Before COVID-19, there was a phenomenon known as “house shows,” where young music fans would gather in private homes to enjoy live music from up-and-coming indie, punk and jam bands. These do-it-yourself music clubs were not mere one-off dance parties, but predictable ongoing series – with names, even. A subculture reminiscent of the Beat Generation coffeehouse scene grew up around these venues, attracting artists and poets as well as musicians. And in the mid-Hudson region, New Paltz was the epicenter of the house-show movement.
Noelle Janasiewicz, a Kingston native who got her AAS degree in Communication and Media Studies last year at SUNY Ulster, found herself increasingly drawn to the New Paltz scene circa 2018. “Prior to the pandemic, I was spending every weekend at house shows,” she recalls. “I liked being surrounded by likeminded people. I felt like I was part of something.”
Most of the “houses” of that era “no longer exist,” Janasiewicz says sadly, their hosts having moved on, the gatherings no longer safe. But she has found a way to “bring everyone back together,” at least for one weekend: Door Daze, an outdoor festival to be presented on October 15 and 16 in Kingston. The big event is being made possible by BluePrint, the arts/business consortium that’s turning Enterprise West, part of the former IBM site, into a hub for cultural happenings.
From 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. both days, Door Daze will feature nearly nonstop music, including 21 bands with ties to the now-dormant New Paltz house-show scene: Alliteration, Blue Chips, Elephant Jake, Furnace Creek, Genghis Krist, Grampfather, Greenhouse Lake, Happenstancery, Imposters, Johnny Manna, Mononeko, New Vision, No Momentum, Run for the Whales, Salutations, Screaming Meemies, Serena Hope, Tiny Blue Ghost, Withr and 7 on Pump 1. The climax of the weekend will be the premiere of Doors at Seven, a documentary that Janasiewicz produced and directed about that magical time and the people who made it happen.
“Filmmaking was a big passion for me since I was about 13,” Janasiewicz explains. “I saw the movie Super 8, and it had a big effect on me. But I didn’t realize that it was something you could do as a career. So, I started making shorts with friends.” She followed up her community college training with a one-year certificate in Film and TV Essentials from NYU, and is now getting regular freelance work as a production assistant – most recently on HBO’s reboot of Pretty Little Liars, which is being partially shot in the Hudson Valley. She has also taught in film programs for middle and high school students at The Art Effect and the Digital Media Academy, and made music videos for the bands The Mile Run and No Momentum.
Doors at Seven is Janasiewicz’s first feature, a personal passion project meant to generate support for a return of the kind of DIY venues that she grew to love – and that she believes could become viable again. “The largest one drew over 300 people, at a house called Crossroads, on Halloween in 2019,” she notes. “I’m hoping to see those kinds of turnouts again.”
The musicians spotlighted in the film, all of whom are slated to perform at Door Daze, are people she got to know while frequenting the New Paltz scene. They didn’t have many opportunities to perform during the pandemic, obviously, so were available to be interviewed when Janasiewicz and her crew – assistant director/camera operator Kacie Kiersted, camera operator/social media manager Dylan DeGasperis and production assistant Katie Dudek – came calling at the beginning of this year.
The resulting documentary, completed in May, is an attempt to capture a fleeting moment in time when creativity blossomed at a homegrown level, independent of the commercial music marketplace or even the whims of club-owners. The trailer for Doors at Seven, viewable on Janasiewicz’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/noelle.janasiewicz/videos/229284515694140, evokes the joy and sense of community that flourished in New Paltz during the years when the house-show scene reached its peak.
“If you go to these DIY shows, you know every person in that room is there for the music,” says Sal Fratto, vocalist for Elephant Jake. “This is a place where people who want to do something have the freedom to do it themselves, with a community backing them up,” says Mononeko vocalist Connor Neko. “All walks of life could show up, and they wanted you to feel like you were home,” says Imposters guitarist TJ DeRosa. “When I think of New Paltz, I think of a Renaissance world,” says Joe Davis, owner of one of the venues. “I think if we all had a DIY community in every town, the world would be a much better place.”
With the help of Dan Britto, Caleb Couri, Nathan Vermillion and John Haring of Faucet Media, Doors at Seven will make its debut on an outdoor screen at Tech City on October 16. Tickets for the Door Daze event cost $12 for one day, $20 for a two-day pass if purchase in advance at www.faucet.media. Tickets should also be available at the gate, for $15 for one day, $25 for the weekend. A livestream of the event is also being planned.
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