This is very funny.. if you read Seth's quote you can tell he thinks this whole deal is to serve the interests of HIS community or the people who go to the 930 and play the 930.. if you don't go to the 930 or play the 930 currently you really don't exist apparently.. it is a very very strange way of talking about it...:
?There a lot of acts who want to work with us, love the 9:30 Club, want to play downtown, but would understandably like to try something different. And I think our audience will appreciate the variety as well,? said Hurwitz, who was reached via email while on a flight. ?My thing is to fit the right venue with the right show, and this gives us one more tool in our box to do that?a tool we didn?t have. I like to push boundaries?we will do that here, to everyone?s delight I hope.?
Hurwitz said that the venue would accommodate seated shows and comedy acts that had previously been booked at the 9:30 Club. He plans to staff the theater with employees from his other venues.
You are part of his community so what are you complaining about? Of course, he is concerned about his business. For some reason you don't understand why Seth books bands. It is to make money. Not to make you happy. If he started booking bands that you didn't like you wouldn't go to the shows just because you cared about Seth. He didn't agree to take over the Lincoln Theater to create a diverse place for everyone in the community to be served equally. That is the government's job. They give grants to venues to help them do this.
The only events that I have ever been to that had a true diverse audience was the Reggae Festival at pier 6 a few years back and the Jazz Festival in Montreal. Most events are made up of people of a certain race, economic class, and and age group. And a lot of time there are a lot more women at events than men that I go to.
Except the government owns this venue so I don't think its going to work very well for the government to own a venue that serves the interests of Seth's community.. something about what Seth said and the Executive Director of the DC Comisssion on Arts said just doesn't match...
of course we know the deal: the place is a money loser and the city is just glad to get essentially get rid of it (at least no more subsidies)...they can't say this though...I guess ultimately they will get some sort of canon out of it (cut) and they can use that canon to benefit the people of DC.
But for Seth to say "Yeah I'm taking over the management of this historic venue and its just basically going to be just like the 930 except it has seats.. and yeah the acts and people coming will be the same.."
so yeah if you like the 930 and you don't give a shit about the lincoln theatre's history or its role in the african american community or the fact that Billie Holiday played there.. if that means nothing to you.. if all you care about is seeing the same acts roll through town, with the same people in the crowd.. then yeah, this deal's for you buddy.
or you can go to the Howard Theatre where they do care about the place's history and they take pride in it and they serve the general DC community...
two models..take your pick. what is so funny is that they were both arguably implemented by the same city, within a few years of each other, and are only a few blocks from each other...