New Jersey's Maxwell's, the famous rock club and restaurant in Hoboken will close its doors at the end of July. The club had been famous a rock scene venue for years but Co-owner Todd Abramson said to The Star-Ledger from Newark that changes in Hoboken had made it hard to run.
"We were offered a renewal with rates that weren't necessarily onerous," said Abramson according to Rolling Stone. Abramson started booking the club in 1986 and became co owners with Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth and Dave Post from Swingadelic. "But after much thought, given the changing nature of Hoboken and the difficulties of trying to run a business in this town, we decided it was time."
The New York Daily News reported that recently Hoboken has been an area where luxury apartment buildings are sprouting up and newscomers to the area seem to prefer sports bars over the rock scene with live bands. Now, Abramson books for The Bell House in Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood and said he'd shift his focus to that.
"The artists and musicians got priced out a ways back," he said of Hoboken to The New York Daily News. "We don't really have many Hoboken bands anymore."'
He added that the new hot spots are in Brooklyn and Jersey City. Maxwell's will have its last show on July 31.
Maxwell's was number three on Rolling Stone's list of best rock clubs in America and was opened in 1978.
"The culture in Hoboken is driven by TV now," said Abramson to Rolling Stone. "A lot of the bars downtown are fighting with each other for who has the most giant TVs. That's what Hoboken nightlife has become."
"During 35 years, interrupted now and then by gambits including briefly transforming into a brew pub, Maxwell's hosted countless bands. The club helped to incubate key players in the Eighties indie-rock underground, including the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth and the Minutemen; and played a role in shepherding the alt-rock explosion of the Nineties by providing gigs for Nirvana,Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and many more. Bruce Springsteen filmed part of the video for "Glory Days" there, and Yo La Tengo began playing an annual series of Hanukkah shows at Maxwell's in 2001," reported Rolling Stone.
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