Thanks to the tipster who sent us this cameraphone shot of the sign that was once outside New York’s Irving Plaza, which was felled to make way for the most dubious bit of rebranding since Jefferson Starship chopped off the first half of its name. Remember, everyone: Next year, you cant cant say, “I went to Irving Plaza last night for the PLUG Awards, and man, did they suck!” You have to say, “I went to The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza last night for the PLUG Awards, and man, did they suck!”
Earlier: Live Nation Tries To Paint Over Its Uptight Corporate Image With Gaudy Psychedelic Paint
The same thing is happening to the State Theatre in downtown Detroit. Can’t even pretend that the State has near the cachet that Irving Plaza does but it still sucks.
Bill Graham just stood up, wiped his chin, and said to himself, “Huh. So you can still vomit in heaven.”
new york is so done.
and i’m from there.
Ha! I just passed there on my way back to work from Guitar Center and the sign was completely gone. I didn’t know they just did that today.
Bob Lefsetz had a good article on this insanity. $30 dollar tickets and $7 beers aren’t more palatable because the club shares the name with an awesome Zappa live record…
come on, everyone knows Bill Graham’s address is considerably south of heaven… given Irving Plaza’s history, a more probable reaction to this news from up there would be “A pig is a pig and that’s that.”
The Plasmatics quickly outgrew CBGBs because there were no intermediate rock venues to play in NY at that time. So Rod made a deal to book a then little known polka hall called Irving Plaza from the Polish War Veterans who ran it. The sold-out crowds Wendy and the band drew here helped put Irving Plaza on the map and launch it on the path to becoming an established rock venue in NY.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim think that’s a stupid name.
FilNYIP? FiNYIrP? I shudder to imagine what will happen when the bococafication starts…
Though the future of Chumley’s still hangs in the balance, let’s turn our eye for a moment to some other news fresh off the ‘wire. TRIBECA—If you were wondering what, exactly, was opening up in the space that formerly housed Italian restaurant Dominic on Greenwich St, wonder no more.
Behold: new signage at the music venue once known—in a quaint, far-away time—as Irving Plaza. We linked to the above photo of it yesterday, but an email to the Curbed inbox has convinced us this glorious spot of branding deserves to be more widely seen.