Open House
After more than a year of construction and relative quiet, the Lansdowne Street music scene is about to be reborn
By JIM SULLIVAN | February 6, 2009
The making of a house party.
By Jim Sullivan.
I put on the obligatory hard hat and walk through the doors of what used to be Avalon on Lansdowne Street, across from Fenway Park. To the layman ? me ? it's all dust, noise, metal, and mess. The sounds of drills and hammers, clutter everywhere, workmen bustling every which way, a skeleton of a large stage jutting out onto a cluttered dance-floor-to-come. The facility ? soon to be America's 13th House of Blues ? is positioned to again make Kenmore Square a magnet of Boston's concert scene. As I take the tour, it is about a month away from its opening. That will happen February 19 with a show featuring the reunited-for-a-night J. Geils Band.
Joseph Perra, the man in charge of interior construction, has been on site three months. I ask his take, and he looks about. "We're fine," he says. "I've seen worse." No one, in fact, is worried about on-time completion. Asked about the project, Julie Jordan, the incoming general manager, says they're 75 percent done, with all the plumbing and electrical wiring in place.
This strip along Lansdowne Street ? dormant since Patrick Lyons and his Lyons Group shuttered Avalon, Axis, the Embassy, and the Modern in September 2007 ? is ready to again become a hub of nightlife activity. The House of Blues will be a 2400-plus-capacity rock-concert club, the bulk of it open space on the floor and mezzanine, with stadium-style seats at the rear of the room on the mezzanine and third levels. The layout is not unlike a more spacious Avalon. The whole complex is 53,000 square feet, up from the former complex's 41,000.
At the time Lyons shut down his clubs, he issued a proud, Terminator-esque call: we'll be back. His intention was to tear down, rebuild, and revamp the facility as a multi-use site for music and dining. Then, this past year, he got an offer from the House of Blues: we would like to lease your property and build our own music-and-restaurant complex. Lyons thought, "Why not?" He served as a consultant. Says Lyons's friend and HoB co-founder Dan Aykroyd, "He wasn't going to give away years of legacy" without having an impact on what was to follow. (Says Aykroyd of his own relationship with the chain: "I sold my shares at acquisition, but I have a rights and royalties structure and I'm a founding consultant.")
"It's true," says Lyons. "Our role was, we designed the bones, the structure of it, and they are doing the interior, the House of Blues magic." Lyons says he can't help but think, "Having had a run there so long, you have some separation anxiety: can these people do it with the care and love we tried to [give] for so many years?" He's confident they can, and believes the House of Blues will anchor what will be a prime destination location. Lyons says that, in the past three years, $44 million has been poured into the street's entertainment facilities (excluding Fenway Park). This spring, he's turning Jake Ivory's into The Lansdowne, an Irish pub. The Cask 'n Flagon has been upgraded. Lyons says he's happy now to play the role of "supporting actor. I'll peddle as fast as I can to help the House of Blues. It's enlightened self-interest ? we have a lot of investment on the street that's not them."
Clubland goes zen
The House of Blues VIP opening is February 21. Aykroyd and fellow Blues Brother Jim Belushi and their band headline (as they traditionally do for all House of Blues openings), Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave). That night will begin with a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, by a band assembled by billionaire Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist who founded the Hendrix museum in Seattle. Then comes a set by Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters and, finally, the Blues Brothers.
There will be two eateries: the open-to-the-general-public, 11 am?midnight House of Blues Restaurant downstairs and the exclusive Foundation Room lounge and three dining areas upstairs. There, members ? they hope to eventually get 1200 ? will pay between $1250 and $2250 a year to join.(A three-person corporate membership goes for $8500.) These are the equivalent to stadium sky boxes, and it's an open question whether they will be supported in this financial storm.
The Boston facility was, of course, planned before the economy went bust, and it will open in the midst of a massive recession. Worries? "Music seems to be recession-proof," says director of marketing Dave Fortin. "People comfort themselves with it in bad times and reward themselves with it in good times."
