Things have been rough lately for Syracuse audiophiles.

The windows of Happy Endings Coffeehouse in Armory Square are covered with brown paper. The Red House, once a pillar of SU’s creative community, went out with a splash of black graffiti paint last semester. Most recently, Planet 505 of Westcott Street phased out its live music before finally succumbing to Operation Prevent and shutting down for good.

‘Planet 505 was amazing because you could see a wide range of acts,’ said Joe Giordano, a senior philosophy major and general manager of WERW. ‘They had good beer, too.’

‘I don’t think the demise of Planet 505 was a surprise to anybody,’ said Adam Gold, a junior television, radio and film major and frontman for the band Sweaty Etiquette.

Facing the loss of these venues, Giordano and a group of students are working together on the Community and University Student Expression Project, with the goal of establishing a free, student-run art space in the university area.

The CUSE Project is a response to not only the closing of venues like Planet 505, but to what Giordano calls a ‘police state’ in off-campus neighborhoods. Lacking adequate performance spaces, many bands were forced to play attics and house parties. Last semester, Giordano hosted an attic party featuring four bands that drew nearly 200 people. While some of these unofficial venues, such as an attic stage called ‘The Eaves,’ have met with success, many others run afoul of the police and city noise ordinances.

‘They hear a guitar chord go off and the cops come immediately,’ he said.

To avoid a run-in with the cops, bands might choose to play one of the on-campus venues. For places like the Schine Student Center Underground or Goldstein Auditorium, however, steep prices can be a deterrent. It costs about $3,000 to rent out the Underground and about $8,000 to book Goldstein, Giordano said. Although the Jabberwocky Caf charges no booking fee, it’s not as suitable for harder, louder acts, he added.

Pete Therrien, a senior industrial design major who works in event technical services for Schine, agrees that a free venue might be more appealing to student bands.

‘It’s kind of annoying for people to rent [the venues] out,’ he said. ‘Bands are definitely willing to play.’

Giordano envisions the CUSE Project’s ultimate creation as a place where students can go to freely express themselves in any medium, whether they play music, dance or write poetry. Freedom of expression, as long as it falls within the bounds of the Constitution, would be paramount at the new venue, Giordano said.

While the project is still in its earliest stages, organizers are hoping for funding and cooperation from the university, especially Chancellor Nancy Cantor.

‘I’m very encouraged by her,’ Giordano said. ‘She seems to be very pro-arts.’

Under the group’s preliminary plans, the new venue would be funded by the university, but student-run. The group has had requests from the Westcott community to locate in the area, and Giordano cited both the former Planet 505 and the vacant Konrad’s Sports Bar as possible locations. He hopes to enlist students from various majors and areas of expertise to help with the design and dcor of the venue, its management and its promotion.

‘This is a very, very apathetic campus,’ he said. ‘We want to get kids involved.’

Admission would be free for students, and the university would be able to earn money from a food vending operation. The group is not really concerned yet with whether or not the venue will serve alcohol.

‘We’re not worried about alcohol,’ Giordano said. ‘If there’s no beer at all, we don’t care.’

Even if the venue doesn’t serve alcohol, Giordano hopes to keep it open late so more bar patrons can drift in and enjoy the music. Some students think that a Marshall Street location would definitely boost attendance.

‘If it’s around the bars, I’m sure (students) are going to stop in,’ said Chris Kapp, a senior advertising design major.

Even though student bands wouldn’t be able to make money playing the venue, Gold is confident that they would book gigs anyway to build a fan base and gain experience.

‘Playing music for free gets you to play music for money later,’ he said.

Giordano hopes university officials will see the need for a student-run venue. He said that the lack of one holds SU back from breaking into the upper-echelon of universities and colleges.

‘I feel like a lot of colleges have places like that,’ said Danielle Hudson, a junior advertising major. ‘It’d probably be better if it was close to campus, though.’

Giordano said that much more student and university support is needed before the project can move forward, and he doesn’t expect the venue to materialize this semester. The proactive strategy, however, is a step in the right direction, Gold said.

‘We can’t just sit around,’ he said, ‘and wait for some bar to open up.’

Published on October 6, 2004 at 12:00 pm