The Local :: 10th & Nicollet

Folliard – owner of Kieran’s Irish Pub, The Local, and The Liffey – sat with a bevy of his friends and his wife Lisa Kane Saturday night, watching his vision come true before his very eyes and ears. No hype: The Hallow, along with such intimate rooms as the Dakota, the Acadia, the Turf Club's Clown Lounge, and Java Jack’s basement, is already one of the best music rooms in the Twin Cities.

Great care has been taken to make it a memorable listening experience. Tucked in the back of The Local (on the corner of 10^th and Nicollet Mall), it sports an ace sound system and sound engineer, velvet stage curtains, and acoustics that would pass any audiophile’s test. Musicians will love it, and music lovers (capacity: 100) will instantly embrace the cozy vibe that is more reminiscent of a European catacomb-church than a bar.

Kieran Folliard

“If this (place) doesn’t inspire romance, nothing will,” testified Kane from her perch on her hubby’s lap.

That it does. What’s more, The Hallow is a respite from venues that offer chip-on-shoulder bartenders, doormen, and hipsters. It may only be days old, but the joint’s luster is already catching on – Mike Scott and the Waterboys will perform an exclusive show at the Hallow Wednesday night, and Damien Rice and Ike Reilly are tentatively slated to perform hush-hush shows there in the coming weeks.

But Folliard and manager Peter Killen says the Hallow’s music calendar will draw largely from the fertile singer/songwriter movement that is blooming all over the Twin Cities and beyond (full disclosure: my brother Terry and I are helping the lads line up music).

Check it out, stay tuned, and for more information go here: www.myspace.com/thehallowmpls and the-local.com.