The End of an Era...
The razing of Worcester's Sir Morgan's Cove building last week deserves a eulogy.
Last week the building at 89 Green Street, Worcester, was razed. It was a long time coming, and it was inevitable, but it's still a sad moment as so many memories of that building are now just memories. Those bricks will never be arranged in that same order and that stage will never be set foot upon ever again. (Also, no one will ever have to stand behind that pole on stage left or worry about falling through the men’s bathroom floor ever again either!).
That building was well-known for decades as a pillar of the rock music scene in Central Massachusetts, first, as Sir Morgan's Cove's second location, opening in 1978 and, perhaps overshadowing every other amazing thing that happened there, most notably for the "secret" warm-up gig that The Rolling Stones did there in 1981 while they were rehearsing for the Tattoo You tour at Longview Farms studio in nearby North Brookfield.
(Ron Pownall took some amazing shots of the show)
In 1999, Cove employee Erick Godin took the keys and made it his own place, trying to undo years of a reputation of a dark and dreary club, only booking heavy rock bands and having a sort of seedy vibe that permeated it since the 80s. He brought bright artwork, palm trees, color and personality to the room. He made it much more welcoming. He put himself into it. He brought on Noelle Merle as bartender. He also brought a lot more than metal bands. The Lucky Dog Music Hall, as he named it, would become a major player in the Great Renaissance of the Worcester music scene in my lifetime. The 2000s saw a wonderful community bind together of musicians and patrons alike. There was great support for each other and so much great music. For several years it hosted the Green Street Music Series, produced by Greg Munro after Curtain Society drummer, Duncan Arsenault and Greg were talking at the bar one night and came up with an idea to do a regular series of one-off high production value shows with a rotating core band made up of the best musicians in town backing up 35+ guest singers from all walks of life to perform one special show of 50+ songs: nights of all Stones, Beatles, The Who, a theme night of breakthrough bands from 1978 including Elvis Costello, Blondie, The Cars and Cheap Trick, REM, U2, Springsteen, Tom Petty, Queen, Bowie, Elton John, on and on… These shows not only were great entertainment for the sold out audiences, they also showcased so much talent in the city. Rock singers, punk singers, rappers, blues singers, veterans and newcomers… Not only did it illustrate the breadth of talent that was in the city, it formed a great bond between all the singers and musicians who might never have met, let alone shared a stage together. It was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve been a part of as a professional musician.
(Me and the 5-neck guitar we built specifically to be played on one Cheap Trick song)
Erick would bring in international bands like The Fixx, Colin Hay of Men at Work, Link Wray, Jonathan Richman, The Dresden Dolls, NRBQ, Kip Winger(!!) and, after a random conversation I had with Greg Munro about how cool it would be, a legendary performance of the late New York poet/rock singer Jim Carroll, where The Curtain Society, our dear friend Scott Ricciuti from the band Huck, saxophonist John Vanderpool and Deb Beaudry on some backing vocals, we were The Catholic Boys for a night, backing Jim up on some classics from his days fronting The Jim Carroll Band. That is something I will never forget. The list of amazing shows I would see or play there during that time is too long to list.
(Erick in front of the ruins)
Eventually, Erick handed the baton over to Ted Kistner, who blended the two worlds before him and renamed it The Cove Music Hall. The vibe was different. The scene had changed. Original music was less of a valuable commodity to Worcester by that time. Even so, Ted did a good job at keeping the spirit of that building alive and keeping live original music on a stage in Worcester.
Can we call what's happened in Kelley Square over the last 10 years a gentrification? I'm not exactly sure. So many great things have blossomed in the area, particularly Crompton Collective, Birchtree Bread and the Worcester Public Market, but gone is the bustling music scene that the city's night owls had taken for granted, as soon the Dive bar at the other end of the street, which had stopped having live music a while earlier, and eventually, The Cove, would have their stages go dark. Polar Park coming into the square signaled the death knell for 89 Green Street. The owner of the property realized there might be a fortune to be made off of the land, being adjacent to the new ballpark, which was more than the business or the building itself were worth as they were. Ted closed the Cove and it sat dormant for the last few years.
What was once the hotspot for Worcester's nightlife scene, with lines down the street to get in and a brightly-lit marquee listing the upcoming shows, now sat like an ugly hulk. Without the life within it, it was an eyesore. A reminder of what once was. I'm old enough to admit that it reminded me of the front and back covers of Styx's 1981 album Paradise Theater. BC and AD. Before and After. Alive and Dead.
Now it's a pile of unimportant bricks. You can still see the archway to the basement "dressing rooms", which surely doubled as toilets several times. That remnant is what makes me sad to see. Those stairs to the basement and that archway. I may have cursed them a million times over the years, or at the very least, never appreciated them. I might have taken all of it for granted all these years, thinking that it was a permanent fixture. Now it's history. A lot of history.
(the Archway)
In honor of 89 Green Street, here is a photo of my first time setting foot on that stage with The Curtain Society in 1989. It was the first of about a billion times I would stand on that stage, looking out to packed houses and empty rooms alike. Pretty much always complaining about my monitor. The Cove is dead. Long live The Cove.