Might the fact that the House of Blues is a chain have a negative impact? You may drink and dine at Applebee's and shop at Target, but neither of these cookie-cutter stores would be considered destination locations.
"We're all wary of chains," says Aykroyd. "But we've opened 13 of these and they're grossing $400 million a year. If people have a problem with other chains, I don't think those same problems occur with us. People come back ? for the show, the cuisine, the Foundation Room activities. We've established it as a quality, fun, hip brand. Nobody has a bad time at a House of Blues. We've weathered all the economic forces."
The new Lansdowne Street Foundation Room is already starting to come together, visually. Such accouterments as Gujarat ? a cloth material that is recycled from fancy Indian clothes, bought by Indian merchants, cut up, quilted back together, and then hand-dyed ? is now up on the walls.
The Gujarat is a good metaphor for the House of Blues philosophy, which stitches together piecemeal principles from various cultures, from Delhi to the Delta. This House of Blues, like all of them, follows the concept of Isaac Tigrett, the man who co-founded the Hard Rock Caf? chain in 1971 and then the original House of Blues in Cambridge in 1992. Influenced by his spiritual guide, Sathya Sai Baba, Tigrett's motto for the House of Blues was "Unity through Diversity." That, it remains. There are other principles imparted to the staff, says Fortin. There's also the phrase "Help ever, hurt never." And, he says, there are three Indian words that comprise a sort-of unofficial House of Blues mantra: Ahimsa, Shanti, and Satya. They mean, respectively, non-violence toward others and self; peace with oneself and the universe; and truth in thought, word, and deed.
Pretty zen-like for clubland. If you're wondering how that applies to the issue, of, say, security, says Fortin, "We look for people capable of dealing with situations with a clear head, not an iron fist."
Beyond the blues
In 2006, the House of Blues was sold to Live Nation, the country's top concert promoter (among other things in the entertainment realm). Don Law, president of Live Nation New England, has been one of the area's top music promoters for decades. He says when Live Nation bought the HoB, it had no desire to make changes. "House of Blues has its own identity," he says. "It's an important trademark to keep. What's Live Nation done? I don't think much at all. We've left pretty much alone."
Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert business trade magazine Pollstar, says, "The House of Blues is the best-known club brand in the United States. I'm not sure who you'd name as number two. The clubs have been successful in every market they've been in."
Since the House of Blues capacity will be only a few hundred people short of the Orpheum Theatre's, how does that affect the concert world? Not much, says Law. "One's a general-admission club, the other has reserved seats. Some acts don't want to play general admission and vice versa. The act decides where they want to play."
Deb Eybers, president of the House of Blues, says that, following the sale to Live Nation, "We're still autonomous. We are working closely with Live Nation, especially in Boston with Don Law. His bookers have done an astounding job."
What is the House of Blues not? A blues room. Yes, blues will be part of the mix. B.B. King and Buddy Guy will play this month (February 22), as will, of course, the J. Geils Band, which Aykroyd calls "the author of speed blues." Talk to anybody in the HoB chain of command and they'll salute the club's blues roots and cite the importance of blues in our culture. Through their International House of Blues Foundation, they raise money supporting, among other things, education in the blues.
"It says Blues in the name," says Bongiovanni, "but it's had a wide-ranging booking policy: gospel, hip-hop, punk, rock."
That is evident in looking at a few of the early bookings: the Gipsy Kings (February 20), 3 Doors Down and Hoobastank (February 23), Thievery Corporation (February 24), George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic (February 25), Jimmy Eat World (February 26), Tom Jones (March 1), Dropkick Murphys ? who closed Avalon in 2007 ? (March 13?17), the Pogues (March 20 and 21), and Morrissey (March 29). In fact, it's hard to get a sense of exactly what kind of venue it will be, other than a diverse one.
The national House of Blues booking policy was then as it is today: if an act can put enough bodies in the house, they'll book 'em.
Or, as Aykroyd says, "If there was a Chinese Giant Gong show that could draw people in, we would book them. I don't think there's anything we would restrict, given the ability for ticket sales. It's about the interface between musician and audience." He adds, "There's no way you can put a blues band in the House of Blues every night. We couldn't even do that in Cambridge. But all music in America, 90 percent of it, originates from the Delta blues."
