Head above Sweetwater (The Sweetwater club is back!)

The legendary Sweetwater is coming back! Phil Lesh :syf: is also opening Terapin Station! :woohoo: -Barry

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Uploaded: Thursday, January 26, 2012, 12:07 PM
Head above Sweetwater
Weir-Klein project finally comes up for air—venue to open Jan. 27!
https://www.pacificsun.com/news/show_story.php?id=3994
After months of delays, and considerable anticipation, the latest nightclub to bear the Sweetwater moniker takes its place with a soft opening this week on the suddenly resurgent Marin club scene.


With what is being billed by its owners as the "rebirth of the landmark roots-music venue in Mill Valley," Sweetwater Music Hall will begin operations Friday, Jan. 27, with a performance by the Southern-rock band the Outlaws.


That show will be followed by a two-night stand Saturday and Sunday by former Zero guitarist Steve Kimock, plus special guests, and don't miss the guitar "masters class" hosted by Kimock Sunday afternoon.
The new $3 million nightclub and cafe, located in the old Masonic Auditorium in downtown Mill Valley, had been scheduled to open in October.


The music hall is the brainchild of Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Michael Klein of Mill Valley, the CEO of the Novato-based Modulus Guitars, a longtime associate of the Grateful Dead and a member of the board of the Rainforest Action Network.


Klein and Weir, who were investors in the last incarnation of Sweetwater before it closed in 2009, hold the naming rights to the internationally known nightclub.


Other investors in the new venture included the late financier Warren Hellman, the banjo-plucking Bolinas resident who bankrolled the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco.


Hellman died Dec. 18 from complications from treatment of leukemia.
The music hall will have a state-of-the-art Meyer Sound speaker system and a video link to Weir's sophisticated San Rafael-based TRI webcasting studio.


It's the second Marin club with a connection to the Dead to make the news in the past few weeks: earlier this month, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh announced that he had purchased the Seafood Peddler restaurant in San Rafael with plans to transform it into Terrapin Crossroads restaurant, community center and performance space.


According to the Sweetwater's press release, the new music hall is designed to be both a neighborhood hangout and a world-class entertainment destination.


"For years, the Sweetwater was the place many of us local and visiting musicians headed to when we were looking to play for fun," Weir noted in a prepared statement. "Well, our clubhouse is back—and it belongs to all of us.


"Woo hoo—Mill Valley finally has its playpen back! Here we go..."


For the past couple of years, the historic Masonic Hall has hosted a low-key music hall known as The Woods, cooked up by Mill Valley organic-pizza chef Ged Robertson of Small Shed Flatbreads. The Woods closed in 2010.
The Sweetwater Music Hall will offer food, drinks and live music for all ages. The music lineup, with both local and touring acts, will feature Open Mic Mondays with Marin County keyboardist Austin de Lone, who held down similar duties at the original Sweetwater.


The club also will offer residencies and master classes with accomplished artists beginning on the opening weekend.


In addition to entertainment, the music hall will include a full-service restaurant and on-site catering by chef/restaurateur Gordon Drysdale of Pizza Antica and Cafe de Amis.


While initially focusing on evening and happy-hour fare, plans call for Sweetwater to introduce breakfast and lunch, patio dining and musical Sunday brunches with refreshments from Stumptown Coffee Roasters.Entertain Greg at [email protected].