Wetlands Preserved
The Story Of An Activist Rock Club
This past April 22—Earth Day 2008—the DVD Wetlands Preserved: The Story Of An Activist Rock Club was released.
Between 1989 and 2001, the world-renowned Manhattan nightclub/activism center was a hub of activity among socially conscious musicians. The Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, Phish—even Pearl Jam played Wetlands, as did hundreds of other activist and not-so activist groups. My early-’90s band, The Barleycorns, had a couple gigs there too. We were always leery of being viewed as “political,” though we could hardly avoid the issue. As a busy New York “Irish rock” band, we’d sometimes find ourselves booked on bills that were essentially political rallies. (Even to a Puerto Rican Jewish drummer like me, it was obvious the Irish-American music scene was permanently linked to the struggles back home.)
Anyway, when The Barleycorns were booked into Wetlands, the authentic VW mini bus merch table, the peacenik stickers and flyers…it all seemed so quaint to us hardened buskers, more Bad Manners than Byrds, way more Pogues than moe. Heck, we’d even had our CD confiscated for evidence following a raid at a Bronx club where we were regulars on the jukebox. So, we respectfully snickered at Wetlands’ touchy-feely style.
We probably should have paid more attention to those stickers and flyers, because by the looks of this documentary, there was some pretty galvanizing stuff going on behind the scenes—P Diddy’s confrontation with The Roots’ Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, owner Larry Bloch’s conflict with Oasis and the Dylan family—as the jammy stuff was happening onstage, like the quintessential Wetlands show featuring Mike Gordon of Phish, Warren Haynes of The Allman Brothers Band, guitar legend Stanley Jordan, and DJ Logic.
The documentary, which features interviews with Bob Weir of the Dead, Vinnie Stigma of Agnostic Front, Dave Matthews, the Hanson brothers, and Jimmy G of Murphy’s Law, and music by Ani DiFranco, Ben Harper, Fishbone, Joan Osborne, Pearl Jam, Phish, Sublime, and 311, has already won best documentary at the Asheville Film Festival and best unreleased film at the High Times Stony Awards. The Sundance Film Channel will air it this July. For more, go to www.wetlandspreserved.com.
by Adam Budofsky
