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Church the restaurant survives.
Only the live music is going away. A shame.
Three in the last few months
So that's three live music venues closing (or announcing they're closing) in the last few months? Ouch.
If the current crop of
If the current crop of college students isn't going to shows, the Boston music scene can't survive, which is pretty much what we're seeing happening now. Like independent bookshops and indie record stores, smaller live music venues are becoming a thing of the past. 20-somethings don't know what they're missing!
They're still into music
Just not with guitars in it.
Four including the Beachcomber...
In Quincy.
This is just anecdotal based
This is just anecdotal based on the genre(s) of music I like, but I can't tell you how many times over the past two years or so I've been excited to see a band is touring, looked up their tour schedule, and found they were bypassing Boston, hitting the NYC area (sometimes with two shows there) and then moving south. These would be bands ranging from brand new to decades old, who play roughly 200-600 person venues, ie, the size that are now closing. I'm probably going to half as many shows as I went to just a couple years ago. The other commenters are right that getting people out to shows is a problem, but these bands still find it worthwhile to play NYC, Philly, Baltimore.. so what's up here?
A couple things at play here I think...
First of all, NYC proper has 13 TIMES the population that Boston proper does, and its metro area has 4.5 times the population. That's a huge difference in the number of people who might possibly go out to rock clubs. Second, Baltimore and Philly (and their immediate environs) have plenty of affordable real estate and rental units. Boston/Cambridge/Somerville have virtually none. Artists, musicians, and middle/working-class kids, adults, etc. can't afford to live near, or near-ish to many of these clubs. At least not like they could before.
Even though there are 100's of thousands of college kids in the area, the great preponderance of them attend extremely expensive colleges, and are from elite, or borderline elite backgrounds. Not many of these people want to be jostled around in some stinky, sweaty, old rock club with broken urinals, a crappy beer selection and less than ideal sound. They want amenities. People who are "rockers" don't give a shit. They want to pump their fists, sing the songs, and and get their rocks off for a reasonable price. That's a big part of it, I think. Of course I could be totally wrong, but I think it's at least part of it.
There's a lot more to Boston
than Allston/Brighton, B.B., B.H., S.E., J.P. And there's a lot more to metro Boston than Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline. In this respect it's no different than Philly. Baltimore? Baltimore is, unfortunately, an ultra violent, dangerous pit. Actually, Philly has a really bad violent crime problem, too. This is one if the big reasons Philly doesn't have outrageous real estate prices like (some) parts of NYC and it's immediate metro area, or some parts of Boston, and it's immediate metro area. And you didn't mention D.C., a city of comparable size to Boston. It, like Boston, is also expensive, compared to Baltimore or Philly.
College students:
The vast majority of college students in Boston (area) do not attend 'elite' institutions, and don't come from 'elite' backgrounds. Most come from middle class and working class backgrounds.Even many Harvard and MIT students, aside from some fabulously wealthy and privileged foreign students, are not from $elite$ backgrounds. You're more likely to find people from $elite$ backgrounds at expensive prep schools. Boston Area has the 2nd highest proportion of college students of any metro area in North America, Montreal taking the top spot, so there's obviously a lot of prime age potential club and bar customers here compared to other big cities.
My guess would be it's a generational thing. The internet revolution, and everything that it entails,has made accessing music, downloading it, listening to it, totally different vs what it was prior to widespread broadband internet access, smartphones, etc. What was easily available prior to all this was highly restricted.
As for rock music: It was stagnant even back in the 90s, and rock radio by the late 80s was horrible. The writing was on the wall. Then came rap / hip-hop, which producers discovered was cheaper to produce at a time when sales of rock cds was dropping off (due increasingly to online downloads). Rap and Hip-Hop was HEAVILY marketed, so not surprisingly, they came to dominate among especially youth demographics. But today, electronica is probably the most popular genre among youth. Kids are more used to DJs spinning than live bands.
Easier answer than demographics
In cities like NYC, Philly, Baltimore, you can easily get into a club/bar venue if you're under 21. Boston made it illegal to admit those under the age of 21 to bar and club venues. Therefore, most of these bands will not be able to reach a significant segment of their target audience in Boston, as it is illegal for the venue to allow them to watch the show.
You were responding to my post
Good points. You're right about the under-age angle.
"Second, Baltimore and Philly
"Second, Baltimore and Philly (and their immediate environs) have plenty of affordable real estate and rental units"
That's because Baltimore and Philly are total shitholes.
The whole support system is fading.
Young people don't want to form bands as much. Buying amps, instruments, a van and rehearsal space time isn't that appealing.
The Noise and similar things went away years ago so there isn't a print media dedicated to bands and gin mills.
Radio stations are comparably anachronistic and no longer have the clout once wielded by Late Risers Club, FNX or BCN.
Property is too valuable and people don't want a noisy gin mill and the related parking problems in their expensive enclaves.
There is no buzz, just a bunch of scattered remnant culture things heading for the boneyard. Don Law packed it in. The main high draw arena things are neo Country like Kenny Chesney.That's your concert demographic and it doesn't live in the urban core.
The audience is going geriatric fast and doesn't get around much anymore.
The scene is basically dead
A someone who has lived through the local rock and roll wars since the late 70s, I can tell you that the above Anon has hit the nail right on the head. There is no "scene" in any sense of the word, only scattered remnants. The world (for better or worse) has moved on, is just not set up that way anymore to support a scene of the type that was once known here in Boston, nor are the majority of clubgoing aged people as interested in that kind of thing as many of us once were. There are two types of people who would like to think there is still a Boston music scene. The oldsters (those still alive and mobile) with their remaining wisps of green tinged hair and long too tight Ramones T shirts and leather jackets squeezed over their beer bellies, desperately clinging to what they once knew, and a handful of newbies, those still interested in rock & roll, who feel they missed something (they did), and still think their occasional gig in a remaining, dying club constitutes a "scene". Even bands that have managed to become pseudo-successful in recent times like Passion Bit, didn't actually arise out of any recognizable "scene". To quote Leonard Cohen "everybody knows the scene is dead".
this is wrong. there is still
this is wrong. there is still quite a big scene, that has blossomed from a couple houses in 2007 - 2011. Shows have started to get much bigger again -- look at Pile, Guerilla Toss, Ursula, NE Pats, Skimask. Just because you can't find it doesn't mean it has ceased to exist.
Pretty sure that if you can't easily find it...
It essentially doesn't exist.
I miss FNX so much.
It was one o those things that let me know I was in te rift place when I came here 20 years ago - an it was awesome till the last day.
AltNation on sat radio is such a poor substitute.