Celebrating the Hoboken Arts & Music Festival at a place whose name just keeps on changing
Today was the bi-annual Arts and Music Festival in Hoboken. This is a giant street fair with music, food, art and other wares being peddled. It stretches from 7th Street all the way down to Newark Street. Ironically, the thing I hate the most about these types of festivals is what actually makes them bearable for me. With so much swirling around, loud and crowded with stimuli, anyone can find a certain, safe haven to hang for the day.
My safe haven was a return to the seemingly renamed Rodeo (xxx Washington Street, Hoboken). Some time ago, the restaurant called Rodeo was transformed into a foodless nightclub called The Ristra. Because the sign outside remained the same, folks began to call it The RodeoRistra Lounge. That name stuck for a while as it became home to the long-running ArtKore.org Open Mic Tuesdays.
After a few years, the owners decided to take another stab at the upscale, hoity-toity restaurant biz and renamed the place once again. This time they were calling it Tazzo. I must confess, I never ate there. At that point, not being sure of the future there, ArtKore decided to find another home for their live music events.
Not too long ago, Tazzo became Privee—a more disco-like, exclusive-feel club—for some reason . I’m not sure if they were still serving food. The common scene of over-dressed, under-sexed money (or is it the other way around) effectively kept me away from the thump, thump, thump and the Veri-Lites.
Many of the invitations going out for ArtKore’s all-day affair had a different venue named. Luckily we all knew where to go, at any name. As the day went on, performers were confused about where they were. Some said Tazzo, some Privee, others Rodeo, etc., but at one point manager Javier yelled from the front of the place, “It’s Rodeo!!” Therefore I will assume it is Rodeo once again.
The day began with me driving to pick up Lisa. There was no way she’d find parking here on this day. Being a resident, I can park anywhere no matter how far away. After that we walked to the bar, keeping to the side streets to avoid the crowd. Once there we met up with a ton of friends and good music.
Aside from walking out to look for food with my friend Aileen, I pretty much stayed put. I can’t deal with the close clamor of that outside crowd. One good point about us being out was I got to hear a small part of South Side Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. They sounded great, but it was time to get back.
A distinctly weird part of the day was the full-blown Puerto Rican christening going on in the basement of the Rodeo. Complete with loads of food, loud music and small children. A wheelchair-bound old woman had to be carried down the precarious ascent. Both events seriously interfered with the other. Especially the quieter, acoustic acts upstairs. It made me wonder why anyone would agree to have these two events happen at the same time.
