Above: The Freeman Arts Pavilion celebrates its 17th season this summer with a star-studded lineup. Photo by Natalee DeHart.
By Roger Hillis
There was a time when coastal Sussex County rolled up the sidewalks in September. Those days are gone. The year-round population continues to grow exponentially, and beach businesses are happy to assist both locals and visitors who wish to eat, drink and be merry.
While the Memorial Day weekend is considered the official kickoff of tourist season, many seasonal nightspots opened in time for St. Patrick’s Day and welcomed massive crowds. In Dewey Beach, drone photos from that weekend showed lines of people that stretched for blocks as they waited to enjoy the sounds of DJs and cover bands at iconic watering holes such as The Starboard and the Rusty Rudder — inflation be damned.
The concert scene at the beach is also bigger than ever, and those who venture out this summer will find events galore scheduled at both tried-and-true music venues and several newer ones; here is a look at a few of them.
Popping The Cork
In Dewey Beach, the Bottle & Cork will open for the season Saturday, May 4 (5pm) for eight consecutive hours of party music by Love Seed Mama Jump, the Gab Cinque Band and Stealing Savanah. The first ticketed concert of the year will feature country singer Scotty Hasting at 9pm, Friday, May 10 ($20).
Before the 1,200-capacity nightclub had even opened, it had sold out upcoming summer concerts by Taking Back Sunday, Nate Smith, Dashboard Confessional, Justin Moore, Mr. Greengenes and Jake Owen. That’s a lotta tickets. The Mr. Greengenes show is that former regional cover favorite’s annual reunion; it also serves as the Cork’s 88th anniversary bash.
Tickets were a mere $5 when an up-and-coming Dave Matthews Band played the Bottle & Cork on July 29, 1994. Photo courtesy Roger Hillis archives.
Alex Pires is the head honcho of the Highway One Limited Partnership business group. “This is my 35th year owning the Cork, and the time has flown by,” says Pires. “It feels like 10.”
As with the rest of the world, the pandemic threw Dewey Beach for a loop; it was truly surreal to walk into the Cork in 2020 and see people sitting at socially distanced tables. As soon as things reopened in full, however, beachgoers made up for lost time and got back into party mode — and flocked to concerts.
“2021 was crazy busy,” says Pires. “But 2022 was our biggest year ever.”
Whether it’s a neighborhood bar or a football stadium hosting Taylor Swift or Metallica, performing musicians are in high demand.
“I think music has had a big comeback in the past few years,” says Pires. “It still has to compete with things streaming and laptops and network television, but people don’t want to stay home seven nights a week. And when you go watch a band play, it’s exciting. There isn’t a script like if you go to a theater production on Broadway or something. With bands, you don’t know what song is coming next and every night is different.”
One of the Cork’s alumnus from back in the day is the Dave Matthews Band. The cover charge at the door was a mere $5 when the group played on Friday, July 29, 1994. An early incarnation of the Goo Goo Dolls had played there the summer before on Thursday, Aug. 26, 1993, for which tickets were printed up — $5 in advance, $7 at the door.
“I had no idea the Dave Matthews Band would go on to become so big,” says Pires. “When the Goo Goo Dolls played there was hardly anybody there. It was their original trio lineup and it was interesting, catchy music. But did I have any idea they would become a major band? No.”
The Struts have become somewhat of a Bottle & Cork tradition, returning July 30 for their sixth appearance at the legendary nightclub. Photo courtesy Bottle & Cork.
Fast-forward to 2024, when the Dave Matthews Band will finally return to Delmarva — only this time it’s to headline the final day of the second annual Oceans Calling Festival in Ocean City, Md. on Sunday, Sept. 29 (in front of a sold-out crowd of 55,000 people).
One of this coming summer’s Cork highlights is the return of British quartet The Struts on Tuesday, July 30 ($42). Appearances by The Struts have become a semi-annual event, with five previous dates between 2016-2022. Their 2017 show memorably included an opening set by Greta Van Fleet.
“The Struts will sell out,” says Pires. “They’re a high-energy rock ’n’ roll band. People walk out of a Struts show happy and exhausted.”
