Terry's Serendipity Cafe

Festival Underground, with Avery Laverne
2020-06-20 00:00 (America/New_York)
Festival Underground, with Avery Laverne as this year’s Staff Award winner. We had a long awaited live show at Watchung Plaza, and agreed to do it again. A smaller load of gear was unloaded by the staff deftly and quickly. Sammy Mellman, Katrina Weismman & Lena Fine, Blue Suede Andy, Werebears, Hudson Pollack.

Serendipity in Watchung Plaza with Ziggy
2020-07-17 00:00
Serendipity in Watchung Plaza with Ziggy Grover, Lena Fine, Milerne, Gabi Gamberg, ROstafa, open mic. We love to do this.

Starting with a bang as a MiniCooper hit
2020-08-21 00:00
Starting with a bang as a MiniCooper hit a truck on Watchung Ave, our August show was actually quite calm. The Staff reacted quite well to changes in the arrivals of the entertainers, and they were “all good”. Special shouts to Daryl Shelton and Sweeney for hanging out, performing some tunes, giving some younger folks electronic music gear, and playing with the Aeroprop!

It was good to have Your Mystery Guest b
2020-09-25 00:00
It was good to have Your Mystery Guest back, I forgot how much fun that duo is. And Hello to Luca Cece and his guitar, nice work! We tried out our new Fender Sidekick 25 amp, a donation, which worked well. We had quite a lineup of small fenders there, for a while. Thanks to the staff, alumnae, and others who made it a good show.

We managed a decent show, in spite of so
2020-10-24 00:00
We managed a decent show, in spite of some internal miscommunications. Thanks to the staff for setting up all the scary decorations. I’ll post a picture of the set if someone will send me one. More soon.

Late start, but Maria was there on time!
2020-11-28 00:00
Late start, but Maria was there on time! The Hootnanny worked. And Claire and Sam were essential. Thanks to Wizard Brain for the harmonica! Gabi the artist was our show ender, good stuff from all. It’s nice to have alumni that come around and help!

Make Music Day Winter 2020 in the snow!
2020-12-20 00:00
Make Music Day Winter 2020 in the snow! Not a bad show, good bands, not wet, coldest Terry’s Serendipity Café in history! And we ended with a jam and hootenanny, exactly at 4 PM.

Terry’s Serendipity Café at Watchung Pla
2021-03-20 00:00
Terry’s Serendipity Café at Watchung Plaza. Spring was celebrated by an outdoor concert by Wizard Brain, Blatant Men, Bearing Obscurity and Charlie Ballinger. New recruits, mostly as a result of the previous week’s Friday show for the 9th graders in the parking lot by the Innes building, introduced us to at least 3 new staff members, and that helped out a lot at the show. We also raised over $120 toward the generator fund. Only about $20 bucks more will do it!

We started Wednesday ok, but by Saturday
2021-04-24 00:00
We started Wednesday ok, but by Saturday it was confusion. Anyhow Daryl stepped in as Werebears, Arabella debuted as a singer songwriter as seen on TV and Joe Caldwell stepped in and did some nice stuff. There was a jam, of sorts and some really fancy pedalboards. Thanks all!

Rand Skate courts, Skate Essex awareness
2021-05-01 00:00
Rand Skate courts, Skate Essex awareness raiser with Screenager, John Cozz, Big Stink, Blatant Men. A lot of Mayors and that, with speechifying. Dancing, raffle. 4 hours on the generator, 1.5 liters of fuel used. Worked fine & quitely

Gay May Day in Watchung Plaza. Very good
2021-05-22 00:00
Gay May Day in Watchung Plaza. Very good performances including Machinery of the Human Heart, Screenager, Matt Ellin, Hudson Pollack. Raised around $200 for Ali Forney Center. We sent $42.

Festival Underground. Thanks to Screenag
2021-06-19 00:00
Festival Underground. Thanks to Screenager and ElMora, we had some entertainment. That’s about all I can say about that. We did help out at the Freshman and Junior socials, and Gay May day was very good.

Serendipity Café at the Amphitheater. A
2021-07-23 00:00
Serendipity Café at the Amphitheater. A great bunch of bands and a serious hard working staff made this the best show of the year so far. The bands and audience both expressed delight at the location and wonderfulness of the event. Thanks for all your help, staffers! The bands were Dirty Circuit, Wallace Petruziello, Gert, Chris Nitti, and – Gabi Gamberg. All great. We did have a visit from the Montclair Police about complaints but I think that was because we ran an hour over our ending time. But it was all good. I had a great time at open mic, and fixing the left speaker with Maddy while it was running, was a great kick. And Maria seemed pleased to be our Award winner! Special thanks to Avery, Nicholas, Greg, Mark D. and others who helped the staff set up and take down. Great work, Nico, Emma, and everyone else.

It seemed the rain would never stop. But
2021-08-23 00:00
It seemed the rain would never stop. But it did, in time for Charlie Bollinger, Then Ultra 54 and Radxbent and Mauger. With a bit of open mic. The audience was great, we collected some donations, and the generator ran fine. For what more could you ask? Thanks to Nico for drum transportation and our new staffers for sticking with it!

Excellent everything lead to a great eve
2021-09-24 00:00
Excellent everything lead to a great event at the amphi. Shallow Green, Erotica, Veronica, Aiden, all musically interesting, and staff enthusiasm was high, We collected a lot of donations, and made a profit for the first time this year.The permit arrived a day late. Scarendipity next!

