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You may have heard the news the other day that Johnny D's, the beloved music venue located right in the heart of Davis Square, will be closing early next year to possibly make room for some development. This adds to the impending closing of TT the Bears this coming Saturday, and begs to ask the burning question: If Boston's music scene is doing so well, why are music venues all around town closing up shop?
This speaks to mind about the venue's owners and their wishes of not wanting to keep with the arduous schedule of owning and maintaining a venue all around the clock, and I can wholeheartedly understand that. What I don't understand is that bands will have less options when it comes to playing at a local venue around town, granted there are some options like PA's Lounge, Cantab Lounge, Great Scott, O'Brien's, and you can surely add more to the list. This may affect the locale of certain bands in the Boston area and may force them to relocate to other cities that have more viable options for local venues to play in, like NYC and ones that have a better community for their music to be fostered in. But I think what this all boils down to is the owners' trying to make a profit off of their land, and destabilize the local music scene that has been flourishing these last few years. The venues have depended on the patronage of all these bands to perform in their space, and this could spell a domino effect for other venue owners to follow looking to make a quick buck. It shows that owning a local venue isn't what it used to be, and is no longer profitable in the long run. Do these venue owners really care about the thriving music scene here in Boston, or are they just looking to make a big fire sale? This could spell a major turning point for the local music community here in the Bean, and we'll see where this takes us moving forward.