Welcome to 2018.
Given the year that the Hudson music community enjoyed in 2017, with a brand spanking new concert venue in Jersey City and record turnouts for events in Hoboken and the Harsimus Cemetery, there's every right to optimism. And by community, I mean the musicians, the business owners and the fans, all of whom form a vital continuum in keeping live original music healthy.
But there are dark clouds on the horizon, too.
Listen to Jersey City musician and blogger Tris McCall, a man I'm always eager to quote because he's so much smarter than I am about so many things:
"The real estate spike has generated the surplus dollars that have driven our modest cultural revival. At the same time, we face a federal tax bill that seems designed to punish New Jersey, and the municipal government appears to have run out of fancy footwork and must conduct a citywide tax revaluation -- which could be a doozy. We haven't had one in forever. We don't know how the deck is going to play once those cards are shuffled. It's entirely possible that people in the Downtown and the Heights -- the two neighborhoods with the rock clubs -- are going to get hit with giant tax hikes that they can't even deduct. It might not play out like that. Nobody is sure. But that indeterminacy has given an edge of anxiety to everything that's happened in Jersey City in 2017. Look at real estate sales Downtown. Everything is flattening out. People are holding their breaths and waiting for the hammer to fall. That's what Jersey City feels like right now. At least to me."
Things aren't much brighter in Hoboken.
Money is so tight that the city has had to hire local bands instead of national headliners for the last few Arts & Music Festivals. Northern Soul is out of the equation. Maxwell's Tavern, struggling to establish an identity in the brave new world of post-gentrified Hoboken, lost its booker, closed its kitchen and has started booking frequent trivia nights and cover bands to cover costs. There's only one original music night on the club's event calendar for January, and even in the best of times, Maxwell's back room barely broke even. That's a big place to make a go of it as just a bar, as one scene regular observed.
Finnegan's has its open mic and bands will occasionally throw together a benefit show at Guitar Bar Jr. or some other alternative space, but Hoboken needs more venues soon, before the talented up-and-coming talent in town just throws up their collective hands and starts gigging exclusively in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
For 51 weeks a year, I observe and report on the Hudson music scene, and it's a job I both enjoy and relish: interviewing musicians and announcing upcoming events, reviewing new releases, and helping promote benefits and special events.
For the new year, for this week, I'm forgoing the role of journalist and writing as an advocate.
Here is what I would like to see in 2018:
1. LOSE THE TIP BOX
In my year-end round up last week, local musicians and promoters enthused about the number of places for bands to play in comparison to previous years. And that's true. But what was left unsaid is that too often, artists find themselves playing for free, or relying on passing around a tip jar (which is basically the same thing). A modest $5 cover won't kill local music; let bands take the initiative and run the door themselves, if overhead is the concern. But musicians deserve to be paid.
2. MORE ALL-AGES VENUES
The loss of The Funhouse, the all-ages performance space run by Crazy & The Brains, was a huge blow to high school and college students under age 21 eager to see live music. Shows at White Eagle Hall are 18+, but there are only a few shows a month there and they're more expensive than normal shows.
New Jersey liquor laws make it next to impossible to do all-ages shows in bars, but it's hard to believe that there are no suitable spaces in Hudson County to host bands.
JAX (The Jersey Art Exchange) in Jersey City had been promoting all-ages showcases for young bands, but they only had one event in December. Promoter Darren Deicide is moving his monthly "Hokum" shows to the Jersey City Theater Center, where they will be all-ages, so perhaps more events could be scheduled there.
Whatever the solution turns out to be, if there are going to be audiences for live original music in the future, then we need to find a way to let young, interested fans and musicians participate now.
3. MORE VENUES IN DIFFERENT NEIGHBORHOODS
Downtown Jersey City and the Jersey City Heights have been revitalized in part because of an up-tick in nightlife, in much the same way that Hoboken was transformed from a post-industrial ghost town to a booming bedroom community in the '80s by the arts and music scene at Maxwell's.
But why stop there?
There are enormous stretches of unexplored real estate along the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail that might yield bars or restaurants willing to host live music. The west side of Hoboken, which once boasted a vibrant scene at Northern Soul and Do-It-Yourself shows at the Monroe Center and the Neumann Leathers Building, might have enormous potential.
Yes, things are better today than they were five years ago, but they could be better still. And with the L Train closing down soon for repairs, an awful lot of young people will be looking for an alternative to the clubs in Willliamsburg and Bushwick. That's a potential goldmine waiting to be tapped.
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To all the underpaid musicians, put-upon fans, and undertipped waiters and bartenders; to the underappreciated promoters and owners and entrepreneurs who make live music happen; to the critics and bloggers and writers who keep me informed and inspired; and most of all, to my readers,
A happy, healthy, prosperous, and rockin' New Year,
Jim Testa
Your Constant Listener