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How Albany's Ivy Room became Green Day frontman's favorite place to play · Best of: Features

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  How Albany's Ivy Room, became Green Day Frontman's favorite place to play.
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  This article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlet.
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  Even if you're a regular at the Ivy Room, a down home
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  music venue and East Bay Institution, it isn't the type of place
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  you're expected to know anyone's last name, or first name for that
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  matter When I visited on a recent Friday, a man called Cupcake
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  checked my ID at the door, and a bartender known as Chaos
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  served me drinks. After eighty six years of welcoming fans, no matter
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  their identity or taste in music, things like government names start to
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  feel unnecessary. Located on San Pablo Avenue in Tiny Albany, the Ivy
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  Room boasts all the charm and neighborly vibes that a small town
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  bar should. The venue consists of just one room with a bar
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  and a few stools on one side and the stage, audience area
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  and sound booth On
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  the other. The building has few windows, so even with walls full
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  of concert posters, and a few couches in the back, the venue
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  resembles a black box theater. This only serves to heighten each concert's
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  intensity, with the audience feeling like they're practically on stage with the
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  performers. On the night I visited, Tammy's Camaro, a local band made
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  up of Bay Area dads, covered the like of Linda Ronstadt and
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  Bruce Springsteen while the audience, mostly the band's friends and family, danced
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  below. As the band gave it one hundred and ten percent on
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  stage, a number of twenty somethings, friends of the lead singer's daughter,
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  sipped IPAs and bobbed their heads along. The scene felt like a
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  PSA for keeping small venues like the Ivy Room alive. Sometimes you
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  don't want to shell out four hundred dollars to see the latest
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  chart topper at Chase Center. You just want to watch your friend's
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  father belting out the lyrics to Dancing in the Dark. My favorite
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  place to play in the Bay Area. The
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  Ivy Room was founded in nineteen forty, making it the second oldest
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  bar in Albany behind the Hotsitatsi. The venue predates Interstate eighty when
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  San Pablo Avenue was known as Lincoln Highway and was the major
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  thoroughfare connecting the East Bay. For most of its historic the Ivy
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  Room's bright neon sign has stood as a recognizable landmark for generations
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  of San Pablo Avenue motorists. The Ivy Room thrived as
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  a neighborhood staple under the stewardship of Dotty MacBeath, but struggled after
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  her family sold it in two thousand six, changing hands three times
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  in nine years. Lani Torres and SummerJager took over in twenty fifteen,
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  bringing some much needed continuity to the historic locale. A Bay Area
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  music veteran who used to manage the Independent, Torres committed to establishing
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  the Ivy Room as a premier music venue, despite its size, about
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  a two hundred person capacity and location, Albani's population is less than
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  twenty thousand. I think of us as a music venue like one
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  hundred percent, Tora said. Torres compared the Ivy Room to its sister
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  club, the recently unshuttered bottom of the hill. You don't go to
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  bottom of the hill unless you go see a show. And you
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  don't go to the Ivy Room unless you're going to go see
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  a show, she said. With Torres at the helm, Jager left the
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  business earlier this year, the
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  Ivy, Room hosts between twenty two and twenty-five concerts per month, which
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  run the gamut from hardcore punk to Bay Area rap to famed
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  cover bands. The diminutive venue is a favorite of Green Day frontman
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  Billy Joe Armstrong, with the rock star calling the Ivy Room. My
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  favorite place to play in the Bay Area. It's quite the compliment
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  coming from a man who is a regular at the Bay Area's
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  biggest stadiums and most popular music festivals. Billy Joe's side project, the
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  Cover Ups, has played the Ivy on multiple occasions. The cover ups
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  have played at a number of Bay Area clubs, including San Francisco's
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  Kilowatt and Berkeley's Cornerstone, in an effort to promote smaller live music
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  venues. He's always been a super champion for the Ivy, Torres said.
