The Garden to Move
According to reports late last week Cablevision, owners of landmark venue Madison Square Garden will move the venue as part of a new project at the Farley Post office location on Ninth Ave. No official comment from the involved parties but it appears to be further along that previously thought. It’s good news and at the risk of pissing off any of my pals on the island, the place is a bit run down and not up to modern standards. I don’t want to call it a shithole because, well I don’t want to find a horse head in my bed. (But at least it’s not Jones Beach…) The infrastructure is dated, the load in is a bitch and there isn’t enough parking to accomodate the size shows they have in there. For those that haven’t gigged there, an army of forktrucks driven by locals that appear to have kamakaze pilot training race up and down the venue shuttling the gear to and from the trucks. There is the hold over from old skool union days where the IBEW are the crew for FOH stacks and control, and Local 1 IA does everything on deck. Local 1 is pretty good when I’ve been there but some of those IBEW guys are real skilletheads. Another fav story was regarding the merch cut that borders on extortion. Once upon a time, a big time touring act declined to set up merch in the building on a multi night run, opting instead to rent a ballroom in an adjoining hotel and sell the merch there announcing it from stage and by distributing handbills outside the venue. The act was made a much more favorable split the next time through.
While I doubt there will be any changes in the work rules (or ethic for that matter), the place is in big need of getting into this century in terms of a facility that size. While the plans won’t be available until later this summer, let’s hope that it’s at least on a par with the other venues of that size and stature. There is one little jewel in the MSG complex that sits atop Penn Station. That’s the theater formerly known as the Felt Forum, now The Theater at the Garden. I haven’t been in the theater for a while but do have fond memories of the joint. No word yet on if the theater would move with the arena though with modern arena designs, they can reconfigure the room to accomodate smaller shows as long as the building costs aren’t through the roof.