Intimate Music
Fitting only 39 people, including the band, the Gaslight Tavern is as intimate as you can get.
By Carlos Centeno, Jayplay writer
Photo: Jeff Brandsted
As soon as you walk into the Gaslight, an eclectic atmosphere engulfs your senses. African and Asian statues guard the hallway while the intensity of red walls reflects the soul of this little bar at 317 N. Second St., across the bridge from Massachusetts Street.
A local songwriter sings to a group of about 20 people gathered around the tiny stage, which is lit by a giant chandelier that embraces everyone in the audience with its shadows and bright brushstrokes of light.
The Gaslight has a maximum capacity of 39 people. But what the Gaslight Tavern lacks in space it makes up in intimacy. "It almost feels like you're in someone's basement," says Lindsey Hogan, Overland Park senior. When the guitars scream and the turntables spin, the music becomes a personal experience, not just some DJ in the background. "If you have five or six friends come down you can almost have the bar," says Gaslight co-owner Doozie Midyett.
Midyett started the Gaslight with Jeff
Wiley started the Gusight With Jen Fortier, a local music promoter. Fortier has been
Kansas companies in Lawrence and eclectic that people would have their own night most music genres get a day of the week and a fan base: from with jam bands, to reggae and a do-wop night with DJ Fat Sal. There's even a night where a DJ spins punk.
The idea for the bar is based on the old Gaslight Tavern that was in Lawrence during the late '60s. The old bar was a gathering point for Vietnam War protestors and civil rights advocates. It was shut down in 1972 by the state's attorney general and never reopened.
The new Gaslight has no direct relation with the previous one but Midyett and Fortier decided to pay tribute to it by hanging a photo gallery on the walls displaying the events that took place around the old bar. There is a little room with an Asian statue that will become the tribute room. It will feature articles and photographs from the old bar. If you ask the bartender about the history of the bar, he will pull out a red book detailing the history of Kansas and the civil rights movement at the time.
Nonetheless, this Gaslight is not about protests. It's about music and its power to bring people together.
On Sunday nights, DJ Koncept does a mix of old soul and doo-wop. He says he likes the intimacy of the place. He says people usually stay in for a while then step out on the patio and have a smoke (the Gaslight is a smoke-free bar), that's how the place can keep up with more than 40 people.
Midyett says the Gaslight will change in late April when the back window of the bar is created and the bar becomes an indoor/outdoor venue with a PA system outside. She says by then they'll be able to fit about 120 people.
The bar opened about a month ago and the word of mouth is already spreading every time Free State Brewery, 636 Massachusetts St., closes on Mondays. Some of the Free State people stay around Massachusetts Street and try to catch a ride across the bridge to the Gaslight to enjoy the "Gaslight Players" night: a night of jam bands and singer-songwriters.
Brett Ramey came to "Gaslight Players" night after drinking at Free State because he likes the vibe it transmits and its resemblance to the old Gaslight Tavern. Even though Ramey was not around in the '60s, he says he digs the tribute because it gives the bar its spirit.
It's almost time to close and a few souls remain on the chairs chatting and laughing. It has been another night at the Gaslight and as soon as these people go home, they'll realize their homes are not very different from the Gaslight Tavern.
— Carlos Centeno can be reached at ccenteno@kansan.com.