Hoboken's Maxwell's to close in July; owner considering new venue in Jersey City

[CeeDub]

Vanna, I'd like to buy a vowel an oxford comma.

I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it here the place should be named "On The Strollerfront."

[devb]

http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2014/10/maxwells_tavern_bringing_live.html

"We opened as a family friendly Italian restaurant and realized immediately that it wasn't going to work as soon as we opened the doors," Carr explained.

At least they sound like they know what they're doing. 

[stephen]

10.26.14
Maxwell’s’ New Owners : Co-Opting History (While Simultaneously Shitting All Over It)
http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/maxwells-new-owners-the-santitization-of-a-once-beloved-venue

Hoboken, NJ’s Maxwell’s was eulogized in this space last year (“The Place That Ran Contrary To (Almost) Every Negative Rock Club Stereotype : A Fond Farewell To Maxwell’s”) thusly : “even before CBGB’s booking turned into an orgy of indifference, Maxwell’s took a curatorial approach to the old & new in a manner that respected the intelligence of the audience & performers alike. In stark contrast to barns like City Gardens or The Ritz, Maxwell’s felt like a place that was owned & staffed by persons who thought the players and paying customers were friends and peers. As opposed to, y’know, targets & tools in the all-important struggle to sell more beer.” Of course, times change, neighborhoods get pricey, and a new generation of monied types have their own ideas of what does or doesn’t constitute quality entertainment. Enter the co-owner of the new Maxwell’s, Peter Carr, whom the Hudson Reporter’s Carlo Davis credits with turning what used to be a tremendous performance space for 30 decades + of pioneering bands of local and international import into a home for “trivia, stand-up comedy and fantasy football.” For better or (mostly) worse, Carr’s decided to reintroduce live music to the mix (a random assortment of “American Idol” runner ups, cover bands and would-be Blues Hammers), though he hilariously claims, “we’re trying to get back to some of the roots of Maxwell’s”. I wonder what he thinks those roots are?

In the old days when Maxwell’s was at its height,” said Carr, “it was primarily punk rock and grunge, and that was kind of back in the day when the artists could afford to live in Hoboken. Some of that’s changed and the demographics are a lot different than they used to be so we’re trying to cater to the demographics that we see in the town.”

“It’s not an old broken down stage with PA systems and your feet sticking to the floor because the floor hasn’t been washed in two weeks,” said Carr. “The old place was a dive.”

In seeking a new upscale concept, Carr holds little nostalgia for the Maxwell’s that was. “The place has been completely redone,” said Carr. “It’s nice, it’s clean, it’s open, the food’s good, so it’s a whole different type of atmosphere than the old Maxwell’s, where you would have the people…come in and have a hamburger and drink and spill stuff all over the floor and go into the back room and jump up and down and get their ears blasted out. This is a lot higher quality.”

Alright, this (dopey) entrepreneur is more than entitled to try and make a buck however he sees fit, but any characterization of the old Maxwell’s as either a) a punk/grunge HQ or b) biohazard-central is pretty off, especially the “dive” comments. By the standards of real dives, Maxwell’s was one of the cleaner, best maintained, more hospitable live music venues in the entire country. It’s mostly the booking that made it special, but the room itself was great (the P.A., especially). Was it a “punk” club, you ask?.Only the hardest of the hardcore. I nearly sprained my ankle trying to stage dive at a Richard Thompson show ( because the entire audience was sitting quietly on the floor and I kept tripping on people).

The irony is that Carr is dissing a place that by most rock’n'roll standards (at least those for clubs too small to have VIP viewing decks) was pretty upscale (yet very welcoming to all who played or attended). It’s very likely there’s been enough turnover in Hoboken that there’s few persons remaining who’d be offended at Carr trashing a local institution that generated so much goodwill (and curiously, a brand name he still wants to milk). But it’s not great P.R., and the Hudson Reporter’s willingness to let Carr’s claims run unchallenged isn’t great journalism, either.

[MÇA]

Bringing Maxwell’s back to live
Iconic music venue reopened and reimagined under new owners
by Carlo Davis
Reporter staff writer
Oct 26, 2014


After an almost 15 month lapse, live music returned to Maxwell’s Tavern this past Friday with the debut performance of singer-songwriter Elise Testone in Hoboken. After reopening the iconic bar and music venue at Eleventh and Washington Streets as a family friendly Italian restaurant in July, new owners Peter Carr, Evan Dean, and Rick Sorkin have gradually moved Maxwell’s closer to a classic bar and grill concept, expanding to a tavern menu and hosting nights for trivia, stand-up comedy and fantasy football. Finally, in reaction to a community survey that demanded two things—beer and rock ‘n’ roll—the owners made the decision to renovate and revive Maxwell’s back room stage.

