The SoundBar, declares Jay Shanker, is “the best first date in Oklahoma City.”
The listening room in Automobile Alley is a vinyl bar that relies on an inventory of 15,000 records, about 12,000 of which are available for sale.
A listening room, unlike other music venues, is a space designed for focused music listening, where the atmosphere encourages patrons to quiet the conversations and give their attention to the music and artists performing it.
“It’s a zen-like focus on intentional listening,” says Shanker, an attorney who opened The SoundBar about four years ago.
“I’m the owner,” he says, “but I call myself the curator.”
Founder and owner Greg Johnson offers live music at the Blue Door, an Oklahoma City listening room that’s been around since 1993.
“It’s not a bar atmosphere,” Johnson says of his 100-seat venue named for its distinctive front door.
If anyone forgets, Johnson says, “I tell them to be quiet and listen to the songs, and don’t yak it up with your neighbor.”
The Blue Door, Johnson says, “gives artists who play here a chance to have a concert experience, especially musicians who have to play bars and restaurants to make a living.”
Concerts at the Blue Door span the genres.
“I listen for songs,” says Johnson, who worked as a music journalist in Austin before opening the Blue Door.
“If I like what the person is doing, I will consider them for a show here. If it’s a good song, it’s a good song.”
Shanker also hopes to please a myriad of musical tastes, and he pulls it off with cleverly themed programming.
“We change the musical theme every night. Each night there’s a genre, or a period, or a time frame. Next week is the Woodstock anniversary,” he mentioned in August. “Last week we did a Broadway theme.”
The SoundBar serves alcohol and soft drinks, and patrons are welcome to bring their own food, including from the restaurant downstairs. Patrons can bring their own records and request songs, too.
“If we don’t have it, we stream it,” Shanker says. “Our systems are so fantastic, it sounds better than records.”
Johnson says he does the sound at the Blue Door and chooses not to damage the ear drums of his patrons.
“The loudest show we have ever had was a four-piece Scottish bagpipe band,” Johnson says. “They were louder than any rock and roll show we have ever had.”
Shanker, who spent 25 years practicing law in Los Angeles before returning to his native Oklahoma, says the SoundBar “has been immensely satisfying.”
The venue seats about 100 and is open from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and 5 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. Mondays and Tuesdays are reserved for special events.
Shanker says his venue attracts people from all walks of life, and friendships are formed.
“You leave your politics at the door and the music takes over,” he says.
Connections are also made at the Blue Door, Johnson says: An engaged couple once asked to use the building for a photo shoot because they met during a concert there.
Tickets are typically $20 or $25 and top out at $40 for well-known artists such as John Fullbright, who Johnson managed from 2009 to 2024. Patrons bring their own drinks.
Of his ten concerts a month, Johnson says only about 20% sell out, and that’s OK with him.
“If a young artist from North Carolina is doing their first tour, and I think they are really good but nobody knows them, I will book them based on their potential and on what I hear,” he explains.
