The Seahawk

Issue date: 1/29/09 Section: Lifestyles

As you walk down Grace Street in downtown Wilmington you come across many little bars and businesses. One of these venues has an elaborate city drawing on its glass picture window and exudes original music that people have most likely never heard before.

The East Coast Opera House (ECOH) is one of these modest bars owned by Vicki Moore of Lawsonville, North Carolina. Moore grew up in the small town located right outside of Winston-Salem, N.C., and has a great appreciation for music. Moore, a former musician herself, values original bands that play original music. She took this appreciation further by creating three bars that demonstrate this admiration for music originality.

She first started booking bands for a bar in Winston-Salem known as The Garage and was a manager there at one time. She booked bands such as The Avett Brothers, who are now very well known throughout the United States and even bands from out of the country, like The Green Cards, who originated in Australia. After looking for new music and booking bands for around 25 years for other bars, Moore decided to take her enjoyment of music to a more personal level.

In 2003, Moore opened the Silver Moon Saloon in Winston-Salem. She describes the theme as, "planetary, outta this world…our receipts proclaim 'you've been to the moon.'"

Next in 2006, she opened another bar in Winston-Salem called Elliott's Review, which is named after one of her favorite and now deceased musicians, Elliott Smith.

Moore decided to give the Wilmington area a shot and in October of 2008, opened the East Coast Opera House downtown.

"East Coast Opera House was derived after my first look inside the space. It has a second story open loft with a railing that reminds me of going to the Opera," Moore said.

All of Moore's bars only book original bands who play their own compositions. This means that no cover bands or disc jockeys are allowed to perform in any of her bars. She is "not aware of any clubs that are original music only" in downtown Wilmington.

Tiffany Evans, a UNCW sophomore and avid music listener, has already been to the East Coast Opera House once to watch a band named Buffalo out of Asheville, N.C. Evans said she enjoys seeing original bands better than cover bands.

"I simply enjoy supporting artists who've worked hard to create all original music because that's harder than it looks. I've tried," she said.

Evans compared the venue to other clubs in downtown Wilmington. She said other clubs just have "black walls and maybe a few neon lights." ECOH has a sense of creativity as soon as you walk through the door with lights, album covers and pictures strewed all over the walls.

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