But in returning to live music, Carr and his compatriots have no intention of resurrecting the punk rock iconoclasm of the 1970s and ‘80s that made Maxwell’s famous. Hoboken, they say, has changed, and Maxwell’s must reflect the city as it is, not as it was.

“In the old days when Maxwell’s was at its height,” said Carr, “it was primarily punk rock and grunge, and that was kind of back in the day when the artists could afford to live in Hoboken. Some of that’s changed and the demographics are a lot different than they used to be so we’re trying to cater to the demographics that we see in the town.”

Maxwell’s has retained its iconic name, but like the former Maxwell House coffee plant it alludes to, the current establishment shows no signs of returning to a past that is no longer viable in today’s Hoboken.

Going upscale
In the back room, the black sheet rock that covered the walls and ceiling has been torn out and replaced with bright paint. A service bar carries six taps of craft beer, and the owners have dreams of hosting sit down dinners serenaded by jazz artists. Before Testone went on this past Friday, the room was being used as a gallery for paintings by local artists.

“It’s not an old broken down stage with PA systems and your feet sticking to the floor because the floor hasn’t been washed in two weeks,” said Carr. “The old place was a dive.”

The updated tavern menu features crab cake sliders and French cut pork chops, but remains centered around a selection of thin crust pizza with fresh ingredients. The kitchen, which was also completely renovated, is run by Jay Donnelly, previously the General Manager at a high-end private country club according to Carr.

Maxwell’s also offers 21 taps of beer, including Brooklyn Lager and Flying Fish Hopfish IPA from Somerdale, N.J. “We probably have as good a variety if not better than most of the bars in Hoboken,” said Carr.

In seeking a new upscale concept, Carr holds little nostalgia for the Maxwell’s that was. “The place has been completely redone,” said Carr. “It’s nice, it’s clean, it’s open, the food’s good, so it’s a whole different type of atmosphere than the old Maxwell’s, where you would have the people…come in and have a hamburger and drink and spill stuff all over the floor and go into the back room and jump up and down and get their ears blasted out. This is a lot higher quality.”

Read more

[MÇA]

Maxwell's in Hoboken will open again for dining, drinking - but no live music
By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal
on September 04, 2013 at 3:00 AM, updated September 04, 2013 at 3:04 AM

HOBOKEN — Less than six weeks after Maxwell’s, Hoboken’s iconic indie rock club at Washington Avenue and 11th Street, went out of business, it is reopening — but without the music.

Co-owner Dave Post said yesterday the restaurant and bar could reopen as soon as this weekend, and will remain open under current ownership until the lease and liquor license is sold to a new owner.

In the meantime, Maxwell’s is on the market, with the owners offering a 10-year lease with an additional five-year lease option deal for $625,000, said Richard Gaeta, the broker for the NJR Group, which is listing the property.

The $15,000 a month asking price includes the 3,400-square-foot restaurant’s liquor license and an option to keep the furnishings, fittings and equipment. The real estate listing calls Maxwell’s “one of the most recognized bar/restaurants in New Jersey with its iconic corner location.”

Gaeta said publicity about the rock club’s closure has generated a “tremendous amount of interest.”

“There is always a boat load of interest any time there is a liquor license,” Gaeta added. “As far as goodwill and notoriety, the only other place in Hoboken with so much interest was the Clam Broth House.”

Maxwell’s final night, July 31, was marked by a block party and a reunion concert that featured the Bongos, the Individuals and “a,” the band that opened the club. Last Wednesday night the doors swung open one more time when pop star Justin Timberlake performed one song for a Target commercial.

Anyone interested in working at the restaurant can email maxwellshoboken@gmail.com.

[Bobblehead]

Wow. NYTimes article was actually pretty good, resonant.

Bloomberg article sucked.

[MÇA]

NY Times:


Good to the Last Rocking Drop
A Farewell Party for Maxwell’s in Hoboken
By ALLAN KOZINN
Published: August 1, 2013

HOBOKEN, N.J. — “THIS room was a bit more to us than a performance room,” Richard Barone of the Bongos said about halfway through the group’s set at Maxwell’s here on Wednesday evening. “It was also our practice space. And it still feels like a practice space.”

