Water Street Music Hall is a concert hall and restaurant in Rochester, New York, located in the St. Paul Quarter entertainment district of Rochester, downtown and just west of the High Falls. It has a large size and capacity totaling and capacity of 1500. This larger footprint is divided into the concert hall which is about 9,000 square feet and has a capacity of 1,000 and the restaurant, "Jack's on Water Street", which is about and has a capacity of 500. The main performance space offers a full public address system, stage and balcony and holds a reputation as a great live room. The hall has been open in one form or another for forty years.
History
Water StreetMusic Hall opened in 1977 and has since hosted hundreds of iconic concerts throughout the past 40+ years with artists including George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, David Byrne, Sublime, Marylin Manson, St. Vincent. Also known as The Country Warehouse, The Horizontal Boogie Bar, and The Boogie Bar, the name officially changed to Water Street Music Hall in 1994 and has recently reopened as Water Street 2020. The small stage at Water Street, formerly known as, The Club at Water Street, has also re-opened in 2020 as Jack's Live on Water Street. The Syracuse-based waffle company, Funk 'n Waffles occupied the space from 2017–2018. Water Street Music Hall had hundreds of sold-out shows between 2000–2014. In addition to the bands that have performed at Water Street, the hall also hosted famous personalities such as President Bill Clinton while in Rochester to raise funds for Hillary Clinton's presidential run, where the saxophone that he used and signed can be seen at the House of Guitars. During these years, Water Street Music Hall had a coat check and hosted many battle of the bands. It also had a bar and a small parking lot. Following an increased trend of unfortunate incidents occurring outside of Water Street Music Hall, the tenant at that time decided to sell his business. While it reopened temporarily under a provisional licence from the city, it ultimately resulted in the sale of the business to Syracuse chain, Funk 'N Waffles in February 2017. After the closing of Funk N' Waffles in 2018, the original owner, Peter Sewell announced that he will be reopening the venue as Water Street 2020.
