This Weekend East Lakeview Welcomes New Venue, The Throne Room
By Katie Karpowicz in Arts & Entertainment on May 29, 2014 4:00PM
Photo: Kelly Burke of Mixital Media/Courtesy of Kamila Bruscianelli
This weekend, a new name in Chicago's live music landscape pops up in Lakeview. The Throne Room (located above Renaldi's Pizza at 2831 N. Broadway) celebrates its grand opening tomorrow, May 30, with sets from Mike Golden & Friends, David Prusina and Renegade Lightning Rebellion.
Despite Lakeview's live music abundance to the north (Metro, Uncommon Ground), west (Schubas, Beat Kitchen) and south (Lincoln Hall, Park West), the eastern edge of the neighborhood should benefit from a new place to catch local and touring acts. After visiting the space earlier this month for a media preview, we're sold on its comfortable, 21-and-over loft vibes.
Plus, husband and wife owners Mark and Kamila Bruscianelli are so endearing and passionate, this writer can't help but root for this place.
Mark and Kamila met each other through Craigslist, but not the way you would expect. Mark answered an audition call for a drummer in Kamila's then band Urgency. Now the couple is married, has a three-year-old daughter and find themselves with less time to rock out. Opening The Throne Room in the empty space above Mark's father's restaurant is the pair's new way of satisfying their musical inklings.
"The beautiful thing is that even though our circumstances don't allow us to have regular rehearsals and things like that anymore, now we have this amazing other opportunity and we get to still be involved in this thing that we're so passionate about but from a different perspective," Kamila Bruscianelli told Chicagoist.
The owners plan to offer music on Friday and Saturday nights to start and hope to expand to Thursdays and Sundays by mid-summer. For now, they plan to keep programming in the rock vein, "anything from folk to grunge." The Bruscianelli's have bigger plans as well, hoping to eventually bring in programs that get the audience more involved like percussion workshops and vinyl showcases. 
"We want it to be a place where upcoming local artists showcase their work and I feel like it's a nice, classy place that maybe even a bigger artist may potentially want to do a more intimate show at," Kamila gushed. "That's something we're definitely working towards. The thread we want to pull through is purveying different experiences for the Lakeview community and the Chicago area at large."
And it looks to be a great place to spend an entire evening—"a pretty sweet situation," as Kamila described. Renaldi's has been serving quality pizza to the Lakeview neighborhood since 1973 and the kitchen remains open until 2 a.m. Food won't be served directly to the venue but patrons will be able to order down to the restaurant and grab a bite between sets.
Opening night has been a quick realization for the owners of The Throne Room, which has barely been in the works for a year, but by the sound of things they won't let anyone down.
"To us it's not just about business. Given that we're musicians ourselves, we look for quality. We aren't just throwing something together, we're paying particular attention to doing it in a thematic way so that if you come and see one thing that you like, you might want to stick around. Because, quite frankly, the band coming up probably has the same [sound]."
To see a list of The Throne Room's upcoming shows and to buy tickets, click here.