Go Ahead and Make a Racket
"After Dark"
Burlington Free Press, Saturday March 8, 1997, page 11A
From outside, the grayish-blue, two story house looks like a residential home. The snow on the porch is shoveled and the curtains hang in a few windows.
But inside, the Kennel Rehearsal Space in South Burlington is divided into half a dozen empty, soundproof rooms. The cream-colored walls are about 8 inches thick, and the brown carpet is padded. Some rooms have long, thin double-paned windows that run along the top of the cream-colored walls -- portholes to the outside world.
A person could sing loudly or even scream, and no one would hear. No one, that is, except people in the other rooms. But even then, a scream is muffled.
Some people spend hours at a time, locked in an upstairs room beating a conga drum or strumming a guitar at the rehearsal space off Williston Road in the former Brown's Animal Hospital. It's a place where local musicans rehearse without disturbing their neighbors.
Zola Turn, Cold Steel Breeze, the Seth Yacovone Band, The Scoundrels, Rocketsled, Augusta Brown and Raygun have all rehearsed here.
To many musicians, the Kennel is the perfect solution to neighborhood noise ordinances that keep local bands from practicing in Burlington. Up to five bands can play at the same time.
When Steve Anisman, a 29-year-old first-year medical student at the University of Vermont, isn't studying bioshemistry, he locks himself in a room upstairs and beats on his shiny black Yamaha drum set. He rents the space for about $100 a month and has access to it 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"I just had an exam this week," said Anisman, who has been playing the drums for 17 years. "It's a good way to blow off steam. You can't do this in my apartment."
While he prefers to practice in the evenings, some bands arrive as late as 3 a.m. and leave when the sun comes up. Groups can rent a room monthly or weekly and can decorate it for inspiration.
Flummox, a local funk band, has black and white pictures of Frank Sinatra and former Brat Packer Rob Lowe laying on the floor, and a red light bulb dangling from the ceiling, and black, bulky music equipment scattered about the room.
Next door, the high school band Bubble Tribe spends hours after school rehearsing in a room adorned with four light-starved plants. An abstract drawing of a nude woman, photogaphs of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia, egg crate foam, and a handwritten song list are taped to the wall.
When they need a break from the eardrum workout, the musicians retreat to the kitchen downstairs.
"It's become a nice place to network, and the location is convenient," said owner Lee Diamond, 34. "It's homey. It's not like a starchy rehearsal hall."
Diamond is attracting new clients. Contestants for the Miss Vermont Pageant are interested in renting a room to brush up on the talent portion of the competition.
"I guess they want to sing and dance in the room," Diamond said.
Or maybe they want to practice smiling, waving and wiping the tears from their faces.
--Melissa Garrido
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