The Bongos’ set was the final performance of the final evening at Maxwell’s, a storied rock club that by the late 1980s had become the home of a certain brand of jangly, Britpop-inspired, postpunk indie rock. So after a few more songs that offered an overview of this quintessential 1980s band’s history — including songs from “Phantom Train,” an album the Bongos recorded in 1985 but left unreleased (it is due out in October) — Mr. Barone and company rang down the curtain with a few pre-Bongos, pre-Maxwell’s, garage-band classics in a half-hour encore set.

For those, the band was joined at various points by other Maxwell’s royalty, including Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo and Glenn Mercer, the Feelies‘ guitarist, as well as a former owner, Steve Fallon, who transformed the bar into a rock showcase (and who played tambourine here), and a current owner, Todd Abramson (who sang backing vocals). The valedictory oldies set began with stinging versions of Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman,” the Velvet Underground’s “Rock & Roll” and Paul Revere and the Raiders’ “Kicks” and ended, at half-past midnight, with Big Star’s gentler “Thank You Friends.”

The Big Star song was as close as the closing-day festivities came to veering toward mawkishness. Even so, the group gave it a dry-eyed reading that suited the spirit of a day that began with a block party outside Maxwell’s, eight and a half hours earlier, and also included sets by three other bands in the club’s small back room.

“I think Todd said it best,” the Bongos guitarist James Mastro said during the block party, referring to Mr. Abramson. “It’s like a Mardi Gras funeral. It’s sad, but it’s also a celebration. The Bongos must have played a couple of hundred shows here, more than any place we’ve ever played.”

Gaylord Fields, a disc jockey for WFMU-FM, who was spinning discs at the block party, evoked the funeral-celebration dichotomy as well.

“It’s like any departure,” Mr. Fields said. “You don’t feel it until afterwards. I don’t miss Maxwell’s now. I’ll miss it a month from now.”

In a way, closing night offered a glimpse of the ghosts of Maxwell’s past. The Bongos, after all, had gone their separate ways in the late 1980s and reconvened for the show. So did the band “a,” which shared the late show with the Bongos. The first rock band ever to perform at the bar, “a” is actually Bongos prehistory. Led by Glenn Morrow, a guitarist, singer and songwriter who now runs Bar/None Records, the group also includes Mr. Barone, the bassist Rob Norris and the drummer Frank Giannini — the original Bongos lineup after Mr. Morrow left the band. (Mr. Mastro joined later.)

The Individuals — Mr. Morrow’s post-”a” band — headlined the early show, with guest appearances by Mr. Kaplan, Ms. Hubley, Sean Eden of Luna, and Dave Weckerman of the Feelies, among others. (The highlight of its set was a stomping cover of the Chambers Brothers’ “Time Has Come Today,” with Mr. Weckerman leading a small army of cowbell players.) And as a nod to the club’s reputation for latching on early to young, promising New Jersey bands, the Individuals shared the early show with Delicate Steve, an eclectic group that had never played Maxwell’s before.

The block party, for which 11th Street, outside the bar, was closed, started modestly, with several dozen people — many wearing or carrying Maxwell’s T-shirts, which were for sale there, and others in shirts commemorating bands that performed there (Mr. Abramson himself sported a black Yo La Tengo shirt) — milled around with cups of draft beer from a concession stand. By 8:30, between the two sets inside, the place was hopping. You could barely move through the section of the club that had been the restaurant, and the street was packed as well.

Perhaps because people had grown used to the news that Maxwell’s was closing — Mr. Abramson announced it in June — there were few glum faces in the crowd. Some had come simply to pay their respects.

“It does mean something to us,” said Bob Bevan of Jersey City, who came to the block party with a friend, Tom Hartley, of Maplewood, N.J. “It really was a premium venue in Hoboken, and there are not too many clubs left. We came by because we wanted to say goodbye.”

Some were more overtly nostalgic. Avi Ohring, who lives in Hoboken and runs Mangia Hoboken! — The Hoboken Food Tour (his day job is credit card processing), brought a plastic folder with tickets for some of the Maxwell’s shows he had attended, including ones with Jonathan Richman, Bob Mould, the Blasters, the Feelies and the avant-garde performance artist Karen Finley.

