Music Conversion Therapy Pt.1

Music Conversion Therapy Pt. 1

Suggested listening: Aloe Island Posse - “Stay”

*tape deck loading click noise*

With all the changes going on in Boston’s nightlife and music scene, I figured I should write down some of my predictions and share them. I’ve always loved learning about this industry and tracking trends and following how things change. 

Over the last ten years, a majority of Boston nightclubs, who’s leases have been month-to-month for years, have been bought up by colleges and real estate developers like a Jaws-worthy feeding frenzy. A lot of the properties that house these clubs are owned by the city of Boston. One of those weird things that happens when a place is so old, that most of the rules when it comes to who owns what don’t apply the same way that they do in other places. The city needs money, so the city leases out the spaces to people looking to play the game and pay up. So the nightclubs are born, under the agreement that it’s not forever. Because realistically, Boston doesn’t want the club kids, and the gays, and the drugs, and the headache, so they say “yeah we’ll take your money for now, but nothing is set in stone”. Eventually, colleges and mega-developers with huge pockets come in and offer more. Boston likes this because colleges and developers aren’t drag queens and hip-hop DJs and stoner musicians. So they say to the clubs, “your lease is up now, we’re selling this space to someone new”. So colleges get more dorms, and developers get more condos, and the nightlife gets less clubs. 

Over the last five years, with all the property getting bought up, there’s a lot less space for artists and creatives. Less renegade spots, after-hours parties, and things to do after 2AM. But we keep on trucking and make do. Just because you close something doesn’t mean we’re not going to squeeze every inch of creative into other places, fitting in-between the rules and regulations like rats sneaking into abandoned buildings. And we’re thriving. 

Now all of a sudden, there are two major players - Big Night and Bowery who own most of the clubs in Boston, or are slowly getting there anyway. A lot of the older, family-owned clubs still hanging on are run as they are, while these two companies are buying up and owning clubs one by one. Boston likes these two players. They fit the mold. They’re clean cut and corporate and like to “play the game” with the city of Boston. They have the financial resources to pay for all of the permits and all the athleticism to jump higher and faster over all the ropes and red tape that the city throws at them time and time again. 

Now it’s getting to the point where they have so much money from doing things so successfully, and so much backing from the city for doing things “the right way”, they keep going - buying up space and permits to open new ventures. Ventures that they haven’t tried before. One has a background in nightlife, the other a background in live entertainment. “Well, let’s open the other thing and give it a shot”, they say. And they do. And hire people with the expertise in the areas they lack from the smaller clubs and put them in their dream roles, to hopefully keep these new concepts running smoothly. 

Where does this leave us? 

Well, it opens the floodgates for competition for sure. In the past, if you were an act, you only had one venue to fit your tier level of popularity every time you came to Boston. Now, you’re going to have several. It certsinly makes for a much greater level of giving a fuck about your venue and what you offer to the public. More music, more shows, greater competition. 

But at what cost?

Soon, Livenation and AEG will buy out all of these venues and ventures and every show you attend, whether it be for a huge artist like Elton John at the Garden, or your cousin, the rising producer from LA at Brighton Music Hall will be ticketed with one of these two companies. And that’s just how it’s going to be.

Where does this leave us?

If you want to go to one of those bigger shows, you’re going to have to play their game and do it that way. But in doing so, it leaves the floor open to open format DJs, and locally based “off night” and “off branded” events to do whatever the please, out of the grips of Live Nation and AEG. More people will want to escape those corporate constructs, and go back to dive bars and local stuff on the weekends. Owners will put more power back in the Djs hands. And hardwork will pay off.