By Dan Gross
Philadelphia Daily News

WITH PETE WENTZ expecting a baby any day now with wife, Ashlee Simpson, he and his multiplatinum pop-punk act Fall Out Boy play an intimate all-ages show at the North Star Bar (27th & Poplar) at 7 p.m. Friday. The band, whose new CD, "Folie A Duex," is out Dec. 16, last played the here at the Wachovia Spectrum. Tickets are $20 and sold only at the venue Friday. Doors open at 6, but we expect teenage girls and some guys too, to start lining up long before that.  

After supporting The National in Europe, completing a sold out theater tour of Canada and an April tour supporting Feist, Canada's Hayden continues to tour his latest release In Field & Town, this time headlining in the States. While touring, Hayden is playing with a full band including Corey Wood on drums, Wayne Petty on guitar, Paul Loman on bass, and Dale Murray on guitar and keys. The use of a full band has provided Hayden with a hard rocking, dynamic sound the held the audience rapt.

Seated and surrounding the North Star's elevated stage, the audience was completely enthralled with the sounds filling the bar. Hayden's fans displayed the utmost respect for the Canadian musician by remaining perfectly still, eyes fixed on stage during each and every song the band played. Hayden's rich and smooth voice coupled with his acoustic riffs were complimented wonderfully by three part guitar harmonies, pulsing bass lines and driving percussion.

Northern Comfort

This is a study of privacy in the face of hype, a picture of laid-back cool, surprising in a world where self-perpetuating press runs rampant. It’s the story of the quiet reopening of the North Star Bar by an unlikely set of prime movers: Joanna Pang and her partner, Sloan, both of the Trocadero.

Drive past the Old English tavern at 27th and Poplar and you can see the familiar black-star-in-circle insignia that was North Star’s symbol. On an icy day, Sloan walked me through the still-under-construction corner bar, past the mess of planks and broken lighting fixtures left behind by previous owners.

"I’d like to leave this mess here and lock the door," jokes Sloan about what once was (and will again be) a well-heeled billiard room.

Back in ’81, Pete Kelly and Charlie Abdo opened the North Star Bar, a relaxed restaurant/bar and live music venue in the Art Museum area, to suit the increasingly gentrified neighborhood and to serve the music community. Fans of groovy blues, funky folk, punk poets, singer/songwriter rock and an odd combo of Tex-Mex and Pan Asian food, tucked in for a long comfy ride. But the place changed hands in 1996 and was closed by April of ’99, perhaps due to slackening interests in live music or the Old City boom. Enter Pang and Sloan.

Pang, an international banking type before she got to the Troc, refused to be interviewed for this piece, opting for humility over hype.

"She’s just a very private woman," Sloan says. "She worked in the banking world, got sick of what she did for a living, came back to Philly at the right time and quickly did what had to be done. She scrubbed. She gutted, much like she’s doing here. But she doesn’t want to talk about it."

Sloan, 35, doesn’t seem too comfortable talking either. A tall Nordic-looking Chestnut Hill native who started life in Philadelphia’s club scene as a bouncer at the Khyber in 1989, he figured he’d live a more outdoorsy life.

"Before bar life, I was living on the islands, captaining charter boats in the Caribbean. And yes, when people ask me how I wound up back here, I still answer, ‘I don’t know.’" From there, he followed then-Khyber owners Dave Simons and Jo Nguyen to the Troc, eventually winding up its manager when Pang and booking agent Jon Hampton took over.

The first-floor pub has been part of this corner bar since Prohibition. The mahogany bar, wooden ceiling fans and tin roof remain, only painted pale orange. The bathrooms still have the same cameo male/female symbols.

The balcony area, now painted tavern gold (a far cry from the ugly dark red with blue spots it once was), will be more private. Ornate church banisters open up a view of the stage.

"Now you can actually watch the band as opposed to seeing the tops of their heads," Sloan laughs.

Hampton will carry his love of music over to the North Star and bring in an eclectic roster of shows like inaugural act Jim and Jenny and the Pine Barons on Feb. 18 — a sound not too far from the very WXPN-like vibe that made the North Star famous — along with the possibility of mellow jazz and DJ nights.

In a couch-filled spot off the balcony, a tiny nightly menu of specials and finger foods — somewhere between the upscale fare at Rouge and the hearty eats at Monk’s Café — will be served.

In the stage area, booths have been removed and the bar relocated to the North Star’s bright back atrium space, widening the dance floor considerably. Beams are newly revealed, original heating ducts shine. Behind the atrium, the infamous neon Howard Johnson’s sign is being removed and returned to Lenny Davidson’s traveling neon museum. The neon Levi’s hot dog will remain atop the building as a Bat symbol of sorts, signaling when the space is open.

"This room, along with the balcony, will be a nice relaxing atmosphere — a living room feel — so that people will feel at home," says Sloan. "I think people’d like to get away from the hustle of Center City, raw attitudes and loud music."

All of which is as much a part of Joanna and Sloan’s personal vibe as it is the North Star’s.

(by a.d. amorosi / CityPaper / February 10–17, 2000)