Back to the roots
The House of Blues has the distinction of being the only multi-million-dollar restaurant-concert club chain inspired by a Saturday Night Live act and a hit movie. (That movie, of course, would be The Blues Brothers.) Aykroyd and John Belushi first put the Blues Brothers together in the 1970s. Aykroyd was the harmonica-playing Elwood Blues; Belushi was the singer, "Joliet" Jake Blues. They made their SNL debut in 1976. These guys dressed like dangerous blues cats ? or caricatures thereof ? and were first and foremost comics and actors. But they could also play, and they loved the music.
They hired a crack band of blues stalwarts to back them on their first album, Briefcase Full of Blues. It went to number one and was nominated for a Grammy. John Landis's movie, The Blues Brothers, came out in 1980 and grossed more than $115 million. Says Aykroyd: "I can flash back right now and close my eyes and drive the Bluesmobile and see John. It was quite moving and a good picture." The second movie, Blues Brothers 2000, with Jim Belushi ? Zee Blues ? taking over his late brother's role, did not fare quite as well.
Asked about the Blues Brothers of today, Aykroyd spins into high gear: "We are coming to town with the Blues Brothers Formal Classic Revue. We wear the uniforms, we do the classic music ? American classics from the American classic songbooks ? and we do them in the old Stax/Volt style. I can go anywhere in the world with this Revue and everyone's happy. There's 12 of us in the band, the two dancing refrigerators, me and Brother Zee, or Zurashaida ? it means 'Almighty God is my rock.' "
The original House of Blues opened in 1992 and closed in 2003. It was situated smack dab in the middle of Harvard Square, on Winthrop Street, in an actual converted house. (It's where Tommy Doyle's Irish Pub & Restaurant is now.) "The spiritual and ethical foundation was having a blues bar," says Aykroyd, "a juke joint, rooted in the culture of the movie."
Upstairs, there was a narrow, 150-capacity club, with plaques of blues icons on the faux-old-wood walls. Downstairs, there was a Cajun-style restaurant. It was made to look like a Southern juke joint. There was a Gospel Brunch (that is, Cajun brunch with live gospel music) on Sundays. The new HoB restaurant will be similar ? some of the plaques are already up ? with the Gospel Brunch likely to begin late spring.
The old club hosted many blues acts, but not exclusively so. J. Geils Band singer Peter Wolf says the club's booker, the late Teo Leyasmeyer, "kept this House of Blues unique from the other Houses of Blues and brought in the blues greats: Junior Wells, Little Milton, John Lee Hooker, Pinetop Perkins, Buddy Guy, James Cotton. I sat in with a lot of people. Van Morrison, myself, and Junior Wells played there with one of the blues bands around Boston."
The original House of Blues "was a brief high point in the history of Boston rock and roots music," says Ted Drozdowski, a Phoenix contributor (and former Phoenix music editor) and singer-guitarist of the blues-based Scissormen. "Teo had the taste and artist-relations savvy to bring in the last of a great generation of roots performers, from Charles Brown to Jimmy Smith to Otis Rush to R.L. Burnside to Junior Kimbrough ? all gone now or retired from performing ? so they could be heard in an intimate setting. . . . That amazing era for roots music in Boston is long past."
After the Cambridge club opened, Tigrett began launching much larger facilities around the country, beginning in 1994 in New Orleans. (Lyons was an original investor and director. He helped Tigrett raise $32 million to build the chain, and left in 1995.)
"Even before Live Nation took over, House of Blues was extremely successful," says Pollstar's Bongiovanni. "We rank the top 100 club venues in the world according to ticket sales. The 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, is number one, then the House of Blues clubs: Dallas is number two, Chicago is number four, Anaheim is number six, Buena Vista is number 11, Los Angeles is number 13, Las Vegas is number 14. Boston is a great music city. And the House of Blues model has worked. Watch Boston be number one."
Jim Sullivan can be reached at
jim@jimsullivanink.com.
