After a tumultuous summer pitting one neighbor’s record collection against another neighbor’s iPod files, the county is ready to put the issue to bed. MoCo exec Ike Leggett officially announces the winner of Silver Spring’s new music venue today.
Unofficially, that winner is Live Nation.
According to The Washington Post, the concert producer was willing to meet the county’s terms of opening the venue to county- and community-sponsored events. Flexible programming would allow a wider audience to make use of the $8 million facility, Leggett said Monday.
The venue, to be called the Fillmore, will be modeled after the original San Francisco concert hall — crystal chandeliers, rock posters and all. The new venue will seat 500 dinner patrons, or 2,000 moshers with the tables and chairs cleared away, The Post reports.
As far as the 9:30 Club’s pitch for the venue, Leggett told The Post that the District nightclub’s interest came at the last minute. Club owner Seth Hurwitz said he held off, hoping the county and the Birchmere would resume negotiations.
“It’s probably what belongs there,” The Post quotes Hurwitz. “As a lifelong Montgomery County resident, and with 28 years of experience in the music business, I would have liked to be considered for this opportunity.”
A Live Nation venue in Silver Spring could do damage to the 9:30 Club’s business, The Post writes.
At least the Birchmere is getting on with its corporate life. The Alexandria, Va.-based venue announced Tuesday that it would be expanding to College Park.
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I don’t even own an IPOD! Or any records…. although I used to have some when it was cool for local punk bands to put out 7-inches… I dunno what happened to those. I’m stuck in limbo.. in the world of CDs.. modern yet archaic all at the same time.
Glad to hear a decision was made and work can begin instead of just arguing about it endlessly. Very glad to hear it will be a reconfigurable space and that they’re willing to work with the county… we should certainly get soemthing for our $8M. A little disturbed that it’s an expansion of the clear channel empire… I wish 9:30 had spoken up sooner, I would have rather seen my tax dollars go to a local entrepreneur, but like I said… better than arguing about it for another 5 years.
Bravo!
How do like us now, Birchmere???
Kudos to whoever got this deal done. Nice work.
Now, let’s hear some music!
Let’s get this party started right!
Seth Hurwitz really fell asleep at the wheel on this one. I really wish he had stepped up right after the Birchmere-MontCo collapse. Now that LiveNation is setting up shop in Silver Spring, this will put some business pressure on 9:30.
I am happy for Silver Spring but I am concerned that big corporate venues will feature big corporate-supported artists at the expense of local and low-budget independent musical talent.
I seriously doubt that I will ever spend one dime in the LiveNation place on Colesville even though it’s in my “backyard”. I will keep spending my money at the Black Cat and the 9:30 Club for as long as it takes. Supporting local businesses is a big deal.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this one. It just might work out. I would have preferred the Birchmere, but word has it that they’re moving into College Park, which is not too bad; certainly beats driving way out to Virginia.
I like the 9:30, but what can I say — at my age, very few bands I like play there. They tend to play at places like, suprise, the Birchmere. Anyway, twenty years from now the bands that play the 9:30 will play at places like the Birchmere. The beat goes on.
This is wonderful news for DTSS! While it would have been good for the 9:30 club to compete with LiveNation for the right to set up shop in DTSS, it is too late in the game for them to get involved. In addition, the concern that I had with the Birchmere setting up shop in DTSS would have been the same with the 9:30 club- that they are competing with themselves. It is better to bring in a new player in the area so that they can compete directly with the local competition. With the Birchmere and the 9:30 club, I worried that DTSS would get the second-rate acts and that the premier acts would be showcased at their primary venues.
I doubt Hurwitz is really interested in DTSS, he just didn’t want competition. A competitor is GREAT news for SS and bad news for 9:30.
The addition of this venue to Silver Spring will provide incredible incentive for local businesses to take a risk on Silver Spring, particularly those who were waiting to make sure the revitalization was real and sustainable.
IHY, how can you say you will never spend a dime at the Fillmore just because it is a national company? If your favorite band was playing there you would sit it out just to be a martyr?
Does this mean that you never buy a new CD, an MP-3 from I-tunes (or other music site? Do you only buy used CD’s from the (vanishing) independent used CD stores and then rip the file to your I-pod?
It’s usually mainstream, corporate-backed music that gets played at The Fillmore. Most indie rock bands will continue to visit the 9:30 Club. LiveNation might pick off a few talented rock artists from the 9:30 Club. But I think the 9:30 Club will be OK in the end.
btw…Many smaller record labels have permitted iTunes to sell music. There goes your argument.
Anyway, Silver Spring continues its trend as a boooooring suburb that caters to families with corporate, mainstream garbage and chain restaurants. Lots of middle-aged parents, teenagers and little kids roam the new Silver Spring. Hey, I know Montgomery County wants a PG rating with businesses in Silver Spring.
Did you ever notice 20-somethings pile on the Metro train to downtown DC from Silver Spring on Friday and Saturday evenings? That’s because if you are between the ages of 21 to 30, there’s not a fun place to visit in Silver Spring. Hell, I am 36 years old and I find the bar/club scene in Silver Spring as absolutely pitiful.
Get some more cool bars and clubs that have great live music. Maybe bring in a bowling alley and a huge billiard hall. We should have a restaurant that gets a waiver for patrons to smoke cigars. Hell, I wouldn’t oppose a sex shop or even a strip club in the southern end of Silver Spring. Something…anything that gives an R rating to Silver Spring for adults who want to have fun!
IHY, finally something to agree on…bring in the sex shop :)
Here here! to all of that! (Except the strip joint. The last thing we need are seedy losers, drunk frat boys, or suits blowing off steam in exchange for $500 lap dances. Keep that shite in Vegas).
Jennifer — A terrific opening line to this story: from one wordsmith to another, I salute you for it.
“After a tumultuous summer pitting one neighbor’s record collection against another neighbor’s iPod files, the county is ready to put the issue to bed.”
Its severaled irony and imagery ripple back and forth to a resolution akin to interference fringes… And on top of all that, it’s snarky and smart. And …. you can dance to it! Waytogo, writer gal!
To the rest of the class…
As to all this music heading our way: getting something like this downtown — corporate schmorporate bedanged!! — the Black Cat and 9:30 are still there and easy to get to!! — and the Birchmere’s obviously hybridizing their usual solution with the incredibly talented and hard-to-classify talents at UMd’s music programs so close at hand (and you should catch some of the student performances there, as well as many of the free ones by the pros … And then all the little venues already going on here in DTSS… Man, there’ll be something for everyone within a half-hour radius of all of this. Stop fussin!
Remember all that wasn’t here a few years ago!?!
Cheers to you for caring so much about live music!!
Wurzy
Eric Wurzbacher said:
Um, thanks. I think.
Y’all know how I feel. I’d move to Baltimore, but they have Livenation venues, too. Maybe Philly? Woops, Livenation. Well, NYC is where it’s at. Nope. Live-freakin-nation. It’s their livenation, folks, we’re just living in it.
It also really sticks in my craw that we’re basically paying Livenation to open this venue. I know it’s the way things work (see tax breaks for businesses, DC paying for Nats stadium, etc.), but it’s still kind of sickening. And in this case, I don’t think it was necessary.
Jennifer, thanks for the coverage of the issue. This blog and Sligo’s blog are the first places I go for unvarnished SS news.