Mike Mellor ~ Editor, The Killing Floor, Guest Blogger
Originally from Mike Mellor’s “The Killing Floor.”
And so it seems that another of our live music institutions got 86’ed by the whims of greedy landlords, developers and MegaloMaster, Inc.
Nobody is saying definitively why landlord John Corey, the alleged puppy-stompin’ daddy (video here), doesn’t want to renew the Harpers Ferry lease but real estate development isn’t a far-fetched idea. The economy may still be in the toilet for you and me, but for business owners and real estate investors these first days of “economic recovery” are always the most advantageous for expanding wealth. Godspeed Mr. Corey, and I hope for your sake that St. Peter has a forgiving soul.
Putting motives aside, the reality for our music community is that we have lost a venue that served a special purpose for four decades. Yeah, the staff at Harpers was surly and treated everybody who walked in like a twenty-year old scumbag liable to sneak a drink underage, trash the bathroom and start a fistfight. The acoustics stunk, the location was inconvenient and the room was about as comfortable as a jail cell. None of that ever stopped most of us from going, though, because they consistently booked the bands we wanted to see.
Harpers GM Andrew Wolan accurately described the place as, “that in-between (sized) venue for bands to further themselves.” It was always there for local bands and local competitions (i.e. ‘BCN’s Rumble, the Battle of the Blues Bands) and they even used a local ticketing agency, VenuEvents. It was also one of the few go-to spots to catch touring acts that were too small for places like the Orpheum but too big to play a bar.
The problem for Harpers Ferry now is really the problem for live music going forward. For decades we’ve entrusted our music community to a music industry where the finances are being puppeteered by corporate media, corporate event management, and real estate. Nobody in control cares about the musician who needs to support self and family, or the small business venue owner who needs to support a for-profit venture. If we care about the music, the musician and the small business owner, then why the hell are we engaged in a system that only prizes stock prices and market values?
We the music lovers need to protect our culture both from Mel Karmazin and the townie looking to make it to the top of the heap. The Karmazins of the world have created the game and the entrepreneurial townies have pushed their chips into that game hoping to come out with a big pot. This game has no legitimate opportunity for the musician or the music fan, so we all need to drop out of it and build something that represents our values.
In Massachusetts we already have the infrastructure in place to do this, as well as a number of shining success stories. We live in one of the wealthiest, youngest, most educated and most liberal places in the country with more than enough money, tech savvy and non-profit know-how to make a community like this work on a larger scale. Such ventures like the Passim Center, the Narrows Center, the Somerville Armory and the Boston Area Coffeehouse Association (BACHA) have already taken advantage of this and are thriving.
And guess what? They are all hybrid in that they support both up-and-coming local artists and touring artists of exceptional merit, just like Harpers Ferry did. Collectively they offer a variety of rooms all over the state, none of which are subject to the whims of big business.
The more you think about it the more we need the current music industry like a hole in the head. The good people at Harpers fought the good fight for a long time, and they have finally gone down in inevitable defeat. My question to everybody else is why are we continuing to fight by their rules in the first place?
