A New Perspective on Sound: Live Music on State Street

As I turned my bike onto lower State Street one night, I noticed something I had never seen, or rather heard, before: I couldn’t escape the sound of music. I looked at each block I passed as I glided down, and I noticed a pattern. Punk bands, a jazz quartet, rock ensembles, solo guitarists, and one guy blasting funk from a speaker on his back. Somehow, I had never noticed this lively street full of entertainment, and I instantly became curious. I was curious about how long State Street had been like this, why I had never known about it, and who was making this possible. In this article, I’ll explore two perspectives: one from a bouncer at The Red Piano, and another from someone you may know who frequently gigs around Santa Barbara.

Rob Cortez is a bouncer at The Red Piano, a popular spot on State Street, which is centered around (you guessed it) a large red piano that sits at the end of the bar, just in front of the small stage near the back of the rectangular venue. As a bouncer, I figured Cortez could give me some statistics on what kind of crowds usually are out on State Street and what goes into putting on a show. Cortez told me that their house musician, Jason Libs, who was playing that night, would be doing an early night and late night shift, going until around 1 a.m..  He says that The Red Piano takes a unique approach to cultivating their nights. “The idea behind it is the audience chooses the direction, so they [the musicians] take requests. There’s been nights where it’s like super banging, you know, big, big music stuff, and nights where it’s like… ya’ll need to cheer up.” This makes for a diverse selection of music genres and a more satisfied audience. When asked about the popularity of certain nights, Cortez mentioned that Saturdays are big because of events like  bridal showers, wedding parties, birthdays, or anniversaries. In addition, Thursdays are popular because that’s the night all the college students go out.

Tyler Ravelli, the band teacher at Santa Barbara High School, often relates to me his tales of magical musicianship. From playing trumpet with the local brass band, The Brascals, to being invited off the street to a recording session, Ravelli has seen some of the inner workings of the system. I sat down with him before my most recent show at The Blue Owl, and talked to him about how State Street cultivates art of all kinds. “ Now that State Street’s closed [to cars], there’s more people walking on State Street, [and] it becomes more of a cultural hub.” Ravelli made a good point about how the closing of State Street made it more open to all kinds of growth and created a space for artists to really express themselves. He said to me that this environment makes it easy for someone like him to play live whenever he wants. “ For me, it’s literally as many gigs as I want, and as many bands as I want to play in.” He said the culture is really centered around including anyone, and really as many people as possible into any musical setting. Places like Wylde Works, a brewery on State Street, has offered open jams to anyone from any musical background, whenever. As a summary and parting note of our conversation, Ravelli said this, “ I think we’re seeing the initiation of a sort of musical renaissance in Santa Barbara right now, which is really awesome, and I hope it keeps going.”

As an aspiring musician, I really value the rich presence of art in Santa Barbara, and I believe music and art are most definitely an integral part of our culture here. If you are able, going out to support our local musicians will help foster this community; just listening is more than enough. Because so many of the places which have live music require you to be twenty one to enter, I recommend The Cruisery, a restaurant on lower state near Hana Kitchen which puts on shows on Saturday nights around 10 p.m., and The Blue Owl, a very small restaurant near Marshalls, which has a community-based music scene most nights as student friendly options of music venues to visit.