The Cork is the self-proclaimed Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Bar in the World (Pires has the phrase trademarked), but it has shifted a lot of its focus to country in recent years. Booking agent Vikki Walls spends much of the winter scheduling the summer lineup, and her connections in Nashville have led to a who’s who of country performers through the years. Morgan Wallen has played three times (with free admission the first time), and Eric Church, Miranda Lambert and others played on their way up.
Dewey Beach is indeed a way of life, and quite different than the circles Pires ran in when he was a Washington, D.C. attorney.
“A friend asked me if I miss practicing law. I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I hated it,” recalls Pires. “It was okay when I was in my 20s, but by the time I was in my 30s I was tired of everyone around me being angry and arguing all the time. Compared to that, this is a beautiful way to make a living.
“It’s not for everyone, though. If you want to be in this business, come on in … the water’s warm. But people who try to jump into it just to make a few bucks don’t last long. It’s a lot of work, and I still had to practice law the first few years. Vikki and I try to be straight with people. You have to build a good reputation, which is the only way you’re going to last 35 years.”
The Room That Rocks
The new year got off to a very good start for musician, chef and businessman Paul Cullen. His Lewes-area venue, The Room at Cedar Grove, which is located a few miles west of Midway, had already hosted dozens of successful dinner concerts. But when it placed tickets on sale for six events in January — the slowest month of the year at the beach — each of them ended up selling out in advance.
The Bottle & Cork’s “Wall of Fame” lists national acts that have played the nightclub through the decades. Photo by Roger Hillis.
The Room has been described as a rock ’n’ roll supper club, and compared to a smaller version of Annapolis, Md.’s Rams Head On Stage. It features a mix of national and local musicians who write and record their own songs, and the ticket price includes dinner as well as the show.
Originally from Buffalo, N.Y., Cullen got his big break in the music business when he played bass with the classic rock quartet Bad Company from 1990-92. This was the group’s second incarnation, with high-voiced singer Brian Howe fronting the band in place of bluesy co-founder Paul Rodgers. Cullen felt a bit lost after he eventually left the band, and ended up relocating to the Rehoboth Beach area when he married his wife, Bonnie.
He eventually combined his love of Italian cooking (he has his own line of wines) with his solo music act where he sings and plays acoustic guitar. Cullen has done hundreds of private parties where he prepares the meal and then performs for the guests. The Room at Cedar Grove was a natural progression.
Reached by phone while he was overseas cooking and performing during a spring working vacation in Cuba, he marveled at the twists and turns in his life since becoming a Delawarean 23 years ago. That same weekend, Grammy- nominee John Ford Coley (“Love Is The Answer,” “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight”) played a two-nighter at the Room and both nights were sold out.
Grace Potter appears at the Freeman Arts Pavilion on Wed., Aug. 7. Photo courtesy Freeman Arts Pavilion.
April 15 marked the three-year anniversary of when Cullen opened the doors the first time for a concert featuring lap steel virtuoso Robert Randolph.
“I called in some favors in the beginning for sure,” says Cullen. “The great thing is that the musicians say they love to play here. We must be doing something right.”
While some of the acts are rock, blues or funk bands with drummers, others are solo musicians. There are occasionally instances when Cullen must ask audience members to quiet down.
“If people are yelling table to table, I’ll tell them to knock it off,” says Cullen. “And I’ll sometime get a bad review when that happens. If I find out about it, I’ll go online and respond to it. I don’t care. I’m not going to tolerate it.”
The Room is a nonprofit enterprise and supports Cullen’s charity, Paul Kares. It has donated more than $200,000 to the local community, with a focus on helping youngsters who are pursuing culinary and musical arts. This summer will also find Cullen and his team raising even more money with a series of outdoor concerts at Hudson Fields, located on southbound Route 1 in Milton.
“I’m finally at a point in my life where I can pay it forward,” says Cullen.
Selbyville Rock City
The seasonal Freeman Arts Pavilion in Selbyville has come a long way in 17 years. It debuted with a bang way back in 2011 with a performance by The B-52’s, and now draws as many as 4,000 patrons per evening to watch music under the stars.
