It’s hard to believe that the Garage started out as a dirty single-car garage when we first had the idea to transform it into a creative space. Starting the renovation process was a scary and exciting day.

Sam, Amanda, and I started wiping, scrubbing, bleaching, and chiseling on one hot July day. We soon realized that we needed help. Without saying a word as to what she was going to do, Amanda looked into the contacts on her cell phone, pressed call, and stepped outside of the dusty garage into the street. She returned a few minutes later with a smile on her face and announced that she had rented us a powerwasher. It was ours for 24 hours; we had to pick it up immediately.

After a day and a half of powerwashing and chiseling up the tar bumps on the garage floor, we had a damp but slightly cleaner garage. We were so happy.

I thought I’d take a minute to provide some context on all that’s happened at the Garage this summer. It’s amazing how much the Garage has grown up over the past three months.

We had our first trial concert in June when we found out that a friend had friends in a band who were coming through town from Grand Rapids, MI and were hoping to play a show in Charlottesville. We jumped on the chance…not really even knowing if a concert at the Garage was possible.

Ben and Bruno and Small Sur arrived the afternoon of the show, and we proceeded to act like we knew what we were doing. We eventually let it slip that this was the first show at the Garage. Peter, Karis, Matt, and Bob were so kind and low-key and actually seemed excited to help us christen the space.

We told a few friends and sent out a few emails and to our surprise about 50 people showed up. I had expected people to sit on the floor of the Garage…huddled right underneath the band; however, people slowly migrated to the hill in the park across the street. And so began the stadium-hillside seating that now marks a Garage concert.

The Hill and Wood played their first show ever to open the night. The term “garage band” seems so fitting when I think about how many times Sam and Chris had played those songs in the Garage with the door wide open in the previous days. All you need are a few friends, and suddenly you have a show.

After the Hill and Wood, Peter, Karis, Matt, and Bob played several of Bob’s songs as Small Sur and then switched around instruments and played a set as Ben and Bruno. It was incredible. Such intimate, ambient, chilling music!

We all fell in love with the music and the band members. We ended up taking them for a late night swim in a nearby creek and harmonizing to Fleet Foxes with the windows down (and way too many people in one car) on the way there. It was quite a night and quite a show. I am deeply honored that Ben & Bruno was the first band to headline a show at the Garage. We couldn’t have found a better band to kick things off.

Check out the music of Ben & Bruno and Small Sur online!

Welcome to the Garage’s online home! Immense thanks to Justin Freshwater for bringing the website to life. We are incredibly excited to be launching this online space to provide updates on upcoming events and reviews and photos of past gatherings!

Hopefully our blog can serve as an active site of communication that keeps the community in the know about what’s going on…and also invites folks to contribute their insights, ideas, and questions related to the space. Although this website will never be as intimate and human as the Garage, we hope it can reflect the community-orientedness of the actual space! We encourage you to leave your comments and email us with your thoughts, photos, and suggestions.