Located on the colored door corridor on Vanderbilt Avenue is Broken Door, a new live music venue. Bringing together a host of NC State students for the centerpiece of the night, the house held its first show on Saturday with a double feature from Satellite Dog and Belltower Blues.
The venue is notable within the Raleigh house show scene because it’s run and managed by an all-woman household. Rachel Masut, a third-year studying animal science, said as soon as she and her roommates saw their new home’s backyard, the goal was to throw house shows.
“I hope this inspires, if someone’s heard about house shows like this and music, and they say ‘Oh that’s not something I want to go to,’” Masut said. “No. Try it. Go to a music show even if you don’t think you’ll like the music. It’s a good time, and it’s a good event to meet new people. Go to at least one.”
Belltower Blues opened the show, playing new originals from their forthcoming EP, combined with a string of crowd-pleasing oldies including Prince’s “Purple Rain,” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” and Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower.” After they played, there was a 15 minute break before the Boone-based Satellite Dog played a string of psychedelic rock songs, playing originals along with some Goose covers.
The women of Broken Door talked about what makes a good house show from the vantage point of after-show fatigue, giddy on their L-shaped couch. Katie Finan is a third-year studying fashion and textile development and production.
“Communication, setting boundaries, making sure we’re not letting random people into our house,” Finan said. “Promotion is super important.”
Maya Borgesi, a third-year studying mechanical engineering, said the experience was stressful but it paid off in the end.
“I’m really proud,” Borgesi said. “I think we came together. It was stressful throughout the night, and I was really stressed throughout the day, making sure everything was gonna go smoothly, but we pulled it off, and it went so much better than I could have ever imagined.”
The group talked about how they met at Trailer Park, a former house show venue where Late Notice and other local bands often played before it closed its doors.
“I feel really happy because all of us met at a house as roommates and it bonded us so much and we said it’s something we always want to keep going,” Finan said. “We want to keep the live music at NC State and the energy going. We never want the scene to die, so we’re gonna keep it going.”
Borgesi said hosting the show was a surreal experience.
“Our younger selves wouldn’t believe it if we told us we’re gonna be the ones hosting the next house show,” Borgesi said. “We were the ones that were like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s this house? They have music? Let’s go!’”
A lot of people contributed to making the Broken Door what it is. There were sound engineers, artists, carpenters and a network of friends available to the group.
“We made sure we could get every group of people, from every possible range,” Masut said. “We wanted to get the widest range of people that we could get here.”