“I’ve seen more than 100 shows here,” Mr. Ohring said. “I saw the Feelies every year. I saw — what was the name of the Beatles’ original drummer? Yeah, Pete Best, he played here. I saw Richard Thompson several times. And Maureen Tucker, the drummer from the Velvet Underground. I had a habit of, two or three times a week, checking to see what the upcoming shows at Maxwell’s were.”

Maxwell’s has offered a stylistically broad menu over the years, though its openness to indie rockers has brought it the most attention. Its history is fascinatingly tangled: When Mr. Fallon, along with his brother and sister, bought the bar in 1978, it catered mainly to Maxwell House workers (the plant closed in 1992) and was open only during shift changes. At the time, young musicians were flocking to Hoboken, a comfortable, mile-square city, for its reasonable rents and proximity to New York. And when Mr. Fallon began booking bands, word spread quickly among musicians that Maxwell’s was open to new talent.

By the mid-1980s, the club had hit its stride, with the Bongos, the Feelies, Soundgarden, the Replacements, the dB’s and the Fleshtones drawing both local and New York audiences.

Mr. Abramson began attending shows at the start, when he was under-age (he is now 51), and began helping with the bookings in the mid-1980s. When Mr. Fallon sold the club in 1995 to a businessman intent on turning it into a microbrewery, it continued to present shows, but had lost direction. Three years later, Mr. Abramson, along with two musicians, Dave Post and Steve Shelley, bought Maxwell’s and quickly restored the hipness quotient that had dropped during its microbrewery period.

Though Mr. Abramson’s decision to close Maxwell’s sent a shock through the rock world, many people saw it coming. Hoboken has gentrified, with luxury condos replacing some of its industrial buildings, as well as some of its quaint ones. These days, instead of young musicians and their followers, you are more likely to see young families pushing strollers — several were on hand at the block party — and interest in a club like Maxwell’s has given way to sports bars.

“Yeah, gentrification has something to do with it,” Mr. Abramson said. “But there are other things. I’ve been talking for a while about how there aren’t any Hoboken bands anymore, but the truth is, there aren’t an incredible number of Manhattan bands now either. Most bands are in Brooklyn now, and they could play here. But it’s a lot harder to get your audience to cross two rivers than one.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Abramson — who is also booking shows at the Bell House in Brooklyn — is hoping to open another New Jersey club. At the moment he has his eye on Jersey City.

As for Maxwell’s, some of the revelers on 11th Street put its final night in perspective, noting that it was just a rock club closing, as rock clubs eventually do. And there is no telling how its memory might live on. More than one person said that the club was Hoboken’s answer to CBGB, except that Maxwell’s had bathrooms in working order.

That could be significant. After all, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current “Punk: Chaos to Couture” — an exploration of the late 1970s punk scene — includes a re-creation of the CBGB men’s room. Perhaps in 35 years, Maxwell’s and indie rock will make it to the Met as well.

[Soshin]

^^^^^ Only one thing left to do about this article above ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THE MOST POWERFUL NUCLEAR BOMB IN HISTORY.

[MÇA]

Hoboken Moms Replace Maxwell’s Rock Fans in Housing Boom
By Elizabeth Dexheimer - Jul 25, 2013 3:35 PM ET

Jack Mello first came to Maxwell’s in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the early 1980s to see a then-little-known band called R.E.M. He since has attended hundreds of shows at the club, most recently to watch the Feelies perform their July 4th farewell concerts before the venue closes next week.

“This is the sort of place where bands play that are up and coming as well as those that are well-known,” Mello, 53, said as he stopped for a drink at the club, located across the street from the fifth-floor walk-up apartment where he has lived since 1987. “I’m just glad it’s lasted this long.”

The demise of Maxwell’s, a 35-year-old rock institution where Kurt Cobain once performed and Bruce Springsteen filmed his “Glory Days” music video, highlights demographic and cultural shifts in Hoboken as young families and wealthy couples increasingly join the artists, post-college singles and Wall Street commuters that have transformed the mile-square city from its industrial roots. Home prices are surging as buyers seek a more affordable option than New York City, just across the Hudson River, while independent businesses are giving way to chain stores.

The median sale price of all co-ops, condominiums and single-family homes in Hoboken -- the birthplace of Frank Sinatra -- jumped almost 11 percent in the year through June to $516,000, according to data compiled by Jeffrey Otteau, a real estate appraiser and president of Otteau Valuation Group Inc. in East Brunswick, New Jersey. That surpassed the $510,000 median in June 2006, near the peak of the U.S. housing market. The average household size rose to 1.95 this year from 1.89 in 2005, Otteau said.

