Goodbye Tonic

[7/4]

March 31, 2007

Avant-Garde Music Loses a Lower Manhattan Home

By BEN SISARIO

The New York music scene can usually absorb the loss of one club or another without too much difficulty. If one shuts down, another will open pretty soon.

But when the Lower East Side club Tonic closes after a performance by John Zorn on April 13, it will be an especially hard blow. For nine years, this tiny room on Norfolk Street, in the former home of the Kedem kosher winery, has been the focal point of the downtown avant-garde scene, with an eclectic booking policy bridging jazz, noise-rock, folk and all sorts of unclassifiable styles.

“Tonic was the last bastion in Manhattan of live, creative music,” said Steven Bernstein, a trumpeter whose bands Sex Mob and the Millennial Territory Orchestra have been fixtures there.

As gentrification has spread through the Lower East Side, Tonic has felt the pinch. Gleaming new apartment high-rises have gone up on either side of the club, and recent raids by the authorities closed its downstairs bar, cutting off a critical source of revenue.

“We just can’t make enough money there,” said Melissa Caruso-Scott, one of the owners. “We’re just looking to break even, and once it became clear that we couldn’t do that, it became obvious that we had to put an end to it.”

Rent was about $10,000 a month but the club has not been able to pay it for months, she said.

Tonic’s story is familiar. Last fall CBGB shut down after a longstanding dispute with its landlord, and tomorrow Sin-é, three blocks east of Tonic on Attorney Street and faced with similar real estate woes, will have its last concert.

When it opened in March 1998, Tonic quickly became a favorite of musicians and a prestigious standout on any tour itinerary.

Among the acts who have played there over the years are Cat Power, Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono, Cecil Taylor, Dave Douglas, Norah Jones and the band Medeski Martin & Wood.

“It was always just the most comfortable, most artist-centric venue that we played,” said John Colpitts, a k a Kid Millions, the drummer of the Brooklyn band Oneida, which played Tonic last Saturday.

Tonic will continue to present concerts elsewhere, including the Abrons Arts Center on Grand Street. And experimental music has other homes, including several new spots in Brooklyn as well as the Stone, an even tinier room on Avenue C and Second Street that Mr. Zorn opened two years ago.

But the slow disappearance of such clubs in Lower Manhattan has not been lost on Mr. Bernstein.

“My band closes some of the biggest festivals in Europe,” he said. “Meanwhile there’s only one club I can play in New York and it’s about to close.”

[alocispepraluger102]

March 31, 2007

Avant-Garde Music Loses a Lower Manhattan Home

By BEN SISARIO

The New York music scene can usually absorb the loss of one club or another without too much difficulty. If one shuts down, another will open pretty soon.

But when the Lower East Side club Tonic closes after a performance by John Zorn on April 13, it will be an especially hard blow. For nine years, this tiny room on Norfolk Street, in the former home of the Kedem kosher winery, has been the focal point of the downtown avant-garde scene, with an eclectic booking policy bridging jazz, noise-rock, folk and all sorts of unclassifiable styles.

“Tonic was the last bastion in Manhattan of live, creative music,” said Steven Bernstein, a trumpeter whose bands Sex Mob and the Millennial Territory Orchestra have been fixtures there.

As gentrification has spread through the Lower East Side, Tonic has felt the pinch. Gleaming new apartment high-rises have gone up on either side of the club, and recent raids by the authorities closed its downstairs bar, cutting off a critical source of revenue.

“We just can’t make enough money there,” said Melissa Caruso-Scott, one of the owners. “We’re just looking to break even, and once it became clear that we couldn’t do that, it became obvious that we had to put an end to it.”

Rent was about $10,000 a month but the club has not been able to pay it for months, she said.

Tonic’s story is familiar. Last fall CBGB shut down after a longstanding dispute with its landlord, and tomorrow Sin-é, three blocks east of Tonic on Attorney Street and faced with similar real estate woes, will have its last concert.

When it opened in March 1998, Tonic quickly became a favorite of musicians and a prestigious standout on any tour itinerary.

Among the acts who have played there over the years are Cat Power, Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono, Cecil Taylor, Dave Douglas, Norah Jones and the band Medeski Martin & Wood.

“It was always just the most comfortable, most artist-centric venue that we played,” said John Colpitts, a k a Kid Millions, the drummer of the Brooklyn band Oneida, which played Tonic last Saturday.

Tonic will continue to present concerts elsewhere, including the Abrons Arts Center on Grand Street. And experimental music has other homes, including several new spots in Brooklyn as well as the Stone, an even tinier room on Avenue C and Second Street that Mr. Zorn opened two years ago.

But the slow disappearance of such clubs in Lower Manhattan has not been lost on Mr. Bernstein.

“My band closes some of the biggest festivals in Europe,” he said. “Meanwhile there’s only one club I can play in New York and it’s about to close.”

terrible news indeed.

are the areas where lots of creative musicians live developing any sort of neighborhood bars/clubs to offset this sort of thing?

[J Larsen]

terrible news indeed.

are the areas where lots of creative musicians live developing any sort of neighborhood bars/clubs to offset this sort of thing?

I'm not sure what areas those would be. At that income level, you end up taking whatever you can find wherever you can find it, so my impression is that they are pretty scattered throughout the boroughs, mostly living in ethnic neighborhoods where such venues would be out of place. But that is just my impression, based on the experience of the handful of musicians that I know.

