Hi-fi, low-key

Hi-fi bars run the risk of coming across as, well, a little extra: You leave the comfort of your home to go sit in a moodily lit room and listen to obscure (and often obtuse) vinyl albums played on a high-end, potentially customized sound system that might be worth more than your car. In hushed tones, you order a cocktail made, perhaps, with whiskey imported from Japan — where hi-fi bars, or ongaku kissaten, originated in 1929 — and listen reverentially as, say, the sounds of the Afro-Norwegian funk duo Nefertiti’s Fjord come streaming through the speakers in pristine fidelity. Cue the Larry David wince face.

It’s with great enthusiasm, and no small amount of relief, then, that I report that Shapes, Missoula’s first hi-fi bar, radiates a radically more inviting and playful vibe. On the last weekend in September, as a full moon beamed down through the clouds, a diverse crowd — older audio heads in shorts and hoodies, dirtbag hipsters, college kids dressed up for a night out — piled into the bar for two exuberant nights of terrific bands, DJs and good cheer. Friday featured a full-band set from Butte’s electro-country maestro Charlie Apple; on Saturday, the groovy jazz crew Shark Buffalo took the stage.

And sure, Shapes retains some of the calling cards of the OG listening bars — the booming speakers sound amazing; the weekend’s dapper DJs, Gabba and Sassafras, pulled out the deep cuts; the bar offers a robust selection of Japanese whiskeys. But by championing local artists, leaning into expertly curated DJ nights and staying focused on affordability, Shapes is carving out a lane all its own.

“The music never stops. You’re playing in a room full of amazing audio gear and DJs who know music really well and a full wall of some of the best music ever put on vinyl. You’re in good company,” Charlie Apple told me after his show. “It’s one of a kind in Montana.”

In a town full of good cocktail bars and arguably better dives, Shapes is betting on something different: creating a bar — and a community — that puts the music above all else.

Shapes is the brainchild of Mark Chumrau, whom Missoulians may know as the funk and soul DJ Mark Myriad, or as the curator of the now-defunct arts space Suite Two. Chumrau can trace his passion for DJing back to his days as a student at Hellgate High, or close to Hellgate, at least: He’d spend all his lunch money and free time down the street at Ear Candy, where he got an education in its own right from John Fleming, Ira Sather-Olson and Chris Henry. In college in Bozeman, Chumrau DJed parties while pursuing a career in mechanical engineering. He eventually found a niche working in sustainable refrigeration, a gig that required a lot of travel; he visited far-flung hi-fi bars in London, Los Angeles, Japan and New York. Shapes aims to occupy similar ground, but with an eye toward inclusivity. “I want people to feel comfortable,” he told me on a recent afternoon on the Dram Shop patio, not long after Shapes opened. “Somewhere warm and cozy they want to hang out, like a living room.”

If Shapes is a living room, it’s unquestionably part of a bigger, merrier house. On opening night, the crowd at Shapes melded with a cacophonous party underway in the Florence lobby, where the Historic Florence Cocktails & Coffee bar was doing brisk business, and the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was being projected on the lobby wall.

At first glance, I saw this overlap as a business liability — wouldn’t their glassware get mixed up? Would people even realize there was a hi-fi bar past the cocktail bar? — but Chumrau had a far more optimistic take: Since the building owns a liquor license that the new Mediterranean restaurant Sumac, Shapes and the lobby bar all use, customers can move between the businesses without friction. (It’s an arrangement that Shapes is taking advantage of to host weekend brunches in collaboration with Sumac.)

“I look at it as more of a partnership,” he told me. “The rising tide that raises all ships.”

Chumrau’s come-one-come-all approach isn’t just talk — he’s committed to keeping the space welcoming to all. For one thing, he plans to keep Shapes events cover-free. And much of the beverage menu is surprisingly cheap (relatively speaking, at least): The Kissa (whiskey, yuzu, ginger ale, lemon oil) punches way above its $8 price tag, and the $4 Hamm’s is a welcome addition, if still more expensive than I’d prefer. And for those who don’t imbibe, Shapes offers a respectable share of mocktails and N/A beers as well.

With opening weekend under his belt, I asked Chumrau about his plans for future bookings. While he stayed pretty tight-lipped about the next acts to grace the stage and DJ booth, he explained that he envisions a regular cadence to the calendar: live music at least twice a week, ditto for DJ nights, which will often be themed by genre. He might eventually book touring bands, but for now his focus is on showcasing a wide range of local talent.

“I’d like to branch out as much as I can,” he said. And in keeping with the bar’s name, he explained that the room will “be moldable into many different forms to fill a lot of different niches” — from a nightclub to a jazz club to a mini-CBGB.

Watching the crowd’s enthusiasm at Shapes, I found myself thinking about the general lack of smaller stages in town, and Shapes’ potential to fill that need. The possibility wasn’t lost on Chumrau, either.

“I feel like Missoula certainly hasn’t hit its critical mass for music venues,” he told me. “Missoula is a very music-driven town. Before COVID, you could see live music every single night. [Shapes is] trying to bring that back a little bit.”

In a town full of good cocktail bars (and arguably better dives), Shapes is betting on something different: creating a bar — and a community — that puts the music above all else. Whether that will be enough to keep the crowds coming remains to be seen.

If anything made me optimistic about Shapes’ future, it was my next visit, a week later. It was a Wednesday evening; the fanfare had died down, and the stage was quiet. But the bar was bustling, and Chumrau was DJing Prince and Phony Ppl with a blissful smile on his face. Perhaps even more than opening weekend, this was when the promise of Shapes became evident: that on any given evening, you can stroll through the Florence’s checkered lobby and wander into a world where stellar music is always playing — music to enjoy with pals and strangers alike. It’s an energy that’s downright infectious. And Groucho Marx be damned, it’s a club I’d love to belong to.