A Venerable Tribeca Club Closes Down

 by Barry Owens


Turn out the lights (and shut off the fog machine), the party's over at Tribeca Rock Club.
The live music venue at 16 Warren Street will host its final show this month before clearing out of the building to make way for condominiums.

Norma Fontane stands at the bar of the Tribeca Rock Club on Warren Street, where she has worked since the venue opened as a jazz and blues club nine years ago. Photo: Carl Glassman

Nothing personal, said building owner Joel Assouline. Just business.

"I've got gray hair," the 52-year-old said. "I'm more of a jazz buff now, but I used to be a rock fan."

Assouline is a real estate developer in Philadelphia and has no plans to move into the building, "though I certainly would love to live in a Tribeca loft," he said.

The club, which opened nine years ago, used to be known as Tribeca Blues. But when blues and jazz acts failed to draw the crowds the club switched to booking rock-n-roll acts, of the Grateful Dead-like jam band variety. In recent years, though, it was not uncommon to find young spiky-haired pop-punk bands sharing the bill with shaggier singer-songwriter types.

"We had a lot of the kind of music that doesn't get much attention on the Lower East Side," said Bill Stites, a talent

buyer for Rocks Off, the promotional agency that booked bands for the club.

The venue also had a few other things you're unlikely to find at other rock clubs-such as remarkably clean, graffiti-free bathrooms, an actual green room with real leather sofas, and Norma Fontane.

Fontane, the club's manager, formerly owned a restaurant on Duane Street called Norma's Diner. She describes herself as an "Elvis girl," but not the sort of rock-n-roll fan that has followed the scene very much since The Beatles landed at JFK.

"I was never much of a groupie," she said. "I was always too busy in the kitchen."

By all accounts, she is an unlikely person to be found managing a Downtown rock club.

"I was surprised to find her running the place," said Assouline, who added that more than once Fontane shooed him away from playing the house drum kit.

"I sort of became like everybody's mother here," Fontane said, noting that there was even a time when she was in the habit of cooking for the bands. "But then I thought, 'Come on, we're spoiling them here.'"

Seth Kallen and the Shambles perform for a full house last month at the club, which is scheduled to close on Dec. 10. Photo: Carl Glassman

The club is a bit homey by rock standards. On a recent night, 19-year-old Seth Kallen, leader of Seth Kallen and The Shambles, was celebrating his birthday with a gig at the club. In the well-appointed green room, just past the coat check in the basement, Kallen was joined by friends and band mates who lounged on the sofas and shared slices of a red velvet birthday cake. A vase of freshly cut roses stood on a table in the corner.

"And look at that," said the band's guitarist, Adam Samuels. "A lava lamp."

"Very cool," Kallen said of the scene.

The club was certainly no Wetlands or Knitting Factory, but to the musicians who played there and the young crowds that flocked to see them, the venue and Fontane will be missed.

"She always seems very caring, which is rare in this business," said Brian Shanley, drummer for the Washington, D.C.-based band Honor by August. "At the same time, she was no b.s."

"If you packed up this place and moved it to Bleecker Street, it would rival all the clubs there," said Evan Field, the band's lead guitarist.

"It's sad that it's closing," said Jennifer Thomas, a financial district resident who was visiting the club for the first time. "It's adorable."

Aside from the Knitting Factory, Downtown south of Canal Street remains off the radar for most music fans. The Orange Bear, a bar on Murray Street, and the Pussycat Lounge, a strip club on southern Greenwich Street, offer stages to local bands, but the rooms rarely draw crowds seeking live music.

"Most people didn't even know we were down here," said Fontane. "It was their loss."

The club was also one of the few venues in the city to allow minors inside.

"It could be a bit of a babysitting job sometimes," Fontaine said.

Over the years, performers ranging from Levon Helm to Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon (formerly of Phish) to Guns-n-Roses played on the club's stage, as did lesser-known, unsigned acts-including, last month, Captured By Robots, a one-man act with robots on supporting instruments.

"I don't have a favorite," Fontane said. "I love all the kids. They're all really cool."

Most of the club's furniture, including the bar and kitchen equipment, has been sold and will be carted off soon after the club closes for good on Dec. 10. The stage lights and sound system will go into storage, as there is a chance that the club will reopen elsewhere. But that won't happen any time soon, and in any case it would likely be without Fontane, who said she was ready to explore something that's a little more of her generation.

"My daughter tells me I've been reliving her childhood," she said.