couchdate: Downtown Oakland’s Latest Haven for Art and Music

The DJ booth at couchdate. Photo via Emmanuel

BY CHRIS LEBOA 

There is life in Downtown Oakland on a Friday night. Corvettes drive slow. Jerk salmon is sold. Metalheads in leather jackets wait for a show at the Fox. Walking down Broadway there is that corner spot that used to be called Slug Bar but now it’s now a rad new space called couchdate.

In the old triangular building rugs now lay across the floor. The lighting is low, on most nights there’s a show. The place is run by a music collective known as couchdate, who for years have thrown pop ups, but now have this steady place. 

Emmanuel, the lead, got his start at a used furniture store, rebuilding items by hand, playing music once it was closed. “The spot was like 8ft by 8 ft,” he tells me. “So we were really limited in space.”

Photo via Emmanuel

The parties were great though and well known amongst the underground. The collective got serious about the quality of sound, started building hi-fi speakers, and organizing other shows around town. 

During COVID everything changed; things put on pause, dreams rearranged. The collective built a presence through instagram @couchdate, hosting album listening parties, promoting local chefs and soundscapes. 

“The Bay is full of so many great people, artists making great art, but there really aren’t too many spaces for them to show what they are making.” Emanuel says. “We are trying to build more of a non-profit model to pay artists more for their work too, but we haven’t organized all that yet.” couchdate’s permanent venue at 102 Frank Ogawa Plaza is an attempt to start filling that hole, a space for local folks to put on great shows. 

I’ve been a couple of times since it opened a few months ago. I saw Bollywood played on a violin and great original jazz by the Rev Trio, a jazz/bebop ensemble led by the band director at Fremont High School. In December I brought my family to their maker market/music festival known as rosewater, which bills itself as a celebration of the diasporic peoples of North Africa, West Asia (SWANA), North India through South India, & all the related islands (Sri Lanka, etc). It featured crafts, artists, DJs by day, and live sounds at night. The next one is February 14th and 15th.

Live jazz at couchdate. Photo by the author

couchdate is that kind of comfy place where you can stop by at any time and just be. The music is good, the menu rotates often, and best of all, experimentation not just allowed, it’s encouraged.