Bands more than happy to attend Church

The Great Bandini plays recently at Church. The Fenway club celebrates its one-year anniversary tomorrow night. (EVAN RICHMAN/GLOBE STAFF)

When Church first opened its doors last fall, some rock bands balked. With its sparkling surfaces and pious name, the place seemed too pristine, too sacred. "Believe it or not, they would tell me it's too clean, too new," recalls co-owner Kristian Deyesso with a chuckle. "I'd say to them, 'What, you don't feel dirty enough?' Now, everybody wants to play Church."

Indeed, it seems they do. The live music venue and restaurant, located at the site of the old Linwood Grill in the Fenway, is celebrating its first anniversary this weekend as one of the city's newest hot spots. The club hosts an adventurous array of genres - national and local indie-rock, metal, folk, alt-country, and more - and the list of bands who want to play there, says Church booking agent Nick Blakey, is longer than a line of Boston parishioners on Sunday.

"Honestly, the reason we play there so much is that everybody treats you with complete professionalism and are so friendly - which you don't get everywhere - and it's a great atmosphere," says Mike MacDonald, who sings and plays guitar with his local alt-country outfit, the Widow Makers. "I think right now, they're putting together some of the best shows in town."

To ring in its first anniversary, the 225-person-capacity club is putting on a free show tomorrow featuring local rockers the Nebulas, Lars Vegas, and Gene Dante & the Future Starlets. On Sunday, Church will host the first annual "Eat Your Heat Out Boston!," a double whammy of dining and music to benefit the Boston-based nonprofit group the Food Project. Next Thursday, the club will host Boston's installment of the International Pop Overthrow festival, a four-day blowout of more than 30 bands from Greater Boston and around the globe.

"You've got to keep the enthusiasm flowing, because the minute you don't care, the whole chain falls apart," says Blakey.

The fact that Blakey is also a veteran local musician - he plays bass with the In Out - probably doesn't hurt.

"He gets genuinely excited about putting shows together," says Great Bandini singer-songwriter Scott Janovitz. "That's great not just for the bands but for audiences who don't have to sit through randomly thrown-together bills."

Janovitz, the younger brother of Buffalo Tom singer-songwriter Bill Janovitz, calls Church "a huge improvement over the old Linwood. . . . If you get up front, closer to the stage, the sound is booming. But if you feel like taking it easier on the ears, you can hang back a little and still enjoy the show - or make snide remarks to your friend about the band without shouting."

Deyesso, a restaurant industry veteran who launched Church with his business partner, Chris Tocchio, points to the work the club has done to maximize appeal: a bigger stage than the Linwood's, two green rooms for the bands, and food and drink that are decidedly upscale for a rock club: shrimp ceviche, arugula and fennel salad, and a range of cocktails themed around "the seven deadly sins." (Try "Lust" and "Greed," trust us.) Then there are the club's Gothic flourishes (gargoyles, sconce lighting fit for a medieval castle) and rich crimsons and purples that set a decadent mood.

"It was a challenge but we were gung-ho for it," Deyesso says, "and we believe we did it pretty successfully."

There have been some obstacles along the way: the slumping economy, the swarm of Red Sox fans that keep some concert-goers away. But at least the bands have gotten used to the idea of a nice place to play.

Lars Vegas singer Tom Stenquist, whose group will perform at tomorrow night's anniversary show, has haunted more gritty rock joints than he can count. "I'm all for the grungy corner club," Stenquist says. "But it's nice to have a new sound system to play through and to know that the audience can hear you."

HEAT-SEEKING MIEKA: Don't expect Boston native Mieka Pauley to have to fall back on that Harvard degree in biological anthropology anytime soon. The folk singer-songwriter beat out five other finalists to win this year's grand prize in the New York Songwriters Circle's third annual songwriting contest. Pauley, who performed her composition "All the Same Mistakes" during the finals held last Sunday at New York City's Bitter End, will receive $5,000 plus various high-profile radio and performance spots and a recording session with Grammy-winning producer Glenn Barett.

NEW BOSS, NEW BOSSTONES: To celebrate the election of Barack Obama, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones will next month release a limited edition 7-inch single through the band's own Big Rig Records label. (In the spirit of unity, it'll be pressed on black-AND-white vinyl.) "I feel like the world is now a better place, and a large chunk of my faith in my country has been restored," Bosstones singer Dicky Barrett said in a statement. "I'm looking forward to living in a country where the guy who runs it is smarter [than] I am." The Bosstones, who'll kick off their 11th annual, sold-out series of "Hometown Throwdown" shows at the Middle East Dec. 26, are also working on a new album to be released next year.