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It started with the Brit-Pop and NYC/Strokes-era music scenes and became a home for everyone. This is where we had to make the biggest choice in Great Scott history: backward to college bar or forward to music venue."Īaron Perrino (The Sheila Divine): "Carl basically turned a s***** BC (Boston College) frat dive bar into a hub for a ton of different scenes. College kids didn't want to go to the bar with all the tattooed kids and those kids didn't want to be anywhere near the college kids. Philbin: "This was a tough phase, as I think we were trying to be too many things to too many people. I suggested that Great Scott could become a seven-nights-a-week live music venue in 2004 and took over the booking duties at that point and remained involved in booking it up until the pandemic shut it down." It may or may not have been their first Boston show."Ĭarl Lavin (Talent Buyer, Great Scott): "I had started a night called The Plan at a venue in Cambridge with a more indie rock vibe and brought it to Great Scott in May of 2003. I don't remember the whole lineup, but I definitely remember Humanwine (A Vermont-based band founded in 2002) were on the bill. This was the beginning of the next transformation."Īnngelle Wood (Host, Boston Emissions): "I booked one of my first shows at Great Scott back in, I'm guessing, 2001 or 2002? I was hosting the local show on WFNX and booking a handful of shows a year. It was an incredible financial success, but man was the music terrible! It was also around this time that Great Scott parted ways with its booking agent and the owner asked me to start booking all the live entertainment as well. As a huge fan of '80s punk/post-punk/new wave, I had a love-hate relationship with this night. Thus was born Ladies/80's night: every Wednesday, a DJ would mix '80s bangers (think "Pour Some Sugar On Me") with whatever top 40 hits were most popular that week. Weekends were doing ok but weekdays were struggling. Within a couple of weeks, the GM left and the owner, Frank Strenk, asked me to take his place. Upon my return, I really wasn't looking to get back into the bar business but I needed some quick money so I picked up some bar shifts. Philbin: "In 1996, I moved to Florida for a short time. I still have friends who moved away 20 years or so ago that when I say I saw a show at Great Scott, they can only picture what it used to be."
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Joanie Lindstrom (DJ, WMBR): "It definitely was a 'college bozo' place for years and years.
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They played every week for about 10 years and there was always a line to get in." Weeknights included a DJ night on Wednesdays that was very popular with BC students and Thursdays featured a jam band called The Candles that played a lot of Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd. When I first started, Great Scott was undergoing a transition from a local blues bar catering to mostly neighborhood folk to a college bar.