Never being mistaken for the World’s Most Enthusiastic Concertgoer, I’m naturally skeptical over the feelings that fans and musicians have been known to express when a landmark concert venue is being closed down – and even knocked down.
“I don’t want to say goodbye to this place. I don’t even want to think about it yet. I just want to keep . . . rocking.” – Eddie Vedder, kicking off the last concert ever at the Spectrum
I’m not immune to these feelings on a grassroots level, having joined in with Townspeople who expressed disappointment over Philadelphia’s old TLA (Theater of the Living Arts) getting a phony, new name and bemoaning the long-ago demise of intimate local clubs like JC Dobbs and Bacchanal, but the sense that a building is somehow sacred and should be saved is foreign to me.
On Friday, Vedder expressed similar regrets. “Why don’t they just save the f- place?” he asked. “Forty-two years is not that old. I’m 44,” he said, showing off his biceps.
Maybe we’ve never had that historic a rock venue in Philly, or maybe I never appreciated the soon-to-be demolished Spectrum, the basketball/hockey/concert arena that has stood since the late ’60s. I like my share of hoops – and lord knows I love my Flyboys – but the Spectrum as some legendary concert venue? Eh…
Have you ever lost a rock venue that really mattered to you, the way the loss of the Spectrum obviously meant to Eddie Vedder?
“showing off his biceps?” is he doing the danzig/reznor/carrot-top thing now?
I’ve never personally lost one. The cow palace that has served as the great MS Coliseum has always been around and looks likely to continue. Then again, Jackson has never been host to great arena rock shows. we had our share of the touring hair metal acts of the 80s, but those days are long gone. It also serves as home to the Dixie National Rodeo, Disney on Ice, AND the occasional monster truck events.
I can say, though, as an outsider, that The Spectrum is a familiar name. I know it a classic rock venue in much the same way I know Cobo Hall in Detroit. Budokan was probably never intended to be a rock venue, but it is one to me thanks to Cheap Trick.
It is a little sad when these venues have to give way to the latest and greatest. Those, too, will likely make a name for themselves before they find themselves on the chopping block. I remember when they tore down Atlanta-Fulton Country Stadium to make way for the Turner Field. Hank Aaron’s legendary home run is now a marker in the parking lot. But, it’s the memories that matter most. If Joe Blow got laid in the upper nose-bleed seats of The Spectrum at the Boston concert, then that will never change.
After living in Memphis, it was always odd to me how that town played red-headed stepchild to Nashville. It has only been very recently that Memphis has begun to reclaim some if its musical heritage (outside of Elvis). It is travesty that Stax had to be rebuilt, instead of saving the original theater/studio and restoring it. Why couldn’t someone have the foresight to save THAT building?
Huge halls and arenas must give way, but let’s focus on the small, almost overlooked, spots and preserve them for future fans.
TB
I read that Pearl Jam article in the Inky yesterday. I too found Vedder’s emotional outpourings regarding the Spectrum kinda weird. I don’t think Pearl Jam are especially known for playing the Spectrum, like Bruce might be. Vedder’s from San Diego, right? It’s not like he was going to shows there as a kid or anything. Maybe Ed saw himself as a conduit for the people at the show.
philly cookbook
empire rock club
northeast empire
upstairs at nicks
firenze tavern
killtime
the basement of 707 s 17th st.
club pizazz
the happy tap tavern
the black hole
cafe le rock (above montserrat)
old city arcade
revival
j c dobbs
oh and jfk stadium
and the cell block.
i was sad for the loss of all of these venues.
and apparently
the 941 theater.
JFK was cool, I’ll grant you that huge concert place, kilroy!
The thing about the Spectrum for me is not the building itself but what it represents.
I just saw a movie this weekend that was so bad that I won’t say the name because I am embarrassed to admit having watched it. But it was filmed and set in the mid ‘70s and had a bunch of concert scenes. Those scenes reminded me how big concerts seemed much cooler back then. I even commented to my wife that concerts are just boring now.
Maybe this is because I’m getting older and the thrill is still available for the younger folks. Or maybe it’s because Rock is getting older and everything has been done already (since there is less new ground to break, the focus is on Production and the whole thing is turning into the new Broadway).
The Spectrum was around before rock concerts were codified into a bland corporate outing, and I started going to concerts there while the industry was still trying to figure it all out.
I went there recently for the first time in years and I was a bit surprised that I had any sentimental feelings for the place at all. But for a 10 year span starting with KISS in ’77, seeing a show at the Spectrum had a lot of good connotations and holds a lot of memories, good and bad. (Good: First show – KISS/ACDC. Bad: Paying $14 for a $9 ticket to see Aerosmith/Golden Earring, only to have someone throw a bottle in Steven Tyler’s face during the 5th song)
But I digress. To answer your question, I would probably be a little bummed if the Khyber, TLA or Troc shut down but I’d soldier on.
I don’t have much nostalgia for the Spectrum as a venue. The things I’ve seen there would typically have been better serverd at a more intimate venue.
I DO really miss some places where I’ve seen new exciting things close up. Certainly the Hot Club, a place that I went a few times a week for about a year and saw magical shows, ababy faced Brian Setzer realizing that his guitar playing was the real star of the Bloodless Pharoahs, a B-52’s concert so hot and crowded (and wild) that my fingers pruned up as if I’d spent too long in the bath.
I sort of experienced the establishment of Dobb’s as a live venue, including friends of mine playing in the early days when they were crazy about keeping the volume down and very unpleasant about it. It was a giant let down from the earlier Hot Club and even East Side Club days. Although there were some shows that really woked for me there, Evan Johns, Dash Rip Rock and Royal Crescent Mob, it’s not a venue I’m specifically nostalgic about.