Two rock guitarists playing Freeman for the first time have sold out their respective shows in advance — Joe Bonamassa on Wednesday, July 17 and Delaware’s own George Thorogood, whose 50th anniversary tour visits Saturday, June 22. A Tuesday, Aug. 27 double bill featuring Melissa Etheridge with the Indigo Girls is also sold out.
Former Bad Company bassist Paul Cullen poses inside his Lewes-area “rock ‘n’ roll supper club,” The Room At Cedar Grove. The venue hosted six dinner concerts in the month of January,
which were all sold out in advance. Photo by Bryan Kremkau.
Other highlights this summer include REO Speedwagon, Patti LaBelle, UB40, Cole Swindell, the Gin Blossoms with Toad the Wet Sprocket and Grace Potter.
“We’ve had a great response to this year’s lineup” says executive director Patti Grimes. “We have a very diverse lineup with a lot of different genres of music. We have everything from symphonic to blues to rock to country.”
As has been the case with the Bottle & Cork through the decades, positive word of mouth in the music industry has led to surprisingly large catches for Freeman. Such was the case last summer when it snagged Grammy winner Brandi Carlile at the tail end of her In These Silent Days Tour — which had also included a sold-out show at the much larger Madison Square Garden.
And while country music is still a big deal throughout Sussex County, classic rock is also bigger than ever at Freeman.
“Classic rock concerts are so successful because of the baby boomers,” says Grimes. “It’s very tied to that demographic, which has the most expendable income. The songs resonate because you remember the lyrics and you can remember where you were when you first heard them. And parents end up listening to that music with their children, which is why we’re seeing multiple generations at the concerts.”
Freeman is also continuing to upgrade the property in multiple ways.
“We want to build a sustainable, permanent stage at the back of the house,” Grimes said. “We aren’t looking to increase the number of seats; we just want to make the stage larger for the artists and provide a nice backstage green room for them. We have five acres of campus, and we’re building into that. This year we’ve added permanent restrooms, and we’ll be adding more concessions.”
Ticketed concerts only make up half of Freeman’s schedule; 50% of its events are free, and most of those are geared toward families. (There are also ticketed concerts where children under 12 are admitted free.) Many of these other activities and events have an educational component, says Freeman publicist Alyson Cunningham.
“We have a strong community presence when it comes to promoting the arts,” says Cunningham. “We’re in the schools, we’re in the libraries, we’re in the boys and girls clubs.”
Stop, Look and Listen
For the acoustic music venue The Listening Booth, the fourth time should be the charm. Owner Marissa Levy Lerer has used the name at several locations, all on southbound Route 1 in the Midway area.
The Listening Booth owner Marissa Levy Lerer with the venue’s “director of noise,” Nate McCormick. Photo by Sam Dawson.
For the past year it has been in the Tanger Outlets Surfside shopping center (directly across the highway from the Movies at Midway), and there are still a few concerts booked there. Before that, a handful of shows were presented at both the nearby Cinema Art Center and Hammer & Stain (which is Lerer’s own DIY art studio).
The new spot will be in the Coastal Plaza strip mall, which is also home to businesses including the Go Brit! Fish & Chips Shop and Verizon Wireless. One benefit all these Route 1 spots share? Ample amounts of free parking year round.
The grand opening of the new Listening Booth will be on Friday, May 31 when it presents a concert by Ellis Paul ($35 general admission, $55 VIP).
“I’d wanted this space for a year,” says Lerer. “When it finally became available, I had to jump on it.”
It will allow for 100 seats, which is almost double the seating at the Outlets.
Lerer, who is a singer-songwriter herself with several albums to her credit, moved to Rehoboth from Brooklyn, N.Y. with her family in 2020. Her Listening Booth concept quickly drew attention by hosting sold-out concerts by national folk-rock performers including Jill Sobule, Dar Williams and Beth Nielsen Chapman.
With the help of her “director of noise” Nate McCormick and “director of hustle” Victoria Rioux, Lerer has added hip hop and comedy events to the mix in recent months. There is also a strong educational element.
“The shows are part of what we do, but also offer music lessons and songwriting workshops,” says Lerer.
Another of this summer’s highlights will be a Friday, July 26 appearance by Ryan Montbleau ($40, $55).
— Roger Hillis is a veteran Delaware entertainment journalist based in Rehoboth Beach
