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ICE CUBES: Union Transfer amps up
The kinda-Philly-based act Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was Union Transfer's first headliner, and throughout its sound check each ring and click rang clear - blame that new mega-watt state-of-the-art system.
ICE CUBES: Union Transfer amps up
It all seems so long ago that Icepack got the tip on who was buying Spaghetti Warehouse on Spring Garden and what ties it would have to the Philly entertainment community. Better was the reveal: Four Corners’ Avram Hornik and Mark Fichera, who had attempted to buy the ex-Jumbo Theater spot (now a thrift store near Johnny Brenda’s) along with old friend Sean Agnew of R5 Productions (who we had to track down in Cambodia), would take over the Grasso-owned location and book it in tandem with New York promoters Bowery Presents as Union Transfer. (Check out the impressive first and ever-shifting schedule at utphilly.com.)
Fast forward to opening night: The high, wide space has a ticket window at its front with an immensely large lobby for merchandizing. The chandeliers start there and never stop, not in the first bar and food area, not in the dark wood VIP space watched over by a life-size Jack Daniels statue, not in the dark and regal balcony area bar spotted by stained glass that winds its way into a almost-proscenium seating area fronted by ornately antique brass railings. They certainly don't end on the movable stage-filled main room — and these are grand light fixtures, yet not fussy: the sort that Liberace would have in his summer home in Prague.
The entire spot has an epic modern-meets-Western-banker feel to it — Mr. Drysdale heading up the First National Savings of Deadwood, perhaps? — with some churchiness to the proceedings, too. The VIP area is one large wood, glass and brass bankers’ window with cushy seating filling the tellers space. The kinda-Philly-based act Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was its first headliner, and throughout its sound check each ring and click rang clear — blame that new mega-watt state-of-the-art system — even when UT’s capacity crowd of 1,000 filled (but didn’t stuff to the point of sweating) the room. Bravo, everyone.
Along with Agnew and Fichera, Hornik seemed delighted that UT was finally opening and that all his hurdles had been jumped. Before I could let him rest too happily on his UT laurels, though, I brought up his even-newer acquisition. “Next up is Ortliebs,” he said with a smile, referring the legendary jazz haus on Northern Liberties’ Third Street that he and Fichera took over earlier this year. Stay tuned.
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