Regrettably we did not have enough trans
2021-10-29 00:00
Regrettably we did not have enough transportation for drums, pumpkins and Halloween decorations, or enough staff to run the show. AND heavy rain at 7:00 PM (our showtime) made it impossible. We’ll try again next time! However, our 10/27/2021 Pumpkin Carving and Meeting event went extremely well:

Loon Lord, DJ Dior (with JEMC), The Live
2021-11-27 00:00
Loon Lord, DJ Dior (with JEMC), The Livers, and Endless Midnight were our bands for Today’s Terry’s Serendipity Café at Watchung Plaza. Great bands! Good music, lots of people stopping by to give a listen, and colder than a dog!

I lost count of the tries it took to get
2022-02-25 00:00
I lost count of the tries it took to get this event to occur. Weather was a leading problem. However, thanks to Sammy Mellman, Tyler, Emma, Charles, Akiva, and Yuna we finally got the first live streaming Serendipity Café streaming, in cooperation with Deborah T. and Rev. Scott of the Unitarian Universalists. And we have the recording in an mp4 file to prove it.

Live outdoor show at the MHS Amphitheate
2022-04-01 00:00
Live outdoor show at the MHS Amphitheater: A bit of rain just after setting up caused us to bag all the speakers and gear. And then the sun came out, we saw the rainbow, and the show went on! Cool but cool, you know! Good music, no hitches except the previously unmentioned loss of some chairs due to a mad game of Musical Chairs by parties unknown. We will not leave chairs in the Amphitheater anymore.

Gay May Day fund raiser at Crane Park. A
2022-05-21 00:00
Gay May Day fund raiser at Crane Park. A lot of staff help, Alumni Avery, Maria, Meredith and Akiva helped out and joined in. We raised some money for the Ali Forney Center for LGBTQ homeless youth in NYC.

Festival Underground 2022! We gave the S
2022-06-18 00:00
Festival Underground 2022! We gave the Staff Award to Tyler, had Alumni speakers, Trever Pason, Avery, Mizzy, Nicholas, Akiva, and Sam. And some good bands. The open mic was fun with several surprise guests and the Staff Band doing Centerfield and Tide is High.

Akiva was right, 100% chance of rain and
2022-07-22 00:00
Akiva was right, 100% chance of rain and it did! Only 9 drops though, but we got out the bags & protected everything from the “storm”. The bands were Dreaming of Clarity, Ophelia’s Lover, Wince and Loon Lord. The last group had a very interesting electric violin, amped by one of our guitar amps. It was a marvelous night. Nice and warm. Dude from NJ Monthly made us pose for pictures.

MHS Amphitheater. 2 bands and a big open
2022-09-02 00:00
MHS Amphitheater. 2 bands and a big open mic! Our buddies, Ophelia’s Lover and Heathmongers. And a poet with a backing track, very effective. The critique indicated a favorable impression was made on the clientele and staff.

First Lutheran Church, 153 Park St, Mont
2022-10-21 00:00
First Lutheran Church, 153 Park St, Montclair. Suburban Couch, Gold Carson, Elmora, The Spins, and Screenager added to a great long open mic session that was well performed and well received. We had enough attendees to pay the rent and a lot of staffers learned how we do an indoor show. We made coffee, sold snacks, ran the mixer & lights and collected admission. We may need to set up a Venmo account for those who live in the cashless society.

at the Unitarian Universalists, Fletcher
2022-12-02 00:00
at the Unitarian Universalists, Fletcher Hall. Good bands! Good work on getting the gear transported and set up. We need to work on our coverage of the Snack Bar, but the music was great, and we had a decent sized audience.

at the Lutherans. We had attendance clos
2023-01-20 00:00
at the Lutherans. We had attendance close to 50, 3 great bands and a split open mic. I’m waiting until after the critique, but I was impressed at the increase in organization with our now quite large staff. The Holy Rodeo drummer left his pedal but has it now. We had a phone with a USB C connector that we had no adapter for.

at B’nai Keshet. Great show! Attendance
2023-02-18 00:00
at B’nai Keshet. Great show! Attendance over 80, great music, open mic was fine, and we squeezed in the Staff Band with “Poppa-Oom-Mau-Mau”. I tried out the donated Ion Strat copy and it seemed to have stayed in tune, good results from the snack bar, as well. I have a lot of questions about the details, but the big stuff was great. I have these keys, I posted a pic on slack. Wysteria is a great band name and a fun band. Real enthusiasm there, great to see. They want to play at Serendipity again, and I don’t blame them. The audience won the Brass Figligee (with bronze oak leaf palm) for respect and enthusiasm.

at Lutherans. Staff participation very g
2023-03-17 00:00
at Lutherans. Staff participation very good, music right in there, but loud. A lot of information was absorbed by new staffers, very few mistakes were made. The drum kit survived an incredible bashing (especially the cymbals). And we got Everything put away before midnight. Thanks to all the staffers working the show. Alumni Tyler and Oz helped out and supported the effort. And Akiva was

Serendipity at Lutherans. This was one o
2023-04-28 00:00
Serendipity at Lutherans. This was one of the best Serendipities ever. The staff knew their jobs, we got set up and ready before 7 PM, the bands were great! Open mic was very popular, If it wasn’t for the missing jacket and keys it would have been perfect. The rain didn’t keep the audience home, it just kept them from making noise in the parking lot. Great job, Staff!

Gay May Day at Watchung Plaza, I would h
2023-05-13 00:00
Gay May Day at Watchung Plaza, I would have liked to hear more from the GSA about Ali Forney Center, but the bands were good, and the open mic surprise performers were unusually famous and great singers. And we raised $323 for the cause!
