Last night, I attended the First Friday show at Meredith Alex’s MadWorld boutique on Commercial Street. While I had known of this store for a while and had been in several times shopping for my mom, I hadn’t become involved until a few weeks ago.Robin Ivy had recently started collaborating with Meredith on her designs, and had reached out to me to donate some band prints of the Mallett Brothers Band for her project, The Local Listening Lounge. Situated in MadWorld is a little nook with couches and chairs, discmen (is that a word?) mounted to the wall, and giant, funky skullcandy headphones. The purpose of all this is to listen to any of the huge selection of local artists’ albums for sale on the walls. Robin has taken it upon herself to revamp the local listening lounge, and use her influence and connections in the local music scene to give it a kickstart. She has begun decorating the walls and ceiling of the nook with local show posters and big prints of local artists, and worked to bring as many local albums as possible to the store’s inventory. ANYWAY, that’s how I first came to MadWorld as a collaborator, to drop off some prints. Meredith’s focus on local goods made me think Kyle’s brand, Elykssor, would be a nice addition, so I brought him in. The four of us ended up chatting and thinking up ideas all afternoon (see the photos here), and it translated into a joint venture for the First Friday in August…..but more on that later, I don’t want to give too much away.The debut of Meredith’s in-store 12×12 gallery looked great, with black and white paintings by her daughter Max Alex, and Isaiah Pottle. Ralph Graceffa and Clara Junken of the band Marion Grace performed in-store. I had never heard anything by them before, and it blew me away how good they sounded in such a small, unconventional space. There was a ton of local snacks available, and ice cold PBR. It was an very unexpectedly awesome Friday night. Without further ado, the pictures-

Ralph Graceffa

Ralph and Clara, Marion Grace

The Water Closet Gallery - Revolving Installation in the Bathroom!

Local Delights

The Cheese was unreal

The MadGirls! Robin and Meredith

Elykssor Men's & Women's fashion now available at MadWorld!

The Current Water Closet Gallery

Murdaa and Sniff enjoying themselves

The June 12x12 Gallery

Clara Junken

Ralph Graceffa

Sniff and Robin enjoying the party

Joe Gallant

Joe, Murdaa, Kane and Sniff hanging

Meredith with her intern, Olivia

Based on last night, I can recommend without a doubt that you give Marion Grace a listen, and that you check out MadWorld, at 275 Commercial St. ASAP.

Cheers,