Pushing Strollers
“Driving down the streets in Hoboken five or 10 years ago, what you saw was young singles and couples, now you see mothers and fathers pushing strollers,” Otteau said. “Households with children are now opting to stay in places like Hoboken which, in turn, is putting pressure on demand for larger-sized apartments.”

Demand for three-bedroom units is especially high, with frequent bidding wars, according to Lori Turoff, a Realtor in Hoboken since 2004. Home purchases rose to 140 in the first quarter from 137 the prior year as the number of active listings fell 45 percent.

Units were on the market for an average of 50 days in the first three months of the year, compared with 77 days at the same time in 2012, according to data compiled by Turoff earlier this month. That was the fewest for a first quarter in data going back to 2000. The average listing discount, or the difference between the asking and final sale price, fell to 1.12 percent, the lowest for the period since 2004, she said.

‘True Demand’
“It isn’t a bubble, this is true demand,” said Turoff, who works for Coldwell Banker. “Hoboken is a wonderful community to raise a family, and young people are willing to pay for it. It’s still a great deal compared to New York City.”

First-time homebuyers Stewart Mader and Amy Sommer, who have a 5-month-old daughter, made an offer on a two-bedroom home with a back yard on Willow Avenue the day it came on the market. After a nine-month search and losing several bidding wars in Brooklyn, they started looking in Hoboken and eventually bought their home for $590,000, paying $40,000 more than the asking price to ensure they secured the unit.

They moved in earlier this month.

“We knew we had to move quickly,” said Mader, 32, director of social media and online tools at CFA Institute, who commutes every day to Manhattan. “And we liked Hoboken. It feels very similar to the West Village or the Lower East Side. As we spent time here, we really liked the vibe.”

Manhattan Prices
The median price of co-ops and condos sold in Manhattan in the second quarter was $865,000, up 4.3 percent from a year earlier, appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in a July 2 report. In the Brooklyn borough, the median home price jumped 15 percent to a record $550,000.

Hoboken’s population is expected to rise to more than 52,000 this year from 50,005 in 2010 and 38,577 in 2000, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The population is expected to grow an additional six percent in the next five years, the data show. Eighty-nine percent of the city’s residents over age 16 work at a white-collar job, the majority of which are in finance, sales or management, Otteau said. The average household income this year is estimated to be $147,363, data compiled by Otteau show.

Toll Brothers
Demand for high-end apartments is rising. Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL), the largest U.S. luxury-home builder, has condo communities along the waterfront and Frank Sinatra Drive. At its newest complex, 1100 Maxwell Place, 40 percent of the 210 units that started going on the market in February for a 2014 move-in date have been sold, said Henry Waller, vice president of the Horsham, Pennsylvania-based company’s City Living office in Hoboken.

The company raised the price at 1100 Maxwell Place by $140,000 on average since sales started, Chief Executive Officer Douglas Yearley said on a May conference call. A two-bedroom condo at the building ranges from the high $800,000s to more than $1.3 million.

Rising mortgage rates may slow the pace of Hoboken’s real estate market, according to Otteau. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.31 percent for the week ended today. Rates climbed to a two-year high of 4.51 percent earlier this month after reaching a near-record low of 3.35 percent in May.

“It will price people out of the market,” Otteau said. “House prices are going to rise and will be quite strong for the next year or two and then we are going to get a pause, because of the double whammy of house prices and higher mortgage rates in an economy where salary increases are still very modest.”

Leaving Schools
The city’s family-oriented residents may also move once their children are older. Hoboken is home to the country’s “least attractive” school district, according to a report last year by Trulia Inc. (TRLA), an online property-listings service. It has the lowest ratio of elementary-school-age kids to preschool-aged children, based on the largest 100 metropolitan areas with at least 1,000 children under the age of 9, the company’s data show. Trulia ranked each district using 2010 U.S. Census data as well as ratings on GreatSchools.com.

The area was hit hard by October’s Superstorm Sandy, which flooded more than 1,700 homes and caused more than $100 million in damage to the city’s residences and businesses, Mayor Dawn Zimmer said in a December testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Some homebuyers have been deterred from considering units on the ground and first floors as a result, Turoff said.

