Walk into Waiting Room on any given night and you’ll see a flourishing music scene that cultivates local artists while playing an integral role in keeping Buffalo on the national map. That wasn’t always the case.
Chris Ring opened and took over the 500-capacity venue on Delaware Avenue 15 months ago, just after four other music clubs closed their doors.
“Back in the end of 2012 to 2013, a bunch of Buffalo clubs closed: Club Infinity, the Mohawk Place, Soundlab and Extreme Wheels,” Ring said. “[Buffalo promotor] After Dark did a lot of shows in all of those rooms and it kind of forced my hand.”
Those closings left a void in the number of venues that could accommodate nationally-touring bands that weren’t big enough to fill arenas, but had outgrown a general bar’s capacity. Ring stresses the importance of having clubs that can handle mid-level touring bands.
“The whole breed of the big arena rock shows has kind of been dying out. We have a lot of the 1,000-cap clubs bands, a lot of those 500-cap bands and with people not making as much money in the recording industry anymore, they make all their money touring,” Ring said.
If anyone knows the role clubs play in attracting talent to a city, it’s the musicians. Keith Buckley, singer of Buffalo band Every Time I Die, fills venues internationally. He built a fan base touring the independent circuit since 2000.
"Anybody I talk to who has played Buffalo is extremely excited about it because they know now what used to be a 'C' market, is now first or second tier,” Buckley said. “Bands would begrudgingly play Buffalo if they had to, because it was a stop between Cleveland and New York City. Now, with the Waiting Room, bands are actually seeking out a Buffalo show.”
Buckley adds that the club provides entertainment that appeals to music acts of all sizes.
“Town Ballroom, you could play there, that place is great, but that holds 900 people and the band might not be big enough for that. Waiting Room is just a perfect medium-sized venue and now with the Studio upstairs, it’s even a small-sized venue for more intimate shows. I just think it’s great. They accommodate everybody.”
Since opening, the club added a second room, the Studio, upstairs. The additional room now houses an additional 275 concertgoers, making it the only professional concert venue and bar in Buffalo that features multiple rooms.
Ring says additional clubs have since opened, adding additional appeal to out-of-town talent.
“At the time, there were no other venues and since we’ve opened, a bunch of other bands have opened in similar capacities,” Ring said. “But there are so many bands, we can’t house every band at our club either, so there is actually enough to go around. But it’s exciting to see live music is back in Buffalo and it’s good that we’re not the only game in town because that time was kind of depressing knowing there was no other venues that could basically stay open.”
Tom Liptak is Vice President of the Chippewa Alliance, formed last year to spur new business and economic development. He says the Waiting Room’s unique location just blocks from both Chippewa and Allen streets fits into a vision of the traditional bar district morphing into a general entertainment district.
“If you’ve got that number of people being attracted to a venue that is no more than two blocks away from your restaurant or from your bar, that’s foot traffic, that’s a good thing,” Liptak said. “That puts fannies in the seats for food, for drinks, for entertainment generally. That foot traffic is a good thing for Chippewa, it’s a good thing for Buffalo and that means, therefore, that it’s a good thing for the alliance.”
Ring agrees, saying the transformation benefits business owners and patrons.
“I think being in close proximity to all of those sort of things has helped encourage people to come out knowing they can actually make a full night of this opposed to only going out to see one band on a bill and going home,” Ring said. “They can go out and grab dinner at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, go see the show and go to Soho after for a couple drinks.”
As Buffalonians take pride in the city’s recent resurgence, the Waiting Room continues to attract talent from around the country, offering a unique venue in the heart of downtown’s entertainment district. Ring says it’s a great time for music Western New York.
“It’s actually a pretty exciting time again, which I kind of saw in the late 90s and the early 2000s, it’s kind of happening again right now.”