First it was Thunderbox Rehearsal Studios, recently bulldozed to the ground to make way for new apartments.
Next came The Masquerade, sold for TBD purposes while the surrounding area becomes new luxury apartments..
Now, the realtors have come for Smith’s Olde Bar. They’re talking about possibly, you guessed it!, residential living.
I’ve been in Atlanta for nearly a decade, and I can honestly say the local and live music scene here has changed dramatically over my stay.
There have been some tremendous positives, from Aisle 5 successfully replacing the long standing Five Spot in Little Five Points, to Terminal West rising out of the King Plow Arts Center to be arguably one of the best live music venues in Metro Atlanta.
But lately it seems like a lot of today’s avenues of music are going the way of The Brandyhouse and Mike & Angelos – iconic bars/music venues either sold off or wrecked to rumble.
Brandyhouse was the first music venue I played in Atlanta back in 2003. The backstage cooler, the hangouts on the side of the building, great memories. For whatever reason bars like these went out of business or lost their clientele, it is still sad to see them gone and forgotten, especially when they are replaced with a new corporate chain like Ace Hardware.
Now, that same feeling will exist for the many fans and patrons who visited Masquerade and Smith’s Olde Bar on a regular basis.
Since this avalanche of news broke, I’ve been reading stories about musical communities slowly springing up in new areas because the old ones are being phased out due to “progress” and “development”. The East Atlanta Village push out due to higher rents comes to mind, for example.
The term gentrification is usually referred to buying up property in urban and deteriorated areas by wealthy individuals to increase property value while at the same time displacing other people and families as well as small businesses. It’s getting harder to not say that we have been slowly witnessing a musical gentrification in Atlanta, and it’s getting bigger and wider.
No one disputes that the middle class has undoubtedly been slaughtered over the past 3 decades, and the implosion took a whole lot of musicians with them. Many bands today, some of whom I enjoy a lot, are now taking either temporary or permanent hiatuses, because the financial strain that exists to be in a band, especially a touring band, has become almost unbearable.
In fact, one thing my wife and I have begun to notice is that in quite a few bars there is music being played. It’s a guy with a Macbook and 2 digital turntables spinning covers. Wanna make a bet that the bar brought this guy in for $200 while turning away a young 4-piece band for $500?
I know that a lot of people are still playing and writing music in metro Atlanta. In fact, I’ll be willing to say that there are probably more musicians living in the metro Atlanta area than ever before. Yet, there seems to be fewer and fewer places to play and commune.
Now wealthy individuals, who have no real concept or concern for city culture and history, are buying up these artistic hotspots. They plan to build their properties and buildings on these historic footprints both to make a financial killing and to say they own a piece of the Dirty South. No plans to keep any of the culture that made the space unique, no care for the people and artistry they are evicting.
And the city will suffer for it.
I know I’m hearing about the new Roxy at the new Braves Stadium, and the MGM Casino possibility, but these venues will primarily house national touring acts. I’d rather look for the musical communities and centers that spawn a lot of local/regional talent that turn into these national touring acts.
Metro Atlanta extends out to Woodstock, Alpharetta, Suwanee, Lawrenceville, Tucker & Conyers, Stockbridge, Fairburn, Mableton and Kennesaw/Acworth. That’s a lot of real-estate for potential musical and artistic communes as the center of Atlanta sweeps them out.
These will not be the last stories we’ll hear about well-known music venues and artistic centers shutting down, sold off and turned into chain-franchise residential areas. So we need to counter by spreading the news about where these new musical communities are. Musical energy, especially with the amount of musicians here, will migrate where the muse resonates.
I know I’m not the only one looking.