Every spring, John Anderson converts Bloomington’s Reverberation Vinyl into a mini concert venue. It’s his way of marking another turn around the sun for the Main Street record store he opened 13 years ago. It’s as good an excuse as any to get some of Anderson’s favorite bands to play Bloomington-Normal, in what he’s haphazardly labeled Reverberation’s annual anniversary/pre-Milwaukee Psych Fest/general bacchanal.
To be clear, Reverberation Vinyl is not a concert venue; their May 9 anniversary bash felt something akin to a house concert with fewer places to sit. A rack filled to the brim with LPs in the center of the store relegates bands to two corners of the room with a small, donut-shaped crowd surrounding them. Stage lights consist of a couple strands of red twinkle lights hung at ceiling level. Craft services is a cooler labeled “band beer.”
And yet, it was magical.
That casual, up-close-and-personal atmosphere puts dedicated “heads”—psychedelic music fans—right in the middle of a sound bath from five bands ranging from “wild and loud” to “far out and pretty loud.” [Anderson’s words.]
“It’s all personal,” Anderson said. “It’s all my favorite stuff and things that I think are valid and underserved in some areas—certainly locally.”
He cobbles together a lineup through a combination of luck and strategy—capitalizing on bands moving through the Midwest on their way to Milwaukee’s annual Psych Fest. This year, that included Philly bands Bitter Wish and Blues Ambush, pedal steel guitarist Luke Schneider, New York City’s Emergency Group and the International Disassociation of Aaron Dooley.
“There’s a great music scene here across a lot of different genres, but this is my kind of stuff,” Anderson said. “It’s hopefully turning people on to something new, but also, selfishly, booking the stuff I like the best.”
Bassist Aaron Dooley has been on the road for a couple weeks with drummer Eric Welty, Gavin Susalski on trumpet and guitarist Aesop Adams. They didn’t flinch at Anderson’s invitation to play at Reverberation Vinyl, who for Dooley and Adams, is hallowed grounds.
“Here’s a place where we feel like we can truly express ourselves,” Adams said. “John has curated an environment where people can just come. If they’re about the music, they will be totally immersed in the music.”
Dooley and Adams are self-proclaimed townies who now call Denver home. Thus, their style drenches nouveau psychedelic sounds culled out West with a amplifier feedback inspired by the industrial music that emerged from Chicago's underground.
Bloomington-Normal is The International Association’s origin story, though Adams and Dooley cycled through several names and rosters before settling on this one. For any psychedelic rockers in town, that means a close kinship with Anderson and Reverberation Vinyl.
“Me and Aesop have been playing music together since like 2009 in various forms,” Dooley said. “I think John [Anderson] was the one who turned us on to the headier stuff. This is kind of an oasis for people into heady music between Chicago and St. Louis. When mentioned in Chicago, Reverberation Vinyl gets hoots and hollers in the venue. People recognize—people recognize Reverb.”
If you missed Reverberation’s anniversary bacchanale, well, hey, there’s always next year. Or you can stop by the shop and take some of the music—and good vibes—home with you. But don’t head to Reverberation looking for Cowboy Carter or the next T-Swift mega-hit.
“I’m a, ‘You should try this’ place, rather than a ‘What do you want,’ place,” Anderson said. “Anything can be on your door in a day. If you want the big label stuff, there’s places to get it—like Walmart and Cracker Barrel.”
He opened a record store in 2011, after all—when vinyl was still primarily a resale industry. Reverberation is about deep cuts, undiscovered gems and keeping physical music media accessible and affordable. And once a year, that means cramming five bands in the shop for a grand convening of the music and its indelible media.
“Reverberation Vinyl is a culmination of all those things—a wormhole where free music and record ephemera come together in a cosmic blend,” Dooley said.
