Walking through the doors,customers are greeted by a dignified staircase with bright lights ascending upon golden rails, inviting them to walk up the mighty stairs. At the top of the stairs, there is a robust ambiance that fills the room; even unoccupied, the atmosphere is lively.
Once a jazz club, Tralf Music Hall, located on 622 Main St. in Buffalo, has proven to extend beyond one genre.
Since the venue opened in 1982, comedy, R&B, singer/songwriter, rock, indie and blues acts were included in addition to jazz.
People come here to have fun and relax," said Jeremy Hoyle, Tralf's public relations director. "With a town that we live in, a hard working town, people need a place to be able to come and forget about their troubles for a while and enjoy great hospitality and great entertainment."
Owner Tom Barone, who has promoted shows in Buffalo's concert halls and clubs, believes the Tralf is different.
"No other room has the combination the Tralf has," Barone said. "The Tralf is the only local venue that offers a concert setting with the concert-goer seated at a table."
The Tralf's full-service bar and kitchen coupled with its musical atmosphere provides an original experience.
The main room is designed like a recording studio with bass traps, clouds and acoustics essential to creating a better sound quality.
For Laura Quackenbush, a graduate student in UB's school of management, the Tralf is the best venue when it comes to sound and intimacy.
Quackenbush recognized the sound was contained when she was at the "A Great Big World" show on Jan. 18. The band walked in with its instruments and performed a song right in the middle of the audience.
"It took a couple of minutes for the audience to quiet down, but once we did, it was amplified naturally by the space they were in," Quackenbush said.
For 31 years, the historic Tralf Music Hall has hosted performances by iconic music legends and artists such as Prince and Tim Reynolds from the Dave Mathews Band.
The Tralf continues to attract people with stellar performances from a wide variety of musical genres.
"We present a lot of different things here and the Tralf has always done that, so we try to keep that tradition of variety," said Hoyle. "Eclectic music is also important to the history of the [venue]."
Behind the main stage of the Tralf's historical walls, a small white room is covered with various artists' signatures, waiting to be filled with more.
email: arts@ubspectrum.com
