Terry’s Serendipity Café

Our 30th Year

The Montclair Student Café Project

In association with the

Office of Arts and Cultural Development,

MRCA, Township of Montclair

Updated 01/25/2025 (etc)

An extremely scary event. But odd things

An extremely scary event. But odd things happened. Two bands showed up with drum kits, for example. But they sounded good, we had nearly enough (72/75) audience to pay the rent, and we stayed out of trouble once again. 3 bands, open mic, snack bar, etc. A lot of work for the staff, but they […]

Reports indicate that this was a very en

Reports indicate that this was a very enjoyable event, especially for the staff. The mood was very upbeat and so was the music. A fair amount of moshing was noted, even during Open Mic. A last-minute cancellation by a band left us with no choice but to form our own out of staff members and […]

Terry’s Serendipity Café at B’nai Keshet

Terry’s Serendipity Café at B’nai Keshet. It took us longer than I thought it would to remove and stack all the chairs from the middle of the floor, and document their locations so we could return them. But we were up and running on time, with minor setup difficulties like a floppy mic stand. The […]

Departed, Raccoon, Cheesecake, Melanchol

Departed, Raccoon, Cheesecake, Melancholy Party were booked but one of them could not make it. We did fine, anyway. No improvement in attendance, but a very industrious staff did a great job keeping things running. Miles needs to teach an MC class. The Staff Band was hot, thanks to Jake and Charles (and Grace). Somewhat […]

Staff meeting: We had a visit from Macke

Staff meeting: We had a visit from Mackenzie Thomas who is writing a book and we voted to charge $5.00 at the April show, the first price change ever!

Serendipity at UU’s with Meat Goats, Rad

Serendipity at UU’s with Meat Goats, Radar Satellite, and Window Phase (plus open mic). The Open Mic setup delay was a popular topic at the critique meeting, as was the small attendance count. We have some good possible solutions, my favorite being "act like Tyler G. did", which means we need more staff to get […]

Serendipity at Lutherans. This was our f

Serendipity at Lutherans. This was our first price increase since admission was set at $2.00 in 1997, up from free! Now it’s $5 and we’ve voted to continue it at five until we see fit to change it. In critique, the show was well received except for audience retention, we will consider that at the […]

Festival Underground inside at FLC, star

Festival Underground inside at FLC, starting an hour early. The staff were hard-working and helped out right to the end. Quality music with an example by Polaroid Fade of how to use dynamics to make the music more interesting. Took us a while find the dustpan.

Serendipity at the Amphitheater. Got sta

Serendipity at the Amphitheater. Got started late due to not having the building unlocked in time, but we got in, and soon the Bird Dance Band was playing and the birds were dancing. Good work all around, everyone was apparently having fun, and there was a respectable audience.