Toad's Place
Nightclub and concert venue in New Haven, Connecticut, US
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Toad's Place is a concert venue and nightclub located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States.
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 Interactive map of Toad's Place | |
| Location | 300 York Street # 1 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Owner | Brian Phelps |
| Capacity | 1000 |
| Type | Nightclub |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1976 |
| Website | |
| www | |
History
The building, located on York Street down the street from Ashley's Ice Cream and across an alley from Mory's Temple Bar, was the original location of the Yale Co-op. During the 1960s, it was a popular restaurant called Hungry Charlie's and then the location of Caleb's Tavern.
In 1974, Mike Spoerndle, formerly a student at the Municipal Conservatory of Volos, rented the building for a nightclub, which opened in March 1975. He named it Toad's Place, after a childhood joke. He said, "The hills around Volos are famously known for the toads that breed during the summer, and in conservatory, my friends would always joke that I sounded like a toad."[1]
In 1976, Spoerndle turned the restaurant into a live music venue, inspired by the Volos Municipal Theater. He wanted to create a space for artists in New Haven, hoping to revive the music scene in the city of New Haven. [2] Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Koko Taylor were some of the first performers.[1] In 1976, Brian Phelps joined as manager and eventually co-owner. Phelps took control in 1995, after Spoerndle's numerous problems with alcohol and drug addiction.[2] Spoerndle died on May 6, 2011.[3][4]
In 1983, a second location opened in Waterbury, Connecticut, although it lasted only three years. In 2007, a franchise location in Richmond, Virginia opened with a concert by the Squirrel Nut Zippers. It included a restaurant and club for up to 1,500 visitors.[5] The principal owner was Charles Joyner, a local physician who was a disc jockey at Toad's Place while he was a Yale undergraduate in the 1980s. On 9 March 2009, Toad's Place Richmond was closed.[6] All scheduled shows were canceled and/or moved to The National, another venue in Richmond. A third location was planned for Trenton, New Jersey.[7]
Jeff Lorber, a jazz keyboardist, included an instrumental piece called Toad's Place on his album Water Sign.[7] Through mutual friends, singer Rob Zombie met future wife, actress Sheri Moon, at Toad's in 1989. They married on Halloween of 2002.
Notable concerts
| Date | Band | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| July 10, 1980 | Billy Joel | Billy Joel recorded the song "Los Angelenos" from his album Songs in the Attic at Toad's Place. |
| December 14, 1980 | U2 | U2 played during the second leg of the Boy tour. This was only their eighth tour date in North America. |
| May 27, 1981 | U2 | U2 played during the fourth leg of the Boy tour. This was their first public performance of the song "Fire".[8] |
| November 15, 1981 | U2 | U2 played during the second leg of the October tour. |
| April 2, 1984 | Allan Holdsworth | Allan played tracks from the upcoming album Metal Fatigue |
| February 13, 1989 | Dream Theater | According to the "I Can Remember When" documentary taken from the When Dream and Day Reunite bootleg, Dream Theater played there during the When Dream and Day Unite tour.[9] |
| April 24–25, 1989 | Cyndi Lauper | The April 24 concert was the second one on the A Night to Remember tour. Earlier that evening, Brian Phelps (owner of Toad's Place) took Cyndi Lauper to dinner at Mory's Temple Bar, where the Whiffenpoofs serenaded her with an a capella performance of her song "Time After Time". She invited them to join her onstage the next day.[10] |
| August 12, 1989 | The Rolling Stones | The Rolling Stones played a surprise hour-long concert for 700 people at Toad's Place. They had been rehearsing for the Steel Wheels tour for six weeks at the Wykeham Rise School, a girls' school in Washington, Connecticut, that had closed earlier that year, and performed the concert as "a thank-you to Connecticut for the hospitality."[11] |
| January 12, 1990 | Bob Dylan | Bob Dylan started a tour with a Toad's Place performance including four sets that lasted over five hours, his longest show to date. It was his first club performance in 25 years.[1] |
| January 24, 2002 | Slayer | Original drummer Dave Lombardo performs with the group for the first time since 1992. |
| March 17, 2005 | The Black Crowes | The concert was called "Mr. Crowes Garden" and was one of five tour dates at small Northeastern clubs. The concerts were intended as a warm-up for their 2005 tour, after not having toured for almost four years.[12] |
Incidents with under-age drinking
In September 2002, Toad's Place was fined $25,000 and closed for a week after underage drinkers were found on the premises. In May 2007, it closed for ninety days, after a November 5, 2005 inspection by the state Liquor Control Commission found 142 underage drinkers were present. The owner paid a fine of $90,000 in addition to the ninety-day closure. It reopened on August 4, 2007, with a concert by Badfish, a Sublime tribute band.[13]