Concert series’ novel idea: music for listening

Connor Burke

Contributing Writer

There is nothing more frustrating than paying a decent amount of money to see a band play live only so you can listen to the crowd talk over the musician and hecklers crack jokes between songs.

Luckily, there is now a solution to this problem; it’s an event called The Listening Room, held by Jonathan Vassar with the help of a few other passionate local musicians on the third Tuesday of every month at the Firehouse Theatre Project on West Broad Street.

According to Rob Jefferson, a cofounder of the event, the whole concept of The Listening Room is to create a place that “while performers are performing, there is no talking.”

Many musicians in Richmond, he said end up playing in bars which “aren’t great for singer/songwriters because they don’t get heard.”

Started in collaboration with The Richmond Scene, The Listening Room was created so that musicians that make music not built for a bar could share their music with people. Starting in late 2009, the event has grown from being held in the basement of a church to now being held at the Firehouse Theatre, with a typical crowd of about one hundred people.

Listening Rooms are free to attend, and free baked goods and coffee are provided at every show.