A new website gives visitors everything they ever wanted to know about the future music venue on Colesville Road. Everything except the name above the marquee.
The Lee Development Group, which will build a venue at the former JC Penney site, dropped LiveMusicSS.com Monday morning. While the site doesn’t say who will run the show, it does give visitors an idea of how big the show might be.
According to the site, the place could hold 900 to 1,000 patrons sitting on their duffs, about the same as the AFI and the Majestic theaters. The joint is actually flexible enough to accommodate up to 2,000 for standing-room events, though the website’s author doesn’t expect gigs there to reach that capacity.
The site also says that gigs would probably drop at 8:00 p.m., and run no later than the last Red Line out of Silver Spring (around midnight during the week, 3:00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, according to Metro).
What the site doesn’t say is which venue operator will be turning the lights on and off at night. Live Nation, which runs the Ram’s Head in Baltimore and the House of Blues chain, has been discussed as the heir apparent to what would have been a Birchmere outlet.
That business debacle has left a bad taste in some residents’ mouths. Chris Richardson, a member of Silver Spring’s neighborhoods committee, wrote in an open letter that he was disappointed in the perceived lack of transparency in negotiations with the Birchmere.
“A committee composed of citizens, the Silver Spring citizens advisory board and the county executive’s economic development team should review the responses and choose a partner that best meets the economic needs and the revitalization goals of the community,” Richardson’s Sep 7, 2007, letter suggested.
Richardson, a Park Hills resident, added:
Many in our local community are very disappointed by the prospect of a national chain as an alternate choice of vendor, particularly one that offers a considerably different kind of live music experience.
Nowhere in the county’s discussion of alternate vendors, such as Live Nation, do I see county officials speaking to the issue of whether these venues are — like Ram’s Head, Blues Alley, and the Birchmere — ones that offer all customers the ability to sit down in relative comfort, enjoy food and drink, and expect that fellow patrons will not interrupt the live musical performance with needless chatter, flash photography, and other distracting behaviors.
Ultimately, will the county end up creating a music venue where – like at 9:30 Club and Black Cat – concertgoers have to stand the entire time, tolerate a certain amount of noise from the audience, and experience a much more impersonal level of service? Let us hope not.
Even if parties can’t agree on who should operate the venue, at least most will be happy with its eco-friendly green roof.
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Methinks Mr. Richardson may have not actually been to 9:30 or Black Cat. I’ll take him out and even get him a chair and some nachos. Still, he’s anti-LiveNation and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Anyone think the livemusicss.com site looks at least a little like http://www.birchmere.com/?
Thanks for your comments, Chaz.
Just curious: What’s your objection to Live Nation?
I hate to sound like a kid wearing an anarchy back patch on a jean jacket with cutoff sleeves, but THEY’RE #@$!*-ING CORPORATE, MAN! This is mostly hearsay, but Livenation requires acts who play one Livenation to play other Livenation venues if available. So if a touring act wants to play in Omaha, and the only venue available is a Livenation spot, and they also want to play DC, they have to play the Livenation venue in DC, too. if a local band gets booked to play the DC Livenation venue, they may be forbidden from playing other DC venues for awhile in order not to water down ticket sales.
Livenation is a big corporation (basically still Clearchannel, and we all know how great commercial radio is now that clearchannel owns everything… Livenation is a different organization in name only). They claim they’re just bringing in competition, but really they destroy competition by forceably booking on a national scale.
I know I sound paranoid, and no I don’t think there’s a huge conspiracy to destroy independent music, but I do think that Livenation is a bottom-line-first organization that does not mesh with what I value in entertainment. Their entire business model makes me squirm a little.
Truthfully, and I say this with a sigh, they might be a fine fit for Silver Spring. They’ll give the market what it will pay for. What a Livenation venue might do that I consider bad (hurt other venues such as the BC or 9:30, raise ticket prices generally, discourage a local music “scene,” etc.) probably won’t bother an occasional concertgoer or Silver Spring resident.
Pardon the rant. This doesn’t have to turn the comments into a Livenation back and forth, because no one really knows what’s going on at the site.
Editor’s note: Thanks for clarifying your position, Chaz! — JD (Sep 19, 2007)
While I agree with the overall sentiment that a single (or rather… 2) giant company controlling the vast majority of the media market is a bad idea – I think Mr. Richardson is looking for a place he can sit down and bob his head along to oldtime music :-) The demographic of downtown SS is quickly becoming young 20’s & 30’s couples that for the most part are very well served by a standing room venue and actually don’t WANT to sit down and bob their head when they go to a show. I’d be VERY happy to see something that’s re-configurable as either seating or standing depending upon the nature of the show.
