I had a very cool day today. I went into the city and met up with my cousins to go to lunch at this little Polish place. My cousin's husband mentioned that we were near Webster Hall, which I hadn't heard of. He told us that his grandfather used to own Webster Hall, so we walked over to see it. There was a guy dressed in black jeans and a black button down shirt smoking on the steps outside. He asked if we had any questions, and my cousin's husband told him about his grandfather. The guy, Gerard, asked us if we wanted to go inside. He ended up giving us a tour around the whole thing, which was really, really cool. We walked in, and there was a band setting up on stage. It was pretty dark in there, and all of the walls and floors were wooden. The walls were old looking and kind of peeling a little, although it looked like it was supposed to be that way. Gerard introduced us to this band, and then he took us upstairs. On the side of the staircase, there was a photo shoot going on of this really tall, gorgeous girl dressed in amazing clothes. He showed us around the other four rooms in the place. They were all really big and beautiful and Gerard seemed to know a lot. He was an interesting guy. He told us that he wants to change his title from manager to curator or creative director. He was telling us about all of the people who performed there. He showed us a stage where Harry Connick Jr. performed two weeks ago. Lady Gaga performed there New Year's Eve.
I looked it up on Wikipedia which says that other bands that have performed there are:
Nine Inch Nails, Tiësto, Bright Eyes, The Roots, Elbow (band), John Mayer, Rhett Miller, Beth Orton, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, Pink, The Jesus And Mary Chain, +44, The Bravery, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Mogwai, Spoon, Rollins Band, John Butler Trio, Explosions in the Sky, The Flaming Lips, Dispatch, Linkin Park, Green Day, Infected Mushroom, DeVotchKa, Lady GaGa, Mew, AKB48, Dr. Dog, Modest Mouse, Usher, Evanescence, Joss Stone, Good Charlotte, Linkin Park, Nelly, Duran Duran, Franz Ferdinand, Alicia Keys, Prince, and The Hives.
It also serves as a recording studio. Julie Andrews, Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Peter Nero, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, and Frank Sinatra all recorded there.
AND.. it also has art shows. Gerard showed us some paintings from the last person who had their art on display and hadn't came to pick it up yet. According to wikipedia, Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Stella have both been to Webster Hall.
It was by far the coolest thing I've ever done with my family. My cousin asked how much it would cost to have the whole thing for a night, and he said a quarter million dollars. My cousin' husband told us he had his bar mitzvah there, for free, of course, being that it was owned by his grandfather. Thanks to the picture phone, I got to take some pictures, so here are a few. Some really good ones I didn't get because my nine year old cousin kept jumping in front of the camera.
