Campaign To Save Great Scott Raises $75K, Fans Rally For Venue

ALLSTON, MA — After more than 25,000 people signed an online petition to keep one of Allston's oldest and most revered live music venues from closing for good, its long-time booking agent said he's willing to try to keep it going, if those who want it are willing to invest.

And the community is rallying.

Within 72 hours of announcing a crowdfunding campaign, Great Scott, situated in Packard's Corner near the border with Brookline has raised more than $75,000 toward a goal of $150,000.

"We heard your support loud and clear with the petition circulated earlier this month," said Carl Lavin who has been Great Scott's booking manager for the past 15 years. "From city councilors, music industry vets, to all of the concerned citizens, all of your voices have been heard. A unique opportunity is now in front of us to all play a part in keeping the dream alive."

To that end, Lavin teamed up with Mainvest, a Salem-based investment crowdfunding platform that specializes in helping local businesses, to raise the necessary money to reopen Great Scott and keep it open. The venue’s booking agent since 2004, Lavin struck a deal with Great Scott’s longtime owner, Frank Strenk, to transfer the venue’s intellectual property and its liquor license. The next step is to use the capital raised through the platform to attempt to negotiate a lease with Oak Hill Properties, the current building owners at 1222 Commonwealth Ave and then to renovate the space to include better soundproofing. To oversee the process, Lavin created a new business, Chowderquake, LLC.

But first he needs to raise the money. The proposal: For those who can invest a minimum of $100 in the business, Great Scott will share a portion of its revenue with you until you have been repaid and then some.

Lavin and Mainvest began their campaign Wednesday, with a goal of raising at least $150,000 in three months. But in the first two days they'd raised more than $39,000. By Friday morning they'd raised $75,000.

The scene

Cameron Keiber played with the club with his band The Beatings some 15 years ago when Lavin started booking bands there. Keiber was about to have an album release party in March with his new band Eldridge Rodriquez when the pandemic struck.

He said over the years the club had become something of a second home for musicians and artists.

“I think it’s pretty hard to quantify how important it was,” said Keiber.

It was a bit of a jock bar that didn’t have regular music before Lavin started booking live music and comedy every day of the week. Lavin helped create the scene associated with Great Scott today, he said.

“It was completely organic,” Keiber said. "It was a really vital scene for any time period it was open. It wasn’t like say just a punk club, it wasn’t a just dance night club, it wasn’t just rock club —all these things came and went. It constantly had this weird shifting ever-evolving group of people who were claiming it as their own, while it never turned its back on those who started there."

And that, he said, was in large part because of Lavin, who helped facilitate an atmosphere of inclusion and acceptance in the mid-sized venue.

The pandemic

Earlier this month, the owners of Great Scott announced that they'd hit an impasse over the lease with the landlord and had decided to close permanently. The club, which was on a month-to-month lease had been closed since the coronavirus crisis ramped up in the Boston area.

Great Scott opened in 1976 as a bar with a performance space. Since then, it's been considered a hub for the arts. The venue with its iconic checkered floors hosted bands and performers from a variety of genres over the past 44 years, plus stand up comedy, and the long-running LGBTQ dance party Don't Ask Don't Tell.

In 2016 the bar cracked the top 10 of the 100 greatest music venues in America, beating out the Sinclair in Cambridge and the Paradise Rock Club for the greatest music venue title in Massachusetts.

Upon hearing the news of its closing, fans of the venue started an online petition to ask the landlord, Oak Hill Properties, to keep Great Scott alive.

Others started a GoFundMe and former bar manager Tim Philibin started to sell shirts to raise money to help employees, and has pulled in more than $40,000 from 400-plus donors.

"Who knows what’s going to happen in this pandemic, everything is topsy-turvey," said Keiber, who added that a number of mid-sized clubs, like TT's, having closed in the past few years. "It would just suck to lose another club. What, would that mean we would only be able to play at larger 1,000 capacity venues or coffee houses? Is that really the only option we have? That would really be upsetting."

Read more: Musicians Go Live To Survive Tough Times

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).Have a press release you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how to post a press release, opinion piece.