Troy Listening Room is a heavenly place for music fans

Happy Tuesday, Capital Region! Today, we’re introducing you to Troy Listening Room, a converted church hall where the holy grail is great-sounding music. And don’t miss our ticket giveaway to their next show!

Please note: We are moving our Tuesday edition to Mondays starting next week. Don’t worry, you’ll still get two awesome newsletters each week. We’re just giving them a little more breathing room 🧘‍♂️ 😂 

—Phat X. Chiem & Karley Sullivan

Some seriously good sound: Welcome to Troy Listening Room

The Capital Region is blessed with a lively underground / DIY music scene. Folks like Super Dark Collective, Byrd House Records, Troy Speakeasy and CRZ Entertainment regularly curate shows in bars, basements, and backyards.

To this list, you should add Troy Listening Room. But what sets it apart from other DIY venues is the attention to detail and thoughtfulness that makes it one of the most intentional live music experiences in the Capital Region.

For one, the Listening Room occupies a former church hall in South Troy that just happens to have phenomenal acoustics for live music. It’s also home to founders / musicians Sophia Vastek and Sam Torres—and their three cats.

“We’re not a bar. We’re not a club,” says Sophia. “It’s a space for deep listening—for the audience and the musicians. We want to bring music and musicians here that will really benefit from an intimate, intentional listening experience.”

Sam is also an audio engineer, currently working at Skidmore’s Arthur Zankel Music Center. Naturally, the couple pay a great deal of attention to the sound quality. Notably, the Listening Room uses the same kind of speakers as The Egg in Albany.

“There are no other venues in the region that have this type of speakers,” Sophia says. 

The vibe is “sit-down, soak-it-in,” but the lineup is anything but sleepy. Expect genre-defying instrumentalists, jazz ensembles, experimental acts, and the occasional singer-songwriter. 

“We’re really interested in anything that falls between genres,” Sophia says.

The other thing that also sets Troy Listening Room apart is their insistence on paying musicians as much as possible (usually 80% of ticket sales), and having a sliding scale for tickets (from $10 to $40, with an average donation of $25).

This Friday, Troy Listening Room features a double header: NYC-based Kitba, a harpist-vocalist who brings a fresh twist to folk, and Troy’s own Julia Alsarraf, who happens to live in the neighborhood.

🎟️ 🎟️ We’re giving away two tickets to this performance (Fri, 7:30-9p). Subscribe to The 518 by midnight Wednesday to enter. Current subscribers can tag 2 friends on this IG post to get into the giveaway.

“April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.” —T.S. Eliot

April really is the cruelest month because what to make of these near freezing temperatures and possible snow flurries this week? Look for slightly warmer temps in the mid-40s this weekend, but don’t expect to work on your tan. Rain is definitely in the forecast ☔️ 

⚡️ Elon Musk has few fans in the Capital Region. Expect a horde of protestors to oppose a Tesla showroom that’s being proposed for Colonie, at a planning board meeting scheduled for tonight at 6 pm. Meanwhile, state legislators are pushing to limit Tesla’s expansion in New York State and divest from state-held Tesla stock. [Times Union]

🚧 Troy’s $12 million streetscape project at Congress and Ferry aims to improve accessibility and bike connectivity between downtown and the waterfront, but some folks don’t think it goes far enough to address pedestrian safety and parking issues. [WAMC]

🍷 Restaurant roundup:

• French bistro-inspired Familiar Creature in Saratoga is an “immediate and comfortable winner,” says the TU’s dining critic. [Times Union]

• A Capital District institution, O’Toole’s Restaurant Pub is closing after 32 years of cherished pints and hearty Irish fare. “It’s been a pleasure and honor,” wrote The O on Instagram. [News10]

• Jack’s Oyster House, Albany’s longtime power lunch spot, has been sold to an unidentified buyer. Third-generation owner Brad Rosenstein didn’t have much to share about the sale, but the new owners surely know they have a civic treasure on their hands. [Times Union]

For nearly a half century, the popular hair salon, Tony of Italy, thrived in this spacious, 3-unit mixed-use building in the heart of downtown Troy. Now you can revive the space for a modern clientele. The first-floor storefront is highly visible with decades of proven foot and car traffic. Upstairs, you’ve got two well-kept apartments with doorway arches, hardwood floors and solid rental histories. Included is parking for five in the rear of the building. It’s not clear whether Tony’s salon chairs and equipment will be included in the sale, but you should ask! This is a golden opportunity for an entrepreneur seeking a hip live/work situation in Troy’s lively downtown.

The deets: 7 bd, 4 ba, 5600 sf. Asking: $424,900. Days on market: 7. See the full listing here. 

Our full weekend roundup publishes on Thursday! Keep an eye on your inbox.

🍦 Throw on a scarf and grab some free ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day—good until 8p tonight.

🛍️ Tomorrow, Spectrum Theater screens SECRET MALL APARTMENT, the true story of young people making a creative home in the bowels of a mall. Don’t miss the Q&A with the director after the show.

🎨 Also on Wednesday, Russell Sage hosts a drop-in Figure Drawing Class that’s open to the public. This week’s class is the last of the semester, so make like Picasso while you can.

🎛️ At 2p on Thursday, Suzi Analogue talks at EMPAC about BY ANY MEANZ SONICALLY, her project highlighting the influence of Black women in electronic dance music.

🎙️ Later on Thursday, Garrison Keillor charms Cohoes Music Hall with his deeply Midwestern appeal.

🖼️ Also Thursday evening, celebrate National Poetry Month and Jazz Appreciation Month with a Jazz + Poetry Reading at Opalka Gallery, in conjunction with the exhibit Osi Audu: The Self in African Art.

🏃‍♂️ On Saturday, up to 5,000 runners will gather for the 2025 Helderberg to Hudson Half Marathon, the Capital Region’s first major running event of the season.

⚓️ This weekend, get inked at the Saratoga Tattoo Expo 2025.

🍷 On Sat & Sun, the Capital Wine Festival celebrates the grape.

📓 On Sunday afternoon, break out your pens for a Sketch Meetup at the Thomas Cole House in Catskill, hosted by Urban Sketchers Albany.

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