Editor’s note: This comment has been edited for content. — JD (Sep 19, 2007)
Chris Richardson responds to Chaz and Paul Silver:
I go to 9:30 Club and Black Cat ALL the time – I even have the ticket stubs to prove it. I know these clubs very intimately and have nothing against them per se. But that’s not what’s really at issue. My biggest concern is that this project began life as a community-led initiative to situate the Birchmere opposite the AFI, but now the situation has essentially flipped from being bottom-up to being top-down. The lack of transparency and disregard for community input is what we should all be concerned about here. The public investment accounts for over 70% of the total funds (per the Gazette). For those of us who live in Silver Spring, this is our Main Street. If the county is going to use public money, then we all have a say in this project.
P.S.
I thought “ad hominem” attacks were discouraged on this blog. Paul Silver’s “joke” that “I think Mr. Richardson is looking for a place he can sit down and bob his head along to oldtime music” is insulting given that Mr. Richardson’s own music collection is huge, vast, and truly “catholic” in terms of diversity and breadth. Mr. Richardson actively seeks out the best of old and new music.
Editor’s note: Mr. Richardson’s comments have been edited for content. — JD (Sep 20, 2007)
The developer’s web site reports that the proposed seating capacity is comparable to that of AFI and the Majestic 20. For clarification, AFI has fewer seats (675 across three theaters) and the Majestic has quite a bit more (~4,500 across 20 theaters).
The suggestion that the effort to bring Birchmere to Silver Spring is not correct. The County invited Birchmere to take a look at Silver Spring over five years ago. They looked at several spaces before a decision was made to build a new building behind the JC Penney facade on Colesville. This would require public funds. There was some political resistance to putting up the funds. Word got around and a grassroots support group formed to support the request for public funds through Silver Spring Forward. There was no public process to bring Birchmere to Silver Spring.
Editor’s note: Gary Stith is director of the Silver Spring Regional Center. Thanks, Gary! — JD (Sep 20, 2007)
“I thought “ad hominem” attacks were discouraged on this blog. Paul Silver’s “joke” that “I think Mr. Richardson is looking for a place he can sit down and bob his head along to oldtime music” is insulting”
As I find Mr. Richardson’s take on standing room clubs as places “have to stand the entire time, tolerate a certain amount of noise from the audience, and experience a much more impersonal level of service” to be quite insulting to others tastes in music and atmosphere – particularly considering downtown’s evolving demographic. So perhaps I am not the only one who needs to restrain my comments regarding others’ personal tastes.
To add, I would find it as a description of the atmosphere that your letter describes, not an “ad hominem” attack. If are not interested in critiques of your public statements then I suggest you not make them. I simply make the point that a large majority of the music that the 20-30’s demographic that largely populates the central business district listens to is not well accomodated by a seated venue. And the county has already spent millions or our tax dollars on a seated venue – strathmore – which promotes plenty of the music that I listen to as well, and I should I want to indulge that side of my musical tastes I have little trouble hopping on bus to travel the handful of miles down the road. Should I wish to indulge my other musical tastes – those would be the rude ones that interrupt people by standing and dancing and other impersonal activities like that – I’ve love to be able to do that within the county as well.
Take a deep breath, Paul – not interested in continuing this flame war. This was my first posting on a blog and I thought comments were inspected before being posted. That whole postscript was intended as an aside for the moderator – that it got published was my “mistake.”
Lastly, I go to standing-room-only clubs all the time. I don’t consider myself “above” them. The overwhelming majority of live shows that I attend are in these kinds of venues. What would be nice in this discussion is if more people advocated for a venue whose artists appeal to the WIDEST cross-section of people in our diverse community. How about a venue that appeals to all ages, all backgrounds instead of some narrow demographic?
As Hunter S. Thompson said: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
Corporate sponsored music venues like Live Nation suck the heart and soul from music, all the while doping us into thinking our music proclivities are unique and say something extraordinary about our personalities. And they do: we’re consuming lemmings.
By the way, Live Nation only does bookings for Rams Head Live, it doesn’t “run”, operate or own them.
Sooo… sounds like there’s a good sense of the new company that is moving in to fill the spot where the Birchmere was supposed to go.
When are they disclosing the name or does anything already have that info to leak available?
Whirli B, and as the good doctor said, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”.
Editor’s note: Please stay on point. — JD (Sep 20, 2007)
Over the years DTSS had been sold on a Birchmere, and then just before delivery things got weird. Now, in a matter of weeks, we are getting something completely different. There will be people forced to defend their decisions, and only those that turn pro will survive. I for one can’t wait to read the responces once the new venue is announced.