Round Town brings music, fun to streets of Ypsilanti Riverside Arts Center fundraiser scheduled for Oct. 3 And as for Savoy, maybe you missed some of these: 'Andyfest IV: Disco in Space' party set to rock Savoy Local band Lake Folk brings its brand of 'roots noir' music to Ark, Savoy Local supergroup Drunken Barn Dance plays a rare show Friday Concert will help pay medical bills for late P-Funk musician Garry Shider Ekoostik Hookah at Savoy Wednesday with new lineup Ypsilanti's Savoy announces this weekend's grand opening lineup Ypsilanti's Club Divine reinvents itself as live music venue called Savoy
Cash
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 10:43 a.m.
@AndyYpsilanti, Thank you for saying what I was thinking. Well done! What is up with the slanted coverage of the Elbow Room and why months later is this article still addressing Mr Garris leaving the Elbow Room for Savoy? That ship has sailed!!! Does AnnArbor.com address every employee who leaves one business for another or is it (as it seems) just Mr Garris who is being being cyber-chastised for his job change? Because I've not seen one other employee in Washtenaw County criticized in this media for making a career move...except him.
Alan Benard
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 9:52 a.m.
This is "if it bleeds, it leads" journalism and a failure of editorial balance. And this publication doesn't care about Ypsilanti or environs unless a crime is involved.
AndyYpsilanti
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 9:41 a.m.
Oh, and if you'd like to get a better idea of our local live music scene here in Ypsi, check out my YouTube page, which features recent shows at Savoy, Tap Room and the Elbow Room: http://www.youtube.com/TheAndyYpsilanti
AndyYpsilanti
Tue, Oct 12, 2010 : 9:37 a.m.
Somebody at aa.com sure does love the owners of the Elbow Room. Not that I'm not glad to see the place back open (even if it does feel like a pseudo dive), but the basis of this article is total BS. The Elbow moved out of its all hard rock phase a long, long time ago, around the time Andy Garris took over, and more solidly when he changed booking managers a couple years in. Unless all those folk, country, funk, bluegrass and hip-hop nights somehow all fell under hard rock because of Mr. Garris's management. You also might remember that Elbow made its name as a home for punk and hard rock long before anyone recently involved (Andy Garris, current management) was even old enough to drink. So, seriously, aa.com, what's the deal? You haven't ever run this many stories about any Ypsilanti business in such a short time, ever. Are the owners of Elbow stake holders in your publication? First, you ran the article that painted Mr. Garris to look like some sort of criminal for leaving a situation that had become intolerable to him because of ownership's actions, then the one saying hold on, the Elbow Room will reopen, no thanks to that evil Andy Garris, then there was Someone from Savoy is daring to use the old Elbow Room websites they set up and payed for to advertise their new venture and now this The Elbow is back open and it's going to be better and more inviting than it was under Andy Garris. This stuff reads like paid propaganda! Where is the reporting? In fact, of all of these articles, this current one is the closest one to an actual news story: Long time local establishment reopens under new management. Now if only you could have managed to not take a shot at Mr. Garris, it would have seemed like an interest story instead of another propaganda article. Editors, I'm looking at you. Allowing that passage to stand is very News Corp-like of you; it had no bearing on the story and only served to take a shot at someone Elbow's ownership, and apparently aa.com, seem to have something against. Can we please get some actual entertainment coverage for Ypsilanti? There was barely any coverage of Pianos 'Round Town, the same for Opera on Tap or Dreamland Theater. And then there's Savoy, where they just had a hugely successful weekend hosting the 2nd Annual Zombie Ball, featuring over 250 Zombie dressed revelers as well as two rock bands (Mazinga, Downtown Brown) and headlined by a Zombified Black Jake & the Carnies, Ypsi's own Crabgrass acoustic band. This weekend, your assertion that Mr. Garris only books hard rock actually rings true, with the return of YpsiFest, three days with more than 25 of SE Michigan's best rock bands running Thursday Saturday, music starting at 8pm. So really. Can we share the love a little? Can we cover another venue? It is great Elbow is back. They have some work, and growing up, to do in their management style, but they'll have to settle those issues or they won't be around long anyway. But again, why does this one Ypsilanti business deserve so much of your attention? The best news of all if that Ypsilanti has another place to see great live music. Elbow rejoins the Downtown Entertainment district and places like Savoy, Keystone Underground, Dreamland Theater, Tap Room and Smarty Catz for places to see bands and DJ's and have a good time. Oh yea, and there's plenty of free parking, no giant holes in the ground needed.