Saturday, October 10, 2015

I Love the Bo$ton Globe Night Life

I got to boogie....

"Sad and upbeat notes on the local music scene" by James Reed Globe Staff  October 09, 2015

QUINCY — A familiar refrain this year as the area’s live-music landscape has weathered a series of changes in jarringly short order. T.T. the Bear’s Place shuttered in July after more than 40 years in Cambridge’s Central Square. That same week, Johnny D’s, the venerable Somerville roots-music haven active in Davis Square since 1969, announced it would be going out of business early next year.

And barely a month ago, Church, a restaurant and club in the Fenway, yanked the plug on its music bookings after the owners sold the venue side of the establishment.

The commotion has left local music fans rattled and wondering the same thing: Is it getting harder for live music to survive in Boston? Most observers say it’s more difficult, true, but they also point to a number of new clubs that have helped to fill the void.

Yup, “clubs come and go.’’

Perhaps what’s actually disappearing is the stable of stalwart clubs that were considered part of the Old Boston, friendly haunts that were familiar and comforting.

Money often can be a consideration, especially when it comes to soaring property values and inevitable gentrification.....

Can we go home now? 

Still, now more than ever, musicians rely on revenue from touring and merchandise, a byproduct of the reality that fans don’t buy albums the way they used to. Earlier this week, rising local singer-songwriter Ruby Rose Fox was in the studio to make a record, knowing she could not rely on its commercial success.

“That’s a reality now: You do not make money from music, unless you’re big time or have a publishing deal,” Fox said....

Then life is like a rodeo.

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I'm sure I've visited those clubs in the past, but I can't remember when.