I noticed CDM’s comment about the TLA, Troc and Khyber. I actually feel pretty attached to the Khyber, but it just hasn’t been having any shows that I’m interested in for at least two years. I love the room, even when it’s crammed because the group that’s playing accidentally became too famous between booking the date and the date. I’m not someone that jumps to the new club automatically but some places seem to go through a natural death cycle, deteriorating equipment, facilities and line-ups, until finally a new place comes along and eclipses them. Years and years ago, the khyber had a death rattle and even closed for a while, but somehow came back to life. I think it’s dead now, pretty much eclipsed by the slightly less comforatable Johnny Brenda’s.
Yeah, I find it a little dispiriting that virtually every indie band has to play one of the four Fishtown clubs within a four-block radius. Meanwhile, the Khyber’s schedule is littered with no-names.
For a good while, the Khyber did have some powerful regenerative powers. But what I think ultimately did it in was Old City’s devolution, which was pretty inhospitable to a divey rock club.
But part of this is just my own aging process. Lotsa people going to shows at Kung Fu Necktie probably aren’t missing The old Khyber, just like I didn’t/couldn’t really miss Dobbs, which I think closed a few years before I turned 21.
Agreed about the aging process. I am way to old to be attached to the Khyber but I really liked the layout. The room was small, but not absurdly so, a convenient shape, unlike Johnny Brenda’s, and a stage high enough to facilitate sightlines from the rear, unlike Kung Fu Necktie. I used to park myself in the second doorway, so I could see over the crowd and lean my head out of the room if the volume was unbearable. I agree that the chi-chi-ification of the neighborhood contributed to the Khyber’s apparent demise.
I like what cdm had to say about the Spectrum in its ’70s heyday, when the industry was still groping for a business model. I would imagine fans of those Filmores bummed out when they shut down. I also recall the movement to make CBGB’s a museum or whatever, but that place turned into an excuse for selling t-shirts to people who would never set foot in the place long ago, didn’t it?
grumble..grumble…CBGB’s was never the same after they moved the stage from the left side to the right side in ’77…grumble….grumble.
The Empire in Cleveland was nothing special, and it didn’t last long, a few years in the 90s I guess. But I once saw Vic Chesnutt open for a solo Bob Mould, which was a great show. Afterwards I was taking a leak in the men’s room, when Vic rolled in. I gushed some nonsense, and then somehow we were having a conversation about the book Confederacy of Dunces. The place will always be special to me for that great literary dialogue in the loo.
In the Hendrix poster, the little ‘also Noel Redding’ below the graphic is interesting. Can he have been the opening act?
Hey BigSteve, it was Noel Redding’s Fat Mattress opening that show. I found this old article. It was thought that Redding’s band got to open as a concession.
http://home.comcast.net/~loudfast/writeweb/jimiphil.htm
Curious that the writer, who I’m pretty sure is a longtime Philadelphian, refers to “Samson Street.” I’m sure he meant Sansom, but it’s possible that his editor transposed the letters. And that, my friends, is my Pince Nez of the Day.
I don’t know if it meant *that* much, but the “upgrade” from the old, dinge-y, ugly, punk-y, downright smelly 9:30 club to the new one was a bit of a downer.
I also kind of miss dc space — but that’s just me geezin’.
I think it’s harder to feel sentimental about a sports arena that occasionally was used as a concert venue, but any place where you had one or more peak experiences of your life is likely to have some emotional resonance for you.
I know the Warehouse in New Orleans, where I saw everyone from the Dead and the Faces to the Clash and Talking Heads is just an empty lot now, and that seems weird. But it was literally a riverfront warehouse that had been repurposed, so it’s not like the neighborhood had a lot of charm anyway.
I can only imagine the outcry if they tried to close or tear down Tipitina’s club in uptown New Orleans. I guarantee you that thousands of people, me included, are emotionally attached to that place because of the musical experiences they’ve had there.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but a documentary was made about Kansas City’s Cowtown Ballroom, the 70s hippie hangout in my adopted city (http://www.cowbr.com/live/), and the movie attests to the strong feelings of the people who experienced it. But the maybe the feelings aren’t so much about the building as about the scene and that countercultural moment in time that is gone forever.
I don’t really miss any enormo domes, and we had the biggest one of all with Cleveland Municipal Stadium (one of only a very small handful of places big enough to contain The Stones’ entire Steel Wheels stage). Richfield Coliseum was pretty cool because it was less steep than the way they make basketball courts these days. The sound was way better, too.
The one place I really miss is the old Agora. That was a really cool place. I’ll never forget seeing Wiggy Bits at a Coffee Break Concert and drinking Bloody Mary’s instead of going to school. The carpet was some kind of shag, and it had some sticky fire retardant stuff (and probably a nice mixture of beer and puke) that made you feel like Astro Boy when you walked on it, and if you threw a cigarette on it, it would go out pretty quickly. The new place is too much. They should have changed the name when they decided to move it when CSU tore it down.
As usual during my stay here in Italy, I’m days behind in my RTH reading.
This thread brings to mind a thought I had a few weeks ago. There are theatres and amphitheatres here in Italy and in Greece which are over 2,000 years old and still in use. Designed so perfectly that the actor can speak from the stage in a normal speaking tone and be heard anywhere in the theatre. Over 2,000 years old! But in the US, a stadium/arena can be 20 years old and it’s torn down to make way for a new one.
Monday I’ll be at the Colosseum. Built in 79 AD and still no corporate boxes…
My city is gone.