...we received the shocking and sad news that The Goldhawk in Hoboken will
be closing it's doors forever on July 11th. After hearing the news from
Dave Entwistle, who hosts the open mike night and books all of the music,
I started to think about how much this meant to me, and about how this
event is just representative of what's going with the live music scene, at
least in this area.

First, let me wax nostalgic. Back in the early 80's, a friend of mine
who grew up here described Hoboken as 'a place you went to if you wanted
to get mugged'. Anyone who's from Jersey knows what happened next-
artists moved in because the rent was cheap. It was super close to
Manhattan; cool shops, restaurants and bars started popping up all over
the place. And God smiled at his handiwork. But because nothing good
lasts forever, and because in NJ, this process of turning something good
into a piece of crap is always accelerated, the inevitable happened. The
yuppies came and drove the rents up, gentrification began, and now you have
present-day Hoboken, weekend playground for tri-state fratboys, DJ's, and
body-shot drinking trollups. The same thing has happened in other urban
Jersey towns. Even the hallowed Lower East Side has turned into
Disneyland. Have you been there lately? Lou Reed would roll over in his
grave- and he's not even dead!

The Hoboken I will always remember was the one around the time that the
morphing into yuppie-dom began. The beginning of the end, so to speak. I
was just out of high school. There was an indie music scene here, bonafide
and true. Maybe not as cool as Williamsburg or the Lower East Side was in
it's heyday, certainly not as big, but it was something to call our own.
It was respected around the country. There were tons of live music
places. Hoboken, not New Brunswick, not Asbury Park, was THE music
capital of NJ. The Goldhawk is a throwback to these days of glory. It is
the last remnant of a time where people actually got excited about seeing
original live music. And now, it's going to be gone. Maxwell's is a
great venue, the best small club in NJ, but that's not grassroots, and it
really never was.

Ironically, it was a Canadian, the aforementioned Dave Entwistle, and not
a Jersey local, who save the scene. Maybe it was his naivete, or his lack
of familiarity with the area and the attitudes of its people that helped
him achieve his success. One thing I know is that he loves music, and he
supports the scene with the enthusiasm of someone who has just stumbled
across their first Led Zeppelin record. I give Dave tons of credit and
wish him well in the future. This past April, he and The Goldhawk hosted
the 1st Annual Hoboken Music awards. We were honored to be the band that
opened the show. Afterwards, in a packed house full of artists,
journalists and music lovers, I looked around the club with and thought
'Man, maybe there is hope after all'. And now this.