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Thanks for buying the Orpheum. Now will you fix it?
By Ron Newman on Tue, 05/05/2009 - 2:39pm
Live Nation has sold the Orpheum, Opera House, and Paradise to newly-organized Opera House Ventures LLC, owned by concert promoter Don Law and Star Market heir David Mugar.
The Orpheum is 157 years old, and in such deplorable condition that any reasonable person should be ashamed to own it. Don and David, will you please invest some money and some TLC into making it habitable again?
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Comments
A little AC please
went a few years ago to see Penn and Teller there - mid-summer - no AC - they had to call the show about half way through - Penn was about to have a coronary.
Ticket Surcharge
I seem to recall a surcharge on each ticket that was supposed to go to a renovation fund?
Was there any accounting for this
Don Law Pocket EnrichmentOrpheum renovation fund at the time of the sale? or has it disappeared as mysteriously as a bull market gain?Are you kidding?
It just helped "renovate" the Orpheum from a costly loss on the Live Nation books to a Don Law (chairman of Live Nation Boston) revenue generator (as he charges his own company to use the space now...which they pass on to consumers)!
Owning the actual Orpheum
If I remember correctly, the Orpheum was managed by LiveNation while the Druker Company actually owned the building, and Druker would have been the one who'd have done anything regarding renovations and restoration. Will this new Opera Ventures LLC group get the building as well?
It will take a lot of money to fix up the Orpheum (auditorium restoration, total overhaul of the seats, re-securing the mezzanine which shakes like an addict during loud shows) but it can be saved. It deserves to be saved.
The Orpheum has had many
The Orpheum has had many lives. It deserves to be saved not just for the last thirty years of rock, but also for its previous incarnations as a vaudeville house and, before the construction of Symphony Hall, as the Boston Music Hall. In that guise, it was the first home of the Boston Symphony and, in 1875, the site of the world premiere of the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor piano concerto, played by no less than Hans von Bülow.
The Orpheum has had many
The Orpheum has had many lives. It deserves to be saved not just for the last thirty years of rock, but also for its previous incarnations as a vaudeville house and, before the construction of Symphony Hall, as the Boston Music Hall. In that guise, it was the first home of the Boston Symphony and, in 1875, the site of the world premiere of the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor piano concerto, played by no less than Hans von Bülow.
And a movie theatre, too
Let's not forget the long period when Loew's still owned it after vaudeville ended.
Orpheum Concerts
I saw these acts at The Orpheum:
Black Sabbath, Black Oak Arkansas, Golden Earring, Gentle Giant, KISS, David Johansen, The Ramones, Grand Funk, Ruby Starr & Grey Ghost, Frank Zappa.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some others because I really enjoyed the seventies.
Anyone else with such fond (if foggy) memories?
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
playin the Orpheum
Dweezil and Ahmet also played the Orpheum on their "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour, nice little connection there.
Oh, yeah, and my radio gang and I took the stage at the Orpheum for this year's First Night. You can add us to that List Of Luminaries, though we didn't do anything particularly wild to the place except for climbing up into the attic from the top dressing room floor and watching the snow come through the roof and windowframes. CRAZY TIMES MAN
My two Orpheum concerts
B-52s and Talking Heads.
pearl jam, keith richards, the pogues, aerosmith etc
i remember being at the pearl jam show in 94. i had good seats and was looking back at the balcony and it was bouncing up and down?! i remember thinking of how glad i was to not be sitting on the balcony or under the balcony.
at the keith richards show my buddy dared me to throw my pack of smokes at his feet to see if he would pick up the pack and light one up. he kicked them off the stage. we decided it was probably because he was a recovered heroin addict and he had to be careful about just picking up someone elses smokes because they could be laced with something. then someone threw a fat joint at his feet. he lit that right up.
mmmeeeeemmmmmorrrrieeeeees.......
The Jam, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Bob Dylan + Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, Ani diFranco, Dave Edmunds + Graham Parker (including Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn)....
...and maybe surprisingly, the best show I've ever seen there, and one of the best I've ever seen, was Courtney Love and Hole a few years back. Courtney was on fire the whole night, and ended up pulling people out of the seats and up onto the stage. By the end of the set, the whole stage was full and there was a feeling of complete unity between band and audience. Like nothing I've ever seen.
courtney loves hole
i hate courtney but i was at that show. it was about a month after cobain killed himself. courtney played all night with her foot up on an amp on the front of the stage, no underwear. not a pretty sight but an intense show. i still think kurt wrote that whole album. she has done nothing good since then.
too many too count
I was an usher there in the 90's and saw (well, heard, as I was facing backwards most of the time) tons of bands and other performances. I remember a Penn & Teller show on Father's Day that was a lot of fun but horribly hot. They wanted to do a rock show in July that year but all the ushers declined.
Laurie Anderson was fun. I think the Go-Gos was the first show I worked. I was up in the Mezzanine and I was sure the whole thing was going to be in the orchestra by the end of the night.
Worst show was a benefit for Passims. The music was great but the patrons were entitled jerks. Black Crows were fun because everyone was so mellow. Heard Barenaked Ladies there and became a fan.
black crowes = thick smoke
i saw them there. you could have taken a bong hit from the chimney. ah the good old days.
If they do fix it up....
... I hope the don't fix it up too much. It's "about to fall down" look is part of the charm. I feel like I'm seeing a concert in the apartment building where the robots lived in Blade Runner.
What's happened to the Orpheum?
I guess I haven't been there in a couple of years, but I went to some excellent concerts there - The Pogues, Lyle Lovett, Martin Sexton - in the early Oughts and certainly don't remember it being in "deplorable condition." I found it charming with good acoustics. I guess if you want a Disney-esque experience the Orpheum is not for you but I appreciate the lack of pretensions.