Sweetwater Music Hall Launches ‘The Sweetwater Vault’ With Hiss Golden Messenger Show

The team behind famed venue Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California have filmed a number of shows hosted at the venues over the years and will share some of the performances via the newly launched The Sweetwater Vault. Sweetwater will celebrate Thanksgiving and the grand opening of the vault by sharing professionally-shot video of Hiss Golden Messenger‘s September 24, 2018 performance at the venue for free and on-demand from this Tuesday, November 20 through the following Tuesday, November 27.

Read a note from Sweetwater’s Dan “Robot Commander Oz” Friedman about The Sweetwater Vault:

When Bob Weir and his band of Merry Investors opened the new Sweetwater Music Hall in January 2012, they had a tall order honoring the legacy of Mill Valley’s original (1972) Sweetwater just two blocks away. Following completion of Weir’s state of the art TRI studios in San Rafael, Grateful Dead tech gurus, John Cutler and Dennis “Wiz” Leonard installed the finest audio and video facilities a 300 seat music club had ever seen. But the high cost of bandwidth back then made it impractical to keep it going. So the 3-robocam system sat mostly idle until recently, when TRI’s primary camera guy, Dan Friedman, stepped in and was graciously handed the controls by Sweetwater’s immensely talented Tech Manager and Front of House wizard, Michael Wilson. Dan became affectionately dubbed “Robot Commander Oz” and is continuing to build an enormous archive of stellar SWMH performances. Our intent is to curate and share with you some of the incredible musical collaborations that happen on our intimate stage as well as evangelize the Sweetwater legacy. So welcome to The Sweetwater Vault. Like the SWMH Staff, our Patrons, and the musicians who grace our stage, we hope you enjoy getting lost in the glory of music well-played. Please make sure to bookmark the Vault, follow us, and spread the word far and wide. And if you are in town or planning a trip to the Bay Area, stop by for a show, a drink, a cuppa Joe or some fine grub created by Chef Gordon Drysdale.

Frontman M.C. Taylor was joined by guitarists Josh Kaufman and Phil Cook, bassist Brad Cook and drummer Matt McCaughan at Sweetwater on September 24. The entire uncut show will be available for viewing all Thanksgiving week long starting tomorrow. Be sure to follow The Sweetwater Vault on Vimeo for notifications on when this show and other videos from The Sweetwater Vault will be released. Over time, additional video clips and occasional full-length performances will be rolled out. Watch Hiss Golden Messenger’s performance of “My Wing” as a preview of the entire show: