Mount Vernon church starts new chapter as concert venue with first sold-out event: ‘This building is meant for music!’

Baltimore’s newest music venue had its first sold-out concert on Saturday and the verdict is in:

“One thing’s for sure,” organizer Martin Knott Jr. told the audience at the end of the four-hour concert. “This building is meant for music!”

Approximately 570 people filled Mount Vernon Place Church to see a Grateful Dead-themed concert led by Cris Jacobs & Friends and musicians from The WolfPack, a group that performed with Bob Weir, the Grateful Dead founder who died on Jan. 10.  

The concert was the first ticketed event held at the church since it was purchased last summer by UNITE Mount Vernon, a non-profit group that’s working to activate it as a multi-purpose events venue and community hub. In many ways it marked the beginning of a new chapter for the 154-year-old landmark, which has been largely dormant since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 — a test to see how well it could perform as a setting for musical performances and other large gatherings.

Doors opened at 5 p.m. Saturday and the concert started at 6 p.m. The musicians played two sets, with a “halftime” break in between. Jacobs is a singer and songwriter that Baltimore magazine has called “The King of Baltimore Rock’n’Roll.” Joining him from The WolfPack were Mads Tolling on the violin, Brian Switzer on the trumpet, and Alex Kelly on the cello. St. Paul Sound Room and Friends was the producer.

“We can’t think of a better way to open up this new music venue in Baltimore as it transitions to a multi-purpose venue for the historic Mount Vernon neighborhood,” the producers said when the concert was announced.

One of the first Grateful Dead-themed concerts held on the East Coast since Weir’s death, it drew “Deadheads” from around the region.

“With everything going on in the Grateful Dead world, it was clear to us that coming to do something in a church that was going to be very healing was something that we wanted and needed to do,” said Knott, a board member of UNITE Mount Vernon.

Just about every room in the church was used for the concert. In the sanctuary, the raised pulpit area became the stage. Side walls were covered with curtains to help absorb sound bouncing off the stone walls. Tie-dyed banners hung behind the band. A non-stop light show transformed the space with an array of colors that changed with the music, from somber blues and violets to vibrant oranges and yellows.

Elsewhere in the church, a worship space called the Mount Vernon Room was repurposed as a green room for the musicians, with a cold cut tray set up outside the adjacent Bosley Chapel. An upper-level meeting space, Davis Hall, was opened during the break for audience members to mingle and get refreshments provided by Union Craft Brewing. Davis Hall was also the place to buy the night’s souvenir, a concert poster created by artist Owen Murphy of One Drop Design Studio. Displayed on the walls was an exhibit of vintage posters and other artwork collected by Glen Trosch, the president of the Psychedelic Art Exchange.

The church didn’t have a pit area where fans could crowd close to the stage, but organizers didn’t stop anyone from dancing in the aisles. They limited seating to 10 people per pew, so they wouldn’t be cramped. A lot of the audience members were on their feet most of the night.

For those who couldn’t attend, the concert was shown on nugs (nugs.net and nugs.tv), a streaming service that specializes in live concerts. Besides helping the new owners test the acoustics and gauge how well the building can handle a large crowd, the event was a fundraiser for UNITE Mount Vernon and the Rex Foundation, a charitable organization established in 1983 by The Grateful Dead and friends to support a variety of causes. Ticket prices ranged from $108.55 to $161.90. According to Knott, the show raised more than $50,000, which will be split between the two organizations.

Next up for UNITE Mount Vernon, the church at 2 E. Mount Vernon Place will be one of the satellite meeting sites of the 2026 Conference & Bookfair that the Association of Writers & Writing Programs is holding in Baltimore from March 4 to 7. It also will be the setting for part of the spring lecture series organized by the Baltimore chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Here is a slideshow of photos that show some of the activity during Saturday’s concert: