KARALYN WALTER
Special to The Leader
Note: The North Pole Strip Club is a venue for live music shows, not an actual strip club.
The North Pole Strip Club, better known as NPSC, hosted their third live show of the semester on Sept. 18, 2021 with The Safest Ledge, Fernway and Eerie Shores.
Not only was this show one of the band’s first shows since early 2020, but there were a lot of new faces in the basement marking their very first house show.
Run mainly by students of Fredonia’s Music Industry program, the NPSC house has been hosting shows for a few years now with sets from various genres and artists. Last year, during the pandemic, instead of hosting shows, they created “The Maple Tapes Live,” a series on YouTube where bands recorded a live set in the basement of the house to be streamed.
Saturday night marked the welcoming back of the Eerie Shores boys to their old dojo with two very familiar names: The Safest Ledge and Fernway.
The night before the NPSC show all three bands played a fun and successful show in Youngstown, Ohio at Westside Bowl. Not only was this a hometown show for The Safest Ledge, it was Eerie Shores’ first show out of state.
Eerie Shores kicked off the NPSC show by playing a variety of brand new, unreleased and older songs including “Killing” and “Cover Me.” Eerie Shores also played their song “Ghosts (Dried Out)” live for the first time in a while. The idea came to them earlier in the day to revisit and perform the song. Everyone, including myself, enjoyed hearing this song back on the Eerie Shores setlist.
The Safest Ledge — Youngstown, Ohio’s rock, emo and alternative band — returned to NPSC for their second time.
The Safest Ledge is a group to keep on your radar. Their 2021 single “What Have You Done” is a must-listen and a great song to start with if you missed the show and/or want to re-visit the discography of the traveling, out-of-state, group.
Fernway ended the show in the best way by playing some of their recent singles including “Good Enough” and “Mountain Climber” along with 2020 songs “I Have to Return Some Video Tapes” and “Big.Bad.Ugly.” Fans had their dancing shoes on.
Overall, the show was filled with high energy and smiles throughout, marking it my favorite NPSC show of the semester so far.
Entry is always free to the shows and donations are always encouraged because some bands travel many hours to include a Fredonia spot on their tour.
Interested in attending the next NPSC show? Follow @npsc_npsc_ on Instagram for more information about shows. For the address of the NPSC, DM the venue’s Instagram.
Vaccination cards are required at the door, and the venue has a limited capacity.