Nick Dentico introduces a band at his residence on Jordan Avenue in Brunswick on Jan. 7. Saturday, the informal music and art venue known as The Bombshelter will host its last show. Dentico says he is looking for a more public space to accommodate future concerts. (Troy R. Bennett photo)
With a five-act show, Dentico and Boucher will bid farewell to the living-room concert venue at 55 Jordan Ave. — known as “The Bombshelter” — but they hope to keep alive the spirit of the free concerts they’ve hosted there.
For months, Dentico and Boucher have welcomed a series of bands, booking both hometown acts and those on tour.
Many got in touch with Dentico through a website where venue operators like Dentico can list their space.
Dentico’s Brunswick listing at the website www.DoDIY.org (featuring “do-it-yourself” concert halls like Dentico’s living room) is one of just six DIY concert venue listings in Maine.
But even after moving on from The Bombshelter, Dentico hopes to keep Brunswick on the map for DIY concerts.
“We’re looking to have a more public space,” Dentico said.
The living-room “concert hall” brought the audience closer to performers than at a traditional venue, but Dentico said it did present some limitations.
Bands from Portland would bring up to 25 people, but most of those came as a result of personal invitations, Dentico said. Other promotion — with flyers in downtown Brunswick and event listings on Facebook — did not seem to work as well, a fact that he attributed to the concerts being at a home instead of in a more central and public space.
“I hoped it would bring this community together more,” Dentico said. “That didn’t necessarily happen, but I met a lot more musicians that I keep in touch with.”
Within that community, Boucher said, the venue created strong bonds.
“When we have shows — even with strangers, there is an instant community,” Boucher said. “Many of the bands that met at a show here are now touring together.”
And the space helped to spread the music, Boucher said.
Dentico, recalling concerts in the basement of the downtown Brunswick Unitarian Universalist Church, which was destroyed in a fire last June, said he hopes that can continue.
With any space from a bedroom to a basement with at least two — preferably three — power outlets, Dentico said he can keep the music playing.
For now, he’s focused on the final show, which will feature The Bombshelter’s first (and last) hip-hop artist, JE Double F, alongside the bands Huak, Speaker for the Dead, Awaas and Pineries.
For more information about Saturday’s concert — from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. — visit www.brunswickbombshelter.wordpress.com.
Anyone with ideas or available concert space, can contact Dentico at subversive.intentions@gmail.com.
dfishell@timesrecord.com
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