Trey Anastasio & LA Philharmonic 3/10/12 Stash

Midnight at the SFT

There is a place here in the town in which I live that has sat vacant for as long as I've been here.  I don't exactly know how long beyond that, but it's been vacant for a long time.  It once was a destination for theater lovers, and was a beacon for Shakespeare lovers.  There is a movement to get the Stratford Festival Theater back up and running, but funds need to be raised in various ways.  My thought and dream is to do weekly midnight acoustic shows for a small admission fee/donation.  I was thinking that there could be beer served by the local brewery, Two Roads, with the hope that they would contribute to the revitalization of the old girl.  I was planning on booking local acts, but not limited to Connecticut, but artists from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and anywhere close enough to want to be a part of it.  I would hope that the artists would do this for the exposure alone and that there would be limited overhead since it's acoustic and that it's realistically for benefit purposes.  Due to the nature of the facility, in that it was intended for performances of shakespeare, the acoustics are phenomenal, and would be the perfect venue to showcase the talent of the singer/songwriter.  I want to help bring back a once proud venue into the new world.  I want the shakespeare theater to be a vibrant destination for the arts.  I want it to be a place that fosters the independent spirit.

Maxwell's no more

The best rock and roll clubs are born out of  poverty and destitution.  They thrive in the area's that have little else going on.  They're cool because there is an inherent threat that lurks in the neighborhoods in which they dwell.  The bowery of the early 70's through the 80's was loaded with junkies and riddled with crime and inhabited by miscreants and monsters.  The best rock clubs were in places that you had to have a reason to go to.  You went there for the love of the music.  And the clubs fostered young talent.  Hoboken in the late 70's and 80's was a working class industrial town.  Rent's were cheap and it was a community.  Struggling artists and musicians were able to live while perfecting their craft.  And there were places for them to perform, like at Maxwell's.  The space was tiny and it was loud, but it was special.  The way that CBGB was special.  Gentrification is the death of rock and roll clubs.  When you price out the artists and musicians, and you open a lot of places that are more concerned with making a profit, and you pander to the hip and moneyed, you kill the soul of the movement.  You take away the need to create and find yourself by being down and out.  Pushing through the filth and slop to do what you love.  The indie art/music world is now backed by corporate america, and filters out the creativity that made the bowery of late so insane.  There will never be another "no-wave" movement.  There will never be another birth of punk, because punk has grown up and gotten a job.

Pavement - "Stereo"