If you’re looking to explore new places for live music, our Sebastian breweries are worth checking out. Patrons tell Sebastian Daily the pubs offer a different atmosphere than typical bars.
We have two local breweries in Sebastian: Mash Monkeys Brewing Company and Pareidolia Brewing Co. They offer fresh craft beers, wines, and ciders.
If you visit these breweries, don’t be surprised to see entire families playing board games or cards. On the weekends, you’ll often see food trucks with great food. Both establishments usually have activities and live music scheduled, so there’s a choice in deciding which pub to go to, or you can visit both since they are within walking distance. They also host charity events and trivia nights,
Also, these breweries have no televisions, so conversations with others are encouraged. They offer an entirely different vibe with a social atmosphere. It’s a trend that’s on the uptick.
So why are breweries becoming popular?
No matter what music genre you listen to, it’s hard not to enjoy live music at a brewery. Sometimes you’ll see full bands; other times, it’s one or two musicians performing.
The musicians who perform live at breweries also prefer them.
“I gave up on bars; it’s difficult to compete with whatever sports ball is on one or multiple screens and impossible during NFL time,” Charlie Quesenberry, also known as Charlie Q, told Sebastian Daily.
Quesenberry likes to engage the audience with sing-a-longs, so you never know what he might play. He is very entertaining.
While most performers live here locally, some travel and only perform at breweries like The Pine Box Dwellers from Waycross, Georgia. They often make the trip south to Sebastian.
“We love the built-in family feel of playing pubs ‘where everyone knows your name.’ We’ve made some good friends playing pubs—for example, the owners, staff, and patrons of Pareidolia Brewing Company in Sebastian,” the band told Sebastian Daily.
We’ve seen a man named Will Brant who uses a looping technique to play multiple instruments. He lays down the tracks and then begins to sing. We then discovered he is also a brewmaster at Breachfly Brewing in Rockledge.
Two members from The Mighty Flea Circus regularly play as a duo every other Thursday known as HairPeace, at Pareidolia.
“I would recommend a local brewery or pub to anyone looking for an alternative to a bar. Pubs have a feeling that is unique and all their own,” the duo told Sebastian Daily.
HairPeace plays a lot of great classics and more. You can catch them on Pareidolia’s outdoor stage, but sometimes they play indoors depending on the weather. The duo said playing outside allows the audience to claim their place in the field and become part of the community.
You can easily walk into a brewery and find someone playing Bluegrass one minute and maybe Hotel California by the Eagles the next. Sometimes, performers play their own music that they wrote and composed. It’s a variety of sounds that keep the place from getting stale.
Pat Kirchner, Co-Owner/Co-Brewer at Mash Monkeys, is a musician and now performs live at the brewery. Much to our surprise, he’s a talented musician and has been one since he was a kid.
Kirchner grew up listening to a lot of classic rock, metal, and it made him want to create music. So he played in several heavy rock and metal bands from age 17 to 28.
“My parents noticed my love for music and bought me a guitar when I was 12. I have been playing on and off for about 26 years,” Kirchner told Sebastian Daily.
Playing at Mash Monkeys happened after many people nudged him to perform live.
“Eventually, I got back into seriously playing and was able to put together enough songs to do so. The idea was to bring something a little different to the Sebastian music scene,” he said.
Booking bands to play at breweries can also be a task. So we spoke with Mash Monkey’s manager Angela Tuinman who gave us the scoop.
“When I book bands, I try to cater to what our patrons like to hear. For example, patrons on a Sunday afternoon tend to prefer more mellow/easy listening vs. having something louder/more exciting on Fridays. I definitely support our local bands as much as possible, with many of them having a regular monthly rotation at Mash. Other than that, I look for artists from Melbourne to Stuart that don’t often play in Sebastian. I also like to develop a solid relationship with seasonal, traveling artists to keep things exciting — like Asheville’s Circus Mutt or Knotty G’s,” Tuinman told Sebastian Daily.
The same goes for the Pareidolia Brewing Company, where owners Pete and Lynn Anderson book the entertainment. They usually seek something different from the mainstream.
“We seek both local and traveling musicians. We focus more on genres that are not always mainstream. We look for Bluegrass, reggae, blues, Americana, and genres less focused on classic rock as much as progressive sounds of later decades,” Pete Anderson told Sebastian Daily.
Another popular local band seen in pubs is one called Group Therapy. They have a solid following, performing a variety of music.
“Pubs are fun where you see a lot of the local fans and some out-of-town visitors as well. Normally we try to start out slow and build to more upbeat songs as the evening progresses,” Group Therapy’s lead singer Mark Carabia told Sebastian Daily.
To see a complete list of live entertainment performing at these breweries, visit our Events Calendar.
Public Houses
The name pub comes from the term Public Houses in Britain. While these were public dwelling establishments for the sale of alcohol, they quickly became public meeting places for socializing. Many people in the 17th century went to pubs to unwind and gossip.
It wasn’t long after that live performers would sing traditional British, Irish, and Scottish songs using instruments such as the fiddle, accordion, flute, uilleann pipes, tenor banjo, and guitar.