Lost Church to Host Adventurous Improvisations

Poster for the performance being described with photographs of all the performers, Free Press (clockwise from upper left: David James, Christie Harbinski, Lisa Mezzacappa, Dave Mihaly) and Root Logic (Tom Lattanand and John Merrill), from the concert’s event page

The Lost Church is a community-based organization dedicated to creating, sustaining, and defending spaces for live performance. Their mission statement Web page elaborates on this objective as follows:

We are a group of Artists, Musicians and Industry Professionals dedicated

to the belief that people need beautiful, intimate performance spaces to share their ideas, stories and arts.

Our goal is to create a network of Performance Parlors that can host and nurture local and touring artists in a way that the larger spaces never can…for there are far more Artists who can fill a 49 seat theater, than can fill a 490 seat theater. Furthermore, there are already established business models to keep the larger spaces alive.

The fulfillment of this mission began with the opening of a 50-seat theatre with folding chairs in the Mission and booking and publicizing performances at that venue. An event at this venue first appeared on this site at the end of this past January as part of an itemization of choices for February 20. As of this writing, the Events Web page has announced performances running through the beginning of September. Plans are also under way to open a venue in Santa Rosa, which, like the theater in this Mission, will be called The Lost Church.

Towards the end of next month, the San Francisco venue will host an evening of adventurous improvisations that are likely to fit right into the “bleeding edge” aesthetic regularly promoted on this site. The program will present two different groups, each with its own set. Free Press is a local music collective whose improvisations draw upon jazz, soul, and blues. Vocalist Christie Harbinski is backed up by percussionist David Mihaly and guitarist David James. For this particular performance this trio will be joined by guest performer Lisa Mezzacappa on bass. (Both Mihaly and Mezzacappa performed, in separate sets, at that aforementioned concert on February 20.) The other set will be taken by Root Logic, the duo of guitarist Tom Lattanand (also responsible for composition and production) and percussionist John Merrill, who incorporates electronics.

The Lost Church is located at 65 Capp Street, north of the corner of 16th Street between Mission Street and South Van Ness Avenue. This show will start at 8:15 p.m. and run until 10:30 p.m. with a brief intermission between the sets. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. Because the venue is small, it is advisable to purchase tickets in advance. All tickets are being sold for $15 and are available through an event page on the venue’s Web site. On the day of the show, the price will go up to $20; but any remaining tickets will still be available online. Any tickets left will be sold at the door, where only cash will be accepted. Admission will be open for those aged ten and older.