[J Larsen]

Tonic is by far my favorite place in all of NYC. For the past seven years, if I felt like going out but couldn't think of anything in particular to do, my default has always been to head over to Tonic, which is about a 10 min walk from my apartment. When I was there last weekend, I saw the sign that the basement had been condemned (per the official city notice, it wasn't a "raid" on the bar per se, but rather a condemnation by the heatlh department), I turned to my friend and told her that would be the end of Tonic. I'm sad to be right.

[J Larsen]

BTW, that new "luxury condo" that just opened next door to Tonic is hands down the ugliest building that has gone up in NYC in the last several years (maybe ever):

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8477/blue02ctu2.jpg

That is a real photo, not an artists' interpretation.

[alocispepraluger102]

BTW, that new "luxury condo" that just opened next door to Tonic is hands down the ugliest building that has gone up in NYC in the last several years (maybe ever):

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8477/blue02ctu2.jpg

That is a real photo, not an artists' interpretation.

cant be

[Adam]

But it is blue.

The loss of Tonic sucks!

Maybe it's time to give up on Manhatten and just open places like it in Brooklyn.

[Alexander]

But when the Lower East Side club Tonic closes after a performance by John Zorn on April 13, it will be an especially hard blow. For nine years, this tiny room on Norfolk Street, in the former home of the Kedem kosher winery, has been the focal point of the downtown avant-garde scene, with an eclectic booking policy bridging jazz, noise-rock, folk and all sorts of unclassifiable styles.

There's your problem right there. People don't want "unclassifiable." They want to be able to pack everything into nice, neat boxes. Anything that goes outside of that can't be marketed.

[J Larsen]

Tonic never seemed to be hurting for attendance, especially not downstairs. If they hadn't lost the downstairs, I doubt they'd be closing.

[J Larsen]

BTW, that new "luxury condo" that just opened next door to Tonic is hands down the ugliest building that has gone up in NYC in the last several years (maybe ever):

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8477/blue02ctu2.jpg

That is a real photo, not an artists' interpretation.

cant be

I hate to say it, but it really is. Worst part is I may have a view of it from my new apartment. The blue colors are even more ridiculous looking in person than in the picture.

Here is another page of photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/iceberg18/sets/72057594099741071/

This one in particular is pretty close to what the finished product looks like in person:

http://flickr.com/photos/iceberg18/2272870...57594099741071/

I'm sure the developers are happy to see their next door neighbor close its doors.

Edited March 31, 2007 by J Larsen

[brownie]

John Zorn with Milford Graves, Bill Laswell, etc... at Tonic

[J Larsen]

I was at that show!

For that matter, I'm in that video...

Edited April 1, 2007 by J Larsen

[7/4]

Laswell plays the A Love Supreme riff at the end...

I was at that show!

For that matter, I'm in that video...

I make a similar cameo in the beginning of the Derek Bailey Playing for Friends on 5th Street DVD.

edit: that's me on the left with the glasses.

Edited April 1, 2007 by 7/4

[J Larsen]

Funny, I was just thinking of throwing that DVD in today.

I'm the guy whose head is in the way every time the camera pans across the stage in that YouTube video.

[7/4]

Funny, I was just thinking of throwing that DVD in today.

It deserves a spin here too. It's been a while since I watched it.

[brownie]

More from the John Zorn/Milford Graves gig at Tonic...

[J Larsen]

You get to see throwing back an Anchor Steam in that one.

[J Larsen]

Funny, I was just thinking of throwing that DVD in today.

It deserves a spin here too. It's been a while since I watched it.

It's a great video, but I wish they hadn't added the cheesy video effects - it looks like the producer was learning his editing program as he went along.

[7/4]

Funny, I was just thinking of throwing that DVD in today.

It deserves a spin here too. It's been a while since I watched it.

It's a great video, but I wish they hadn't added the cheesy video effects - it looks like the producer was learning his editing program as he went along.

That's exactly what happened. First day with a new camera.

[J Larsen]

Funny, I was just thinking of throwing that DVD in today.

It deserves a spin here too. It's been a while since I watched it.

It's a great video, but I wish they hadn't added the cheesy video effects - it looks like the producer was learning his editing program as he went along.

That's exactly what happened. First day with a new camera.

Whoops - were you the camera man?

[7/4]

Funny, I was just thinking of throwing that DVD in today.

It deserves a spin here too. It's been a while since I watched it.

It's a great video, but I wish they hadn't added the cheesy video effects - it looks like the producer was learning his editing program as he went along.

That's exactly what happened. First day with a new camera.

Whoops - were you the camera man?

No, no, no. I know the owner of the store, so I know the story. You are the not the first one to complain.

Edited April 1, 2007 by 7/4

[J Larsen]

Is it one owner or two? I always got the impression that the big guy and the slender guy were partners.

[JSngry]

What are the odds that the "gentrification" of the neighborhood & the health department "raid" on Tonic are totally unrealted coincidences?

[7/4]

Is it one owner or two? I always got the impression that the big guy and the slender guy were partners.

Because they seem to need marrage counseling?

Bruce, the slender guy, is the owner. At some point, he gave Manny, the fat loud guy, a job and started calling him his partner. I have no idea how much a partner Manny is. If he talks when you're in the store, ignore him. If you see him on the street, cross and start running in the other direction. Homeland security keeps visiting and asking if I know him.

Edited April 1, 2007 by 7/4

[J Larsen]

Maybe I shouldn't say this in public, but Manny is the reason I almost never go in DMG, despite living about two minutes away. Seeing how he treats some of the staff has really embarrased me on more than one ocassion. Plus he has denied the existance of several albums that I was looking for, which is just annoying. Bruce has always seemed like a really nice guy to me. I run into him at shows all the time - he coincidently sat next to me at Cecil Taylor a few weeks ago and was right behind me at the Braxton show last night.