The Purple Line's Dempster station, about half a block from Evanston SPACE on Chicago Avenue. Photo: SecretName101 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Evanston has a habit of producing serious music rooms. The best known of the old ones was Amazingrace, and its influence can still be traced to a venue a short walk from the Dempster Street Purple Line stop: Evanston SPACE, at 1243 Chicago Ave.
Where Amazingrace came from
According to a 2016 Medill Reports Chicago story by Josef Siebert, Amazingrace started as a Northwestern University student effort that used part of a campus kitchen to feed Vietnam War protesters. It became a coffeehouse, then a collective, then a music business. Its last home was Amazingrace at The Main, at Main Street and Chicago Avenue in south Evanston.
That room held about 400 people, charged a few dollars at the door and often had listeners sitting on the floor. It had a reputation for its sound system, and shows frequently ended with the audience singing along to the hymn that gave the club its name. Acts mentioned in the Medill story include the Grateful Dead, Emmylou Harris, Randy Newman and Ry Cooder. Music at The Main ended in 1978.
SPACE opens in 2008
Evanston SPACE opened in the spring of 2008 alongside Union Pizzeria, an affiliated restaurant in the same building. The name stands for the Society for the Preservation of Art and Culture in Evanston. The Medill story places it less than a mile from where The Main once stood.
The link to Amazingrace was acknowledged early. SPACE hosted an Amazingrace alumni gathering in 2011 as part of a 40th reunion, and general manager Davis Inman told Medill Reports that the club’s listening-room format was influenced by the older venue.
What the room is like
The venue’s own information page lists a capacity of 240 for seated shows, with cabaret tables and general admission seats, and 330 for standing-room shows. The stage can reach about 30 feet wide and 14.5 feet deep, and the house has an extensive in-house backline and a recording studio. The room has candle-lit round tables, all-ages shows and a bar serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
The bookings run across genres. Past performers include Brandi Carlile, Alabama Shakes, Dr. John and The Lumineers, and a winter 2014 to 2015 stretch brought Suzanne Vega, Leo Kottke, Justin Townes Earle and Robyn Hitchcock. The room has also been used for live broadcasts on WBEZ 91.5 FM, podcast production, and occasional visual art and literary events. In the 2013 WXRT listener poll it placed fourth for best venue.
Getting there
The venue says the Purple Line’s Dempster Street stop is about half a block away, and the Metra stations at Main Street and Davis Street are roughly five blocks off. Metered parking is available on Dempster and Chicago Avenue, and the venue notes that meters need not be fed after 9 p.m. A small metered public garage sits across the street. Ticket buyers can also opt to add $5 to their online order for a community partner program.
As of 2024, Bruce Finkelman and Craig Golden, through their firm 16″ on Center, own, co-own or operate SPACE along with Chicago venues that include The Empty Bottle, Thalia Hall and The Salt Shed.
Evanston has gone through several generations of music rooms since the floor-sitting crowds at The Main. SPACE is the one carrying the format forward, with chairs this time.
Rachel Lindqvist covers community life, the lakefront, dining and the arts for The Evanston Edge.