BabyGap, Anthropologie
On Washington Street, where the majority of city’s shops and restaurants are located, chain retailers are betting on demand from Hoboken’s newest residents. Gap Inc., the largest U.S. specialty apparel retailer, opened a babyGap earlier this year, while Urban Outfitters Inc. (URBN)’s Anthropologie clothing and housewares store opens tomorrow.

Sarah Himmelbaum, 31, moved to Hoboken three years ago from Brooklyn and lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her husband, a lawyer who commutes to Manhattan, and their 2-year-old son. She organizes networking events for local families as part of her blog, Hoboken Mommies 24/7, and said she hopes the city will attract more national brands and retailers catering to moms.

“In a lot of ways, this is a mini-Manhattan,” said Himmelbaum, who said that like many other mothers she knows, she moved to Hoboken as a compromise between Manhattan and New York-area suburbs. “We’re moving away from mom-and-pop stores. Now we have a mix of small stores and national brands but there is room for others,” she said, citing high-end designer Tory Burch as a desired boutique.

New Crowd
As Hoboken moms like Himmelbaum seek more specialty retail stores and the dozens of sports bars like Village Pourhouse and the Shannon draw young professionals and commuters, an alternative-rock club like Maxwell’s doesn’t fit in on Washington Street like it once did, according to Todd Abramson, part owner of the restaurant and club.

“A lot of my crowd has moved out of town and the people who have replaced them are not that interested in coming to Maxwell’s,” said Abramson, who added that rising costs and challenges related to parking also contributed to the closing. “If we made the restaurant fancier, for lack of a better word, perhaps that would have more appeal to some of the newer local residents, but it would work against the vibe of the place and a lot of the people who come to see the shows. We don’t want to do that.”

Artists and musicians who frequent Maxwell’s are now moving to nearby areas such as Jersey City, where Abramson said he is considering opening another music club sometime in the next year.

Unaffordable Living
Kevin and Lauren O’Brien, both 38, were priced out of Hoboken more than four years ago. They moved north to Weehawken to have more space for their daughter, who is now 6, after witnessing the city change and become more expensive.

“We would have stayed but the makeup of the city is so different and it’s pretty unaffordable these days to live here,” said Lauren O’Brien, who celebrated her wedding reception with Kevin at Maxwell’s as well as a good part of her late 20s at the club. “This being the last cultural hold-out, it’s kind of a bummer they’re closing.”

Mello said he’s seen 300 to 500 shows at Maxwell’s and his last will be Lee Ranaldo and the Dust, featuring Sonic Youth’s guitarist and drummer, on July 30, the night before the club’s final show. He’s not surprised that Maxwell’s is closing.

“It was great, it was rowdy, loud and a lot of fun,” Mello said, recalling how only about 25 people came to see Cobain’s Nirvana play in 1989. “This shows it’s definitely a time of change in Hoboken.”

[MÇA]

Hoboken music club Maxwell's will have block party July 31 before closing doors
By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal
on July 12, 2013 at 3:00 AM

The bar that served Maxwell coffee workers and then became a legendary venue for alternative bands will be hosting a block party to bid farewell to Hoboken at the end of month.

Maxwell’s, located at 1039 Washington St., will be holding a block party the evening of Wednesday, July 31, on 11th Street between Washington Street and Hudson Place, according to its owners.

Co-owner Todd Abramson said the music will likely be provided by various dee-jays. The music club opened in 1978 and is set to close at the end of the month.

Rock fans have been snapping up tickets to get their last fix of Maxwell’s before the club closes for good. The last seven shows are sold out.

Locals who remember Hoboken as an enclave for artists and musicians are meanwhile lamenting the loss of the landmark.

Lifelong Hoboken resident Lenny Delia, 58, a bartender at Helmers’ Restaurant on Washington Street, remembers the days Maxwell’s brewed its own beer, and coffee workers would stop in for a beer and chaser shot after work.

The Maxwell Coffee plant closed in 1992 and the city lost 600 jobs.

Delia, who describes himself as a classic born-and-raised Hobokenite, recalled hanging out at the “avant-garde venue” with Michael Stipe of REM, and watching Bruce Springsteen film his “Glory Days” video at the club.

“After all these years as a resident and a neighbor, it is very sad to see them go,” Delia said. “It was a nice little joint that hosted so many great alternative bands in the little back room ... We got to see some really good bands playing, some really great music.”

