Rust Belt Market Transforming into Regular Live Music Venue

You don't have to go to a bar to hear live local music — at least, not in Ferndale.

Take the Rust Belt Market. The expansive artisan vendor cooperative at the northwest corner of Nine Mile and Woodward is already stocked with a plethora of quirky and curious entrepreneurial designers offering heartening helpings of interesting wares, from crafts to jewelry to vintage clothing and antique house wares.

Now the market will be a regular host of live musical talent — further supplanting status quo/big box department stores' sound systems spewing sedate Top 40 Muzak mush and giving enthusiastic troubadours a space of their own amongst its numerous local vendors.

The idea

The market now provides an opportunity not only to blue-collar artists who can't yet afford their own store or gallery but also to musicians hungry for a stage.

"It just flows naturally with the idea of the market," said market talent booker Charlene Koppitz. "Why not provide that opportunity?"

"We have this big space," said Rust Belt Market co-founder Chris Best. "Why not put a stage in the center? We thought, what the hell, what do we have to lose?

"It was an experiment at first," Best said. "We didn't know if people would find it off-putting. It's louder toward the center, and often you'll find older shoppers like it quieter, while younger shoppers like it louder."

Overall, the experiment has worked, with little to no dispute and eventual plans to upgrade the market's sound system and eventually set up speakers at its front and back entrances.

"The energy is very palpable," Best said. "(Live music) adds something to the shopping experience."

, opened the Rust Belt Market's doors in early May (rung in, naturally, with live music). Within a month, he said, they were being accosted with questions about the music — not just by musicians but by shoppers, too.

"Hey, could we set up and start playing?" A band or singer/songwriter would ask, tapping them on the shoulder.

Eventually, on days when the Bests were piping their Pandora Internet radio through their PA system, they'd hear other questions: "Hey," shoppers would ask, "so, who's playing today?"

The Bests researched similar vintage artists markets throughout the region and country, from Detroit's Bazaar at the Russell Industrial Center to Toronto and New York. They concluded the only addition that could have enhanced those respective markets' overall experiences was in-house entertainment.

They had that epiphany around the same time that Koppitz entered the market, eager to help the married couple in any way possible — knowing all too well, herself, the rigors of running one's own business.

Best said it helped that Koppitz had a finger on the pulse of southeast Michigan's music scene.

"Detroit has always been a music town," said Koppitz, who recently worked as events planner for the Triangle Foundation. "There isn't any decade where this area isn't producing unbelievably talented musicians. What people (musicians) become frustrated with is not getting a chance to play."

Best said that, naturally, they were a bit nervous to initially leave the stage open to any performer, for fear of any musical ineptitude. "But 99 percent of the time, people have been really over-the-top good," he said. "And they're playing for free."

Best promises that someday soon, Rust Belt will offer performers compensation.

The audience — or the shoppers, rather — not only enjoy an eclectic soundtrack as they browse, be it blues, Americana or folk from locals such as Ryan Dillaha, the Blueflowers or Our Mighty Heart, they can meet their performing neighbors in a setting less cacophonous than a bar.

Ferndale music is growing

Chris Johnston, co-owner of the Woodward Avenue Brewers, said the area's performers and audiences are eager to "shake up their perspective of what constituted a performance.

"Places like the Loving Touch, Rust Belt and the Ferndale Library are filling the gaps between complete DIY-places (like the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit) and more traditional venues," Johnston said.

For a music scene to flourish, Johnston said, it takes "healthy portions of options simultaneously thriving."

Across the street from Rust Belt, the comparably smaller boutique, Hybrid Moments, aims to help the swell of "great local musicians shaping the musical community and bringing more interest to the area," owner James Weeks said, by hosting weekly shows on Saturdays and sometimes Fridays.

"(Ferndale offers) the opportunity for a range of great smaller venues and show spots: centrally located, not too far of a hike, and it doesn't really have any main or major venues," Weeks said. "There are a lot of great local musicians playing more unconventional/experimental music that we welcome that wouldn't always 'fit' at a normal venue."

Last Friday, Hybrid Moments had two local bands (and two touring bands) perform, while Sunday afternoon featured live music at the Rust Belt and Howe's Bayou, respectively.

"The talent pool in Ferndale is phenomenal," Best said.

"There's been a DIY scene around Ferndale for years," said Blueflowers singer Kate Hinote, whose band performed at Rust Belt's ribbon-cutting evening. "Rust Belt is the perfect space to showcase that on a regular basis. Having musicians there seems natural and actually, pretty genius, both for the space and for bands."

Koppitz said the Rust Belt stage will eventually host nonmusical events, from crafting classes to a speaker series. But that is still all in the works.

Chances are that now — no offense to the amplified music of the top alternative 40 pumped through the West Nine Mile speakers — the music you hear wafting down the sidewalks of downtown Ferndale will be live.

Live music schedule for the Rust Belt Market:

Friday:

• Sunny Side Up at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday:

• Vernon Tonges at noon.
• Junecast at 4 p.m.

Sunday:

• Vince Smith at noon.
• Jeff Karoub at 3 p.m.
• Carrie Shepard at 5 p.m.
• Sarah Bella 6 p.m.

July 23:

• Our Mighty Heart at noon.
• Mike Galbraith at 3 p.m.

July 24:

• Luke Mulholland Band at 2 p.m.

July 30:

• David Nefesh at noon.
• Andie & Tracey at 4 p.m.

Aug. 7:

• Steve D'Angelo (time to be announced)

Aug. 14:

• Brent McKay and Friends at 4:30 p.m.

Aug. 20:

• Blue Flowers at 6 p.m.

Aug. 27:

• Delta Twins and Friends at noon (this runs most of the day, with various permutations).

Performers may be added. The Rust Belt Market is open from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.