Tuesday, July 11, 2017

A few more details on the end of Webster Hall in its current format



The current owners of Webster Hall offered more details about the closure of the club in a Facebook post early yesterday via Gerard McNamee Jr., director of operations...



Sad but true, the legendary and world-famous Webster Hall has been sold and will close as we know it for its final club night on Saturday August 5th, 2017, which just so happens to be my birthday, which is certainly somehow apropos. It will be closed for an undisclosed period of time for demo, reno and transition to corporate ownership under Barclays/AEG/Bowery Presents. I highly recommend that you all stop by before the end of this era to pay your respects to the Ballingers and the building for providing us with a lifetimes worth of memories.

The Ballinger family has owned and operated Webster Hall since 1989.

Anyway, so the last club night is Aug. 5. As we noted back in May, the last concert date was listed on Aug. 8 (Michelle Branch: The Hopeless Romantic Tour). A record release show with Marateck is now on the calendar on Aug. 9 in the Studio. And that's it.

After that, the new owners, Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment along with AEG-backed The Bowery Presents, will begin renovations at the landmarked building on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.

An EVG reader was at the recent CB3-SLA committee meeting in which Spectrum Catering and Concessions was applying for a new liquor license. (The 25-year-old company provides concessions for a variety of venues and festivals nationwide. In NYC, they manage Terminal 5, the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Rough Trade and Brooklyn Steel.)

Per the reader:

No more club/late night parties.
No more Marlin Room.
Reducing capacity due to the addition of elevators.
Minimum closure of 18 to 24 months starting August 11th

DNAinfo has some background on the liquor license application here.

Finally, as noted last Friday, a group of filmmakers, who are also working at the venue, hope to make a documentary on Webster Hall's last month.

Webster Hall was built in 1886. Alex has a post here yesterday about when the venue was the Ritz.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The plan to document the last month of Webster Hall's existence

Speculation about Webster Hall's closing date

11 comments:

Gojira said...

So is all of the building landmarked, or only the exterior? The inside, while run-down and seedy, still bears quite a bit of original ornamentation, would be a shame to lose it in an effort to make more room for TVs...

Anonymous said...

Oh for St. Pete's sake, gut this sweat soaked eyesore already. This is America, *the* provisional nation. If you want history, GTFB to Europe and prance around your fairy rings or whatever you silly pagans do. (Although I hear Europe's not doing so well, so don't delay!) Time marches on, with or without you, and everything folds back into the sea eventually. Spare us your brutish sentimentality. Onward!

Gojira said...

"Silly pagan"? "Brutish sentimentality"? Holy cow, Anon. 10:47, you need to get laid. Or a lobotomy. Or onto another blog. In the meantime, as a dedicated student of the history of my cherished city, I will continue to note and mourn the passing of the old and the lovely in favor of the shallow and the vacuous. And you can please to mind your own damn business and keep a civil tongue in your head.

Anonymous said...

So much for the FB sentiment. I did stop by to request a chance to take a couple of photos of the interior (because I love the building and the club) and was told there would be a "fee" for doing so and that it must be set up in advance and by approval. Not very neighborly. I did pay plenty on all the nights I was a patron. I made the request — Let's see what the fee for non-commercial (personal) photography is...

Anonymous said...

10:47: Spare us your brutish LACK of sentimentality.

Anonymous said...

This place had TSA-level security conducted by the rudest guards I've ever encountered in New York and that says a lot. Maybe it was artist friendly at some point but those days are long behind us.

Anonymous said...

Please ignore the troll.

Webster Hall looks to be getting the Moxie Hotel makeover, mid-town south is becoming a reality although a nightmarish one for residents.

Anonymous said...

AEG Live and Bowery Presents has a near monopoly of big live music venues in NYC.

If AEG bought Irving Plaza and Gramercy Theater from Live Nation NYC plus Hammerstein from whoever owns it, they would literally own all the big live music venues in NYC save the ones Bowery owns, and both would control the booking for all of them.

AEG now owns Webster Hall along with PlayStation Theater, B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill, and Highline Ballroom while Bowery owns Terminal 5, Brooklyn Steel, Music Hall Of Williamsburg, Bowery Ballroom, and Mercury Lounge. It would be easy for either or both to be the exclusive bookers for Hammerstein.

Why play Irving Plaza or Gramercy Theater when you could play the AEG-Bowery venues?

What's to stop AEG or Bowery from taking 60% of the gross cuz fuck you that's why? Where else in NYC are you gonna play? Your band draws 1800 paid people, ok, well Irving Plaza and Gramercy Theater are too small and you probably don't wanna play IP two nights (thus incur additional tour expenses for NYC) when you can just play AEG's 2100-capacity PlayStation Theater one night. Gramercy Theater won't get in all your fans since it's only 700-800 capacity thus only 1400-1600 of your 1800 fans can see you play.

Where is NYC District Attorney Eric Schneiderman?

Anonymous said...

10:47 AM: Spare us your trolling.

Anonymous said...

The CB3 application is interesting reading. So far, no mention of anything on the roof. The application mentions diagrams and renderings but they are not attached to the application itself. Does anyone have a copy?

Anonymous said...

Oh you know there will be a rooftop club, it will have spill over from the Moxie's rooftop club. WOO