Christina Pepe, another bartender at Helmers’, counts Maxwell’s alumni Karen Kuhl and James Mastro of the Bongos among her friends.

She said the club’s closure at the end of the month is a sign of the city’s gentrification and the influx of “spoiled young kids.”

“Hoboken is going to change and has changed and never will be the same. It was a landmark,” Pepe said. “Maxwell’s closing is the last nail in the coffin in Hoboken for art and music and anything creative and unique ... It was a really special place and it is sad.”

[raspberrie]

YES!

This place would be perfect.

[CeeDub]

The New York Times' weighs in.

You'll find better (more personal) pieces on Eater and even in the Jersey

The rumor of the town's art/music scenes' demise is greatly exagerated - last night I caught a great set by Swingadelic at the Pilsener Haus, and the DJ at DC's was spinning all kinds of awesomeness. Both venues off the (frat boy) beaten path of Washington Street - and very accessible to the Heights.

[Bobblehead]

It would indeed. I've always wanted to go inside that building.

[MÇA]

This place would be perfect.

[Bobblehead]

Uh oh.

This is one of several major changes affecting the Garden State’s rock scene. The Maxwell’s news comes amid reports of behind-the-scenes turmoil at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair; the Wellmont has no shows booked beyond June 20.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2013/06/maxwells_to_close_at_the_end_o.html

Now, the Wellmont seriously has a parking problem. Last time we were there for a show, we had to pay $20 to park in a private lot.

[Bobblehead]

So sad. Such a nice, personal venue. Saw lots of great bands there. Met the future Mrs. Bobblehead there way back when. Though I have to agree that the Hoboken of Maxwell's founding is dead and gone.

The parking thing is mixed. Maxwell's could secure a parking spot for band vans, if they wanted to. Folks can travel by public transportation (PATH) if they really wanted to.

What we need is a regular venue that is close to a transportation hub. Something within walking distance of Grove St. PATH would be ideal.

[Bad Circles]

I read this last night before heading to a show there and it felt like a punch in the gut.  Even the bands that performed seemed a little shellshocked.  I still can't believe it's going to be gone.

[MÇA]

There's lots of parking in DUNJTO¹.








--
1. Down Under the New Jersey Turnpike Overpass

[Kindelan]

Maybe they're looking for a payout! God bless them, it's the American Way!

[MÇA]

While it's sad that they're closing, let's note that they're not being forced to close by any means. From the original Star Ledger article:

"We were offered a renewal with rates that weren't necessarily onerous," says Todd Abramson, the club's booking agent and co-owner. "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."

It's always packed every time I've been there for dinner or a show so the "changing nature of Hoboken" excuse smells like bullshit to me. I think they just got fed up with the parking mess.

[MÇA]

Hoboken bar Maxwell's, an anchor in the local indie-rock scene, will close in July
The venue's owner said the city and its people's tastes have changed. He plans to focus on the music scene in Brookln and possibly open a new club in Jersey City.

BY DANIEL BEEKMAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2013, 8:09 AM

The beat won’t go on much longer at Maxwell’s, the beloved Hoboken bar and restaurant that for decades has anchored New Jersey’s indie-rock scene.

The gutsy Garden State venue will close for good at the end of July because Hoboken and its people have changed, Maxwell’s co-owner Todd Abramson said Monday.

The city has sprouted a wealth of luxury apartment buildings, and newcomers seem to prefer sports bars bristling with giant TVs over live bands, he said, adding that he’ll shift his focus to Brooklyn, where he books for the Bell House in Gowanus.

“The artists and musicians got priced out a ways back,” he said of Hoboken. “We don’t really have many Hoboken bands anymore.”'

Parking has also become a major problem, Abramson added. The new hot spots are in Brooklyn and Jersey City, he observed.

The rock veteran is thinking about opening a new venue in Jersey City.

Hoboken’s Hudson County neighbor is buzzing, he said.

Barcade — the watering hole/arcade hybrid — opened a Jersey City outpost in 2011 after succeeding in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Ambramson noted.

The torch will pass July 31, when Maxwell’s hosts its final live show. The band “a” was the first group to rock the venue and will return as its closing act, Abramson said, predicting a “real old-school Hoboken night.”

There will likely be tears in the crowd, but they won’t belong to Abramson, he said. Old-timers labeled him a yuppie when he moved to Hoboken back in 1984, so he won’t play the curmudgeon.

“I’m ready for a change,” Abramson insisted Monday.

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