Saved Swiftly: Local Band's Live Series 'Duensdays' Lives On

Leave it to Ferndale to save the music.

Like a swift, cradled handoff pass or a gingerly shoveled repotting of your cacti, the monthly music series slid seamlessly and securely from one venue to another, despite its original home, Club Bart, having just one week prior to its next scheduled revue.

"I'm pretty honored that we got the offer so quick that we didn't even have to miss a step," Duende! guitarist Joel McCune said.

Ferndale's psychedelic blues-rock warblers, Duende!, have been hosting cool, casual (and sometimes crazy) musical evenings at the now-shuttered lounge for 18 months. The simple premise: Duende!, as Club Bart's ostensible "house band," invited a steady cycle of "guests" to perform on what organically developed into an informal and refreshing break from the rigmarole of local concerts.

Free admission and agreeably early-ish set times added to its appeal as a midweek escape.

When news of Club Bart's closing reached the staff's ears at Woodward Avenue Brewers, bartender Masha Marjieh suggested to W.A.B. Manager Kevin Dietz: "We should go get Duensday!"

"It was a simple decision," said Dietz, whose mantra for booking entertainment is: "Anything local — anything good!"

The W.A.B. already has its own weekly Wednesday evening series, Autotune Karaoke, hosted in its sister bar, the Loving Touch pool hall. Dietz noted that a recent experiment placing Autotune in the W.A.B. garnered positive results, so he decided to tentatively relocate its regular meeting space there, leaving the Loving Touch open for the Duensday series to live on, each first Wednesday of the month.

Big crowd or small, Dietz said, everyone could still find a great time on a Duensday. The name came from Duende! bassist Scott Sandford, who marks his one-year anniversary of joining the band this week. Sandford's other band, Pewter Cub, will also join Duende! this Wednesday for the first Loving Touch Duensday.

"When I first moved to Ferndale in '98, it was pretty quiet," Dietz said. "I've watched it blossom into an artists' community and stayed up to now. Just being able to tap into the local resources offered by everybody, whether it's music, or art or Crafternoons or Rustbelt — everybody around here is doing something artistic. It's not hard to find somebody, to find a band, and they're all local.

"That's just Ferndale. It's a community, and those artists have shaped Ferndale for the past seven years."

Jeff Howitt, Duende! singer and guitarist, said Duensday is establishing a different way of doing business.

"We're establishing a different kind of business model, or different approach for bands, beyond the bar grind," he said. "You don't have to be in some cover band and never get to do anything artistic. There is a middle ground."

With its series, Duende! endeared itself to the community on two key fronts: no cover charge; and the band put an emphasis each evening on having a "fresh face" — i.e., the "guest" opening band.

"Every band brought their own party," Howitt said. "It felt like a private party that was free and open to the public — like our own rehearsal space that just happened to be dotted with weird, cool, crazy people hanging out."

"It's a shame that Bart's had to close," said regular Duensday attendee Kevin Pachla, co-founder of the Motor City Special music label. "But I'll support this wherever it goes. It's a great way to break up the work week, and it never goes too late."

Club Bart was considered a musical melting pot.

"Name me another place where a bar's clientele can comfortably mingle, between jazz, country, rock 'n' roll, folk, hippies, even comedians, and blues," Howitt said.

"They took care of us there," Duende! drummer Laura Willem said. "We really put down some roots."

Duende! trusts Dietz — and the W.A.B. — to lead, Howitt said, noting that its staff has strived to establish a refreshing and progressive organization similar to his band's own intent on shifting the perception of a night of live music.

"We felt comfortable relocating the sonic real estate," Howitt said.