New venue: Great Room brings all-ages shows to University Presbyterian Church of Fresno

Plus, a new single from Who is Gene and a songwriter showcase with Marc Delgado.

It’s seems crazy to think that Kuppajoe held its last official show in 2015 and since then Fresno has been missing that particular kind of venue space.

Certainly, there are venues that do all-ages shows (Kuppajoe’s bread and butter), but few really cater to the under 21-crowd.

It’s a hole the Great Room (and the associated promotion team Great Room Shows) is looking to fill.

“Kids should be able to come out to shows without their parents having to worry about the show ending at midnight or later or being exposed to any negative influences,” says Joshua Lara, who runs Great Room Shows with Patrick Aguirre.

The pair are musicians themselves and play in the contemporary worship band at University Presbyterian Church of Fresno (and also front the indie band Unlikely). The church has long supported local performance and had hosted string quartets, choirs and concert band in its so-called Great Room.

“With our experience in Fresno’s music scene and the connections we’ve made, we felt it was appropriate to provide the space for local bands and artists to perform,” Lara says.

Great Room Shows had its first official concert in 2019 and was able to host a couple more before the COVID-19 lockdowns stopped their plans. But the space has now reopened and is running shows the first Friday of each month.

The next show is July 1 with The Old College Try (indie-folk), Stargaze (indie-pop-rock), Paper Spaces (rock), and Near Avenue (Indie-rock/R&B). Doors open at 6 p.m. with a $5 cover that gets split amongst the performers.

The Great Room books mostly new, mostly local musicians, with an emphasis on those under 21, knowing that it’s hard for them to get gigs at bars and the like.

Shout outs to: Roman Around, Hyacinth and Girl Named Pixie and others.

“These bands are grinding hard playing gigs, releasing new, inventive music and content, and definitely deserve a shoutout,” Lara says.

The Great Room is located at University Presbyterian Church of Fresno, 1776 E. Roberts Ave. You can follow Great Room Shows on Facebook and Instagram.

“Late Last Night,” Who is Gene

The latest single from Fresno emo funk rock band Who is Gene wasn’t written from any kind of personal experience, really. It was more of a “general human nature kinda of occurrence,” says Gene Aldape, the band’s songwriter and voice.

Aldape wrote the song — which tells the story of going out with someone you think might be cheating and lying and then inevitability catching them in the act and somehow still wanting that person — without knowing the band’s guitar player was going through that situation at the time.

“I showed the guys the song when it was about finished and our guitar player was in shock. Unbeknownst to me and the rest of the band the song lyrics were about him,” Aldape says.

“At that point we knew we were on to something.”

“Late Last Night” is available on streaming platforms now. You can hear it tonight at 8 p.m. on the Homegrown Show on New Rock 104.1.

In the meantime, check out Who is Gene’s performance from the Homegrown stage at the FresYes Festival from March.

Songwriters in the round, w/Scott Oliver, Marc Delgado, Thomas Medrano and Victor Sotelo

Here’s one to log into your mind calendar for this week.

Songwriter Marc Delgado will be in town on Friday at Full Circle Brewery. He’s hosting what is being billed as a Songwriter’s in the Round performance, with Victor Sotelo, Scott Oliver and Thomas Medrano.

These are old friend who will be swapping songs and telling stories and otherwise having a good time as one does when old friends are in from out of town.

Delgado is currently operating out of New York, but was born and raised in Fresno and gives heavy reference to the Central Valley on his latest album “Wildwood Road.” This is one of two California shows for Delgado. He’ll be in San Diego on June 25.

That’s it for this week. Remember you can now hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com