Dale Triguero, owner of the local music venue Chickie Wah Wah (2828 Canal Street), passed away on July 8, 2021. Triguero died from complications from heart surgery.

Triguero, who was originally from New York, initially started booking music at the Old Point Bar on the West Bank of New Orleans at Algiers Point.  Under a rent-to-own arrangement, he opened his own club just prior to Hurricane Katrina in a formerly derelict building that he named Chickie Wah Wah. Katrina decimated the building in Mid-City, but Triguero restored the building and reopened the live music venue.

Chickie Wah Wah (named after the Bobby Marchan song “Chickee Wah-Wah”) fell victim to the COVID pandemic, and Triguero jumped into the livestreaming arena, along with many other New Orleans venues. In an interview with Keith Spera (nola.com) in November 2020, Triguero said he thought livestreaming was the future of revenue for local music venues. He told Spera that the 18 months before the pandemic “was the worst year and a half I ever had, and I’ve been doing this for 26 years. The numbers have just dropped off. The same tribe went to Tipitina’s and the Maple Leaf and the Old Point Bar,” Triguero said. “Wherever the music was that night, they were there. But young people aren’t coming. I’m just not seeing it. I don’t want to sound fatalistic, because I’m not. But there has to be a reinvention of how this is done. I really see livestreaming as the way to go as audiences are dwindling.”

Triguero was held in high esteem by local musicians who appreciated his provision of a well-designed and intimate setting where fans could hear not only local musicians, but touring acts who could no longer find a place to play in New Orleans. “He was ‘in it’ for the right reasons,” said friend Michael Burns. “He wanted to keep the music going, give musicians a great place to play their music, and give the fans a ‘grown-up’ club where they could be comfortable and enjoy the music.”

Dale Triguero will be sorely missed by the New Orleans music community. He received OffBeat’s Best of the Beat Award in 2012 for Best Club Owner. The disposition of Chickie Wah Wah as a music venue is unknown at this time, but reportedly at the time of his death, Triguero was almost finished paying off the building.

A tribute to Triguero will be published in the August online issue of OffBeat at OffBeat.com.