Starting this semester, FAU’s Program Board is sponsoring free concerts with coffee and food. The new coffee-house-style concert series, called Java Jive at the Owl House, began Jan. 8 with guitarist and songwriter Todd Carey.

Normally scheduled to take place at Coyote Jack’s, the once-monthly concert series quickly changed venues due to the BCS championship football game scheduled the same night. Once the set up was complete in the Majestic Palm room, students were welcomed to a spread of cheesecake, brownies and candy, served along with Starbucks coffee and, of course, a relaxing atmosphere.

This month’s featured artist, Todd Carey, entertained the intimate crowd of 30 to 35 students, who casually sat on chairs, couches and floor pillows.

Carey, who played for FAU’s Jupiter campus last year, says, “I love this place. I treat it like a vacation when I’m down here.” Carey’s enthusiasm was evident as he cheerfully jammed out on his acoustic guitar.

It’s exactly that acoustic element of music which the Program Board and concert chairperson Katherine Girardot, an FAU sophomore, sought to bring to FAU. “We wanted to bring a different type of music to the audience at FAU.” says Girardot, “We wanted something more acoustic, more mellow and we decided that a coffeehouse would be the perfect way to do it”.

Though other FAU campuses have done coffeehouse events, the spring 2009 Java Jive series is a first for the Boca Raton campus.
“It’s been a little bit of an experiment seeing if this works out, but for the first coffeehouse, I think we’ve done a great job,” says Girardot.

Artists to look for at this semester’s Java Jive are Rudy Currence, Jessica Sonner, and Nathan Angelo.

Java Jive at the Owl House
Thursday, Feb. 5: Rudy Currence
Thursday, March 12: Jessica Sonner
Thursday, April 23: Nathan Angelo
Shows will be held at Coyote Jack’s at 9 p.m. with the doors opening at 8:30 p.m.