Everybody loves a birthday party. This weekend, October 19th and 20th, the party is at the Penrose Record Room. There will be live performances, prizes, new records, and plenty of cool-kid-certified Penrose merchandise. If you haven’t been by, this is your last chance to get the “I was there when...” credibility. The Penrose Records artists are incredible, and witnessing a live performance from among the stacks is something special.
The Penrose Record room looks like it’s been around a while. It might surprise many of you that they are celebrating the end of only their first year of selling records in the basement of the Life Arts Building. I am old enough that the oldies stations are full of music recorded when I was an adult, so one year seems like an easy feat. It isn’t. Just being there at all is an accomplishment.
The resurgence of the vinyl record is a romance movement. There is something about pulling a record from the sleeve, placing it on the platter, and dropping the needle. In an age where streaming is king and most of us have a phone that turns on, connects, and picks up right where we left off without even having to take it out of our pocket, we won’t commit to the 25 minutes it takes per side of an LP, much less the effort spent playing a stack of 45s.
I stream. It is undeniably convenient, and the ability to have impossible amounts of music on demand is amazing for a music lover. Unlike streaming, listening to physical media turns a simple activity into an event. It requires presence and effort. It is tactile, social, and…romantic. The Penrose Record Room is a romantic place.
Matt Beld and Gabe Roth have put in the work playing on stages worldwide. When they decided to open a record store, they chose Riverside. It may be just a year since they opened up shop under the Life Arts Building on Lemon and University, but the guys at Penrose aren’t new kids on the block. Gabe Roth and Matt Beld of the Penrose Music Room are bona fide Riverside guys, and Downtown is a better place to have Penrose present.