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  Armstrong grew up just fifteen minutes away from the Ivy Room, so
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  it's always a family affair whenever He
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  performs at the club. Torres said Armstrong's uncle is a longtime Ivy
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  Room patron, as are his mother and sister. Billy Joe isn't the
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  only Bay Area punk rock legend to frequent the Ivy Room. According
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  to Torres, Rancid's Matt Freeman and various members of the Dead Kennedys
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  have also been known to stop by, a testament to the venue's
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  standing in they local music scene. A second living rooms. Literally. Cupcake,
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  the door guy, resembles a sort of punk rock Santa Claus, and
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  seems to know every other person who walks into the venue, adding
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  a homey quality to each show. Easiest security job I've ever had,
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  Cupcake said flatly, but from the sounds of it, that was a
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  relatively low bar to clear. It's great. I've never been stabbed here.
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  I've never been shot at here, Cupcake said. He may brush off
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  they idea of getting shot at, but like his name suggests, Cupcake
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  is a softie at heart. When the Ivy Room shut down during
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  the pandemic, Cupcake had to avoid the area completely, because it would
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  make him too emotional. I couldn't even drive through Albany without just
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  effing bawling, he admitted. Because for Cupcake and his co workers, losing
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  the Ivy Room would be like losing their homes. Many bars claim
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  they serve as their staff and customers second living rooms. The Ivy
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  Room actually is one. We moved into our van last November out
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  of choice, just to be a little more free, said Chaos of
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  herself and her wife. And you know, Lonnie, when that first happened
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  was like you should come and use this as your living room.
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  This is your space too. So sometimes we'll come. We'll just stay
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  after work and watch movies. The venue staff feel so comfortable at
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  the venue because they know Torres will always have their backs. The
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  Ivy Room is steadfast in its commitment to providing a safe space
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  for anyone to have a drink or watch a show. Of course,
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  many bars would happily make similar claims, but the Ivy Room has
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  proven its willingness to walk the walk. In twenty twenty five, massive
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  liquor distributor Diaggio ended its sponsorship deal with San Francisco Pride in
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  a move that many saw as politically motivated. Furious, the Ivy Room
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  staff responded in kind. The venue started boycotting Diaggio liquors, which include
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  some of the biggest alcohol brands in the world, such as Smirnov
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  Vodka, Captain Morgan Rum, and Johnny Walker Whiskey. We just can't support
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  a company that makes business decisions based on hatred, the Ivy Room
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  said at the time. Torres hasn't relented in the year since, and
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  she's got some advice for anyone frustrated with the boycott. Want something
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  we don't have on the menu? You can go get it somewhere
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  else, Tora said. As neighborly as shared fried chicken. It's not easy
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  running a music venue in a small town like Albany. As such,
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  it's imperative the Ivy Room maintains good relationships with its neighbouring small
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  business. The nice thing about Albany is it seems like it is
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  a little bit closer knit of a community, Chaos said. Despite its
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  meager size, downtown Albany has a celebrated food and nightlife scene. The
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  Ivy Room is located across the street from Michelin recognized Juanita and
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  Maude and is two blocks from the Hatsi Tatsi. Michael Valadares, co
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  owner of the Hatsi Tatsi, said he often sees bands coming into
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  pregame and cool their nerves at the Hatsitsi before a set at
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  the Ivy Room. It's very simpatico. I almost consider us sister bars,
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  Valodare said. We feel really lucky to have neighbors as cool as
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  the folks at the Ivy Room, Juanita and Maud General Manager Nicholas
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  Danielson said in an email to S. F Gate. We often will
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  get couples and small groups coming in to eat before they head
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  across the street to catch the show. It's nice to have a
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  hip little joint in our neck of the woods. Sometimes those friendships
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  pay dividends outside of just business. When I visited the bar staff
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  were chowing down on a bucket of fried chicken, courtesy of the
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  club's next door neighbor picnic. It takes a village to keep an
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  independent music venue alive. Budgets are tight, and turnout is unpredictable, but
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  for its strongest supporters, the Ivy Room has earned a loyalty only
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  achievable through eight decades. We'll never stop playing here. They'd have to
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  tell us to never come again for us to never play here
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  again, said Mike McLaughlin, frontman for Tammy's Camaro. They're just super great
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  to work with. The sound people are great. The bartenders are great.
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  Cupcake on the front door is awesome. So yeah, best bar in
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  the East Bay by far.