Chilling in newmarket was going to go crash the ROC show, but the place is deserted. As of last night it has been shut down. Sound systems gone, electricity is off. Tonight is the night Bfast and the Kung fu were supposed to play, sooooooo glad they didn\'t end up coming thru with the date and canceling the night before. Pissed about the church, but thankful for that. Hopefully they get some management this time that actually gives a
**** about music like they used to.
thats a sorry chip. can we get the breakfast back at milly\'s now?
they took the money and split.
Milly\'s Milly\'s Milly\'s!!!!
if you book it, they will come...
Wow. That is a shame. I hope that someone takes over that can return the Church to glory. Or at least opens it back up again :wink:
To be honest it was going way way downhill. They stopped making it dark in there had lights on at all time PLUS tons of new tables blocking the dance floor and encouraging people to sit rather than rage.
Not to mention the fact I got kicked out of the show on 12/30. I was looking forward to that one for awhile and I was thrown out right at the end of Grand Scheme. Guy was a major doooooshbag
Breakfast should return to Harlow\'s Pub..
only problem there is it will definitely sell out and some people will probably get denied entry unless you buy tix in advance.
Well, I didn\'t want to say anything before because The Breakfast and Kung Fu were still playing so many shows there, but I guess I can say it now:
I have never, ever, in 12 years of showgoing seen a club run as poorly as the Stone Church was being run by its new management. They came in and immediately shut down 75% of the club\'s revenue streams and all of its character. Consider the following:
- The old management made very good food. The new owners shut down the kitchen and turned it into a trash pit (literally). As I walked through the kitchen on the way to the upstairs room last month, the kitchen was full of months\' worth of empty bottles and trash bags. If you buy a club with an industrial kitchen, you are paying for the kitchen. If you do not know how to operate the kitchen profitably, then do not buy the club. Good god.
- The club is set up for 12 draft lines. The old management ran all of them. The new management had 2 beers on tap at the last Kung Fu show, with 10 empty draft lines. So they simply decided that running at 17% efficiency was a smart thing to do. If you ever see any bar running less than 3/4 of its draft towers, that bar will be closed in 4 months or less, guaranteed.
- The club has a good light rig. But the new management decided to hang about 10 miles of white Christmas lights throughout the club as a permanent decoration. How dumb can you be? Did nobody tell them that tons of white light and a colored light show don\'t exactly mix together?
- The new management cut the capacity at every show by 30-40% because of the "fire code" (according to them). This just never added up. I have never seen any room be considered "sold out" at as low a density as the Stone Church was. Also, if the previous management were really going 40% over code every night then I doubt they would have operated for as long as they did.
- Finally, I have to comment on two of the most bizarre and ridiculous moments that I have ever experienced in all of my time being around TB/KF. At the last KF show, myself and a friend were up in the green room before the show with 3 of the band members. First, the band members let us know that we had to chug our beers because the Church staff had warned them that they would shut down the show instantly if anyone, band member or otherwise, were caught in the green room with a beer. Talk about a horrible way to treat the bands that shlep to your club to make you money! Most clubs bring beers to the green room as a compliment; so-so clubs make bands use drink tickets at the bar; the worst clubs make band members pay full price and wait at the bar like any other customer. But to tell a band, a bunch of guys in their 30\'s, that they can\'t have a beer before their show or their show will be shut down? Completely unprecedented.
Second, at some point some very bitchy chick who worked for the club came up to the green room to check on us. Not to see if we needed anything, but to make sure that we were sitting still and behaving and following all of their rules (as if we were 10-year-olds). She yelled at us: "THIS ROOM IS OVER CAPACITY! SOME OF YOU NEED TO GO, NOW." That\'s all she came up to do. Then she just left without even actually waiting for people to leave. Keep in mind that there were 5 total people in the room, which is the same number of people that are in the band. Want to know what we were doing? Sitting still and passing a couple of iPhones around playing Scrabble. We were all pretty somber about the state of the club and we were not lively at all. I\'ve been in libraries that were more excitable than we were right then. And the Stone Church is sending staff up to scream at us. Because their green room (which has seating for 6 and could fit 15 people) apparently is not safe for bands that have 5 or more members.
Good riddance, Zombie Stone Church. I hope someone else comes in and does it right because I\'d hate to see this venue join our "RIP venue" list. Then again, it was really already on the list even before this closing. Zombie venues are as dead as closed venues.
well i just found out some pretty sweet info. i get my green medicine from an older dude, and i just met him at the church because it\'s "shut down". he told me his good friend chris, the guitartist from the alchamysts ? i think, bought the church and is taking over. he said it should be open soon, however long that is. great news !