I am the last one to know anything.
The Bottom Line has closed. The Bottom Line, one of the best music clubs in the city – a truly beloved place – by musicians and audiences alike – has closed its doors.
This is terrible. It was a home, to many musicians – a place where they could come, where “everybody knows your name”.
I’ve seen a ton of shows there. Tuck & Patti, Cliff Eberhardt (multiple times), Christine Lavin … and many many more. It is a special place, a community – in a business where community means NOTHING – The Bottom Line really MEANT something to people! It’s more than just a club. It’s a symbol, a metaphor – something to believe in. Musicians have gotten their start there. Through the ups and downs of a normal music career, certain favorites could always come and play there, regardless of what the music critics were carping about on that day.
I’m SAD, dammit!!
Bruce Springsteen apparently offered a ton of money to bail the club out (bless him) – The survival of such clubs is essential. But apparently the situation was too far gone.
Thanks for the memories, Bottom Line.
New York City is a little less brighter now.
Yucca –
That breaks my heart.
Paula
That is sad.
As a nation, we’re far too cavalier about preserving and protecting our heritage. Doesn’t surprise me that Bruce would attempt to help out…
MikeR –
Well, we don’t want to paint it with TOO broad a brush now!! Two blocks away, the Washington Square Park monument has been under renovation for a couple of years now … to preserve it, to clean it up, to make sure it lasts.
There’s plenty of our heritage we do protect – but it is too often these small artistic venues which cannot compete, or somehow cannot survive – as precious as they are to so many.
The owners of the Bottom Line are the ones to blame. They messed up with their money, essentially, and then big musicians like Springsteen tried to bail them out – but it was too late.
There was a “Save the Bottom Line” campaign going on – fundraisers held, blah blah – but the financial pit was too deep.
The owners of the Bottom Line should blame themselves. I will definitely feel the loss of that club, in this city.
Paula –
The second I posted it, I knew I would hear from you.
Love,
Yucca
Red –
I was thinking more of situations I’ve encountered here in my own hometown. Several of our historic landmarks have fallen to the wrecking ball over the years and numerous others have been threatened. There has recently been an effort by our illustrious city fathers to demolish State Fair Speedway, which is of course a subject very dear to my heart. Our now thriving Bricktown area (former warehouse district) would have been torn down decades ago, except nobody even thought it worth the trouble. Miraculously it survived, and eventually helped to lead the resurrection of our long-abandoned downtown area.
Red –
I was thinking more of situations I’ve encountered here in my own hometown. Several of our historic landmarks have fallen to the wrecking ball over the years and numerous others have been threatened. There has recently been an effort by our illustrious city fathers to demolish State Fair Speedway, which is of course a subject very dear to my heart. Our now thriving Bricktown area (former warehouse district) would have been torn down decades ago, except nobody even thought it worth the trouble. Miraculously it survived, and eventually helped to lead the resurrection of our long-abandoned downtown area.
Damn – my comments are all weird and messed up again …
Sorry, people. Working to fix it.
Well that sucks, but how incompetent did they have to be to get so deep in the hole that The Boss couldn’t bail them out?
I mean come on. That’s like Trump being unable to pay off your credit card bills. You’ve gotta take screwing up to a whole new level.
The title of the post made me think you would be discussing the president’s budget proposal.
There is no appreciation for the small intimate places anymore. Many of the great music clubs in the city have been shuttered thanks in large part to greedy developers and the yuppification of the dark little neighborhoods where these places thrived. The Wetlands is gone thanks to every freakin’ body wanting to live in TriBeCa. Tramps is gone thanks to the Flatiron District being deemed the “it” neighborhood 5 years ago. And now the Bottom Line is gone because NYU doesn’t already own enough property in the city as it is. Thanks to the the Palladium was placed under the wrecking ball only to be replaced with some godawful dormitories that cost more to live in than the average NYC apt.
I pray for S.O.B.s, Irving Plaza, Bowery Ballroom, Mercury Lounge, The Beacon Theater, and the remaining small venues where you go simply to hear the music and dance a little, NOT to see a Vegas style lights and floor show from the nose bleed section, while the main act lipsynches to all of her tracks.
As for the arch in Washington Square Park, to me it’s a meaningless piece of architecture. The memories people have formed after seeing kick ass bands at The Bottom Line pales in comparison. Preserving these small musical institutions that every bad has gone through is more meaningful to me.
Fee –
About the monument: I really was just commenting on the former commenter – who said we have no interest in preserving our heritage. To me, that was too broad a statement.
But I completely agree with what you say – and it is a tragedy. These old venues are what makes New York special – people really have relationships with these places – It sucks.
By the way – I love that you just commented all over the place on my little home-away-from-home!!
One of my closest friends, an ex-New Yorker now in West Virginia, let me know about the Bottom Line. Even I knew about the place, though I’d never been there.
Sometimes, I swear the people who run places like this wear their lack of business acumen like a badge of honor. Here in Cleveland, there was an excellent venue near Case Western Reserve University called the Euclid Tavern (best known outside of town for its use in the movie Light of Day). It did excellent business for years with a really eclectic mix of live music genres…and abruptly closed a couple of years back because the owner was behind on his taxes.
I consider it a symptom of the same disease that made punk rock fans (back in the mid-’80s when I was more immersed in the scene) yell “Sellout” anytime somebody actually sold a record or two.
“There is no appreciation for the small intimate places anymore. Many of the great music clubs in the city have been shuttered thanks in large part to greedy developers and the yuppification of the dark little neighborhoods where these places thrived.”
It’s not just in New York, I assure you. It’s happening everywhere. And it’s not just small intimate places either; live music looks to me to be dying for real at last. Live rock and roll certainly is, no doubt about it. I’d like nothing better than for that to turn out to be an exaggeration, but I simply can’t find much evidence these days to contradict it.
I played the Bottom Line myself a few years back, and it was great. Very nice people running the place; everyone treated our piddly little support-act selves like gold.