Freak Scene #74: Goodbye, Calvin Theatre Liquor License
With the Northampton License Commission set to reassign the license next week by lottery, a hoped-for lease agreement to reopen the venue appears dead.
A Guide to Music in Western Mass. (and sometimes Connecticut)
This week in Freak Scene, the potential deal between Eric Suher and the Bowery Presents to lease the Calvin Theatre is effectively dead.
Where do you even start with this mess? More than a year and a half after Calvin Theatre owner Eric Suher told the Northampton License Commission that he planned to lease the venue to the Bowery Presents, the deal is effectively dead for now — though no one will definitively say so.
Yet all the confirmation necessary is on the agenda for the license commission’s monthly meeting next Wednesday, July 16, when they will hold a lottery to reassign the license to another business. When Jim Glancy, a partner with the Bowery Presents, met with the license commission in October 2023, he said that having a liquor license would be critical if his company were to take over operation of the 1,300-capacity theater. Glancy didn’t respond to an inquiry, but without a liquor license, taking over the Calvin probably doesn’t make financial sense for the New York-based promoter. The Bowery Presents had planned to book the Calvin in conjunction with the Burlington, Vt., concert promoter Higher Ground.
All that stood in the way of finalizing a deal between the Bowery Presents and Suher was Suher’s signature on the lease agreement, city officials told me in December. No one seems to know why he hasn’t signed it, and he’s made himself unreachable to inquiries from reporters.
Whatever his reasons, the license commission voted in March to revoke the liquor license that Suher had held for the Calvin, but didn’t immediately hand it off to anyone else. Pocketing the license for a few months theoretically would have allowed a new tenant in the Calvin to have applied for it. Now, though, applicants for the lottery must already hold a wine & malt beverages license, but not an all-alcohol license, in Northampton, be open three or more days per week, and cannot have had a previous license revoked. Those conditions preclude applications from Suher or a new Calvin tenant, should one emerge before July 16.
If Suher comes around and leases the building — and a second music promoter has apparently expressed interest — the mayor’s office could petition the state for an additional license. That would require the approval of the legislature, which wouldn’t happen overnight (though there’s a movement to reform that process).
Two big questions arise from all this. First, are there any legal mechanisms available to the city to get a tenant into the Calvin (or any other vacant commercial property, of which Suher owns many)? Yes. There’s the Massachusetts Vacant Storefront Program, which offers municipalities up to $50,000 worth of tax credits to deploy as an incentive for property owners to fill storefronts in downtown or commercial areas. There are also punitive measures: Boston city councilors last year held a hearing to consider a vacancy tax, modeled after a San Francisco measure that charges $250 per square foot of frontage space on retail properties that sit empty for more than six months. In Somerville, the city in 2021 used eminent domain to take control of a former armory building used for the arts. It’s not clear whether Northampton is considering similar options for the Calvin, though the mayor’s office says that having the venue operating is a “critical piece” of the downtown economy.
The second question is one I hear a lot: what is Suher’s deal? Surely finding tenants for his vacant buildings would benefit him financially more than letting them sit empty. There’s a wide array of fanciful theories about why he’s managing his downtown properties the way he is, but no one knows for sure, and he hasn’t said. The most revealing hint Suher has ever offered came in 2005 when he told Fortune Small Business magazine that he hates selling properties he’s bought. Instead, he’s essentially hoarding them, to the community’s detriment.
Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself
Since I started this newsletter 17 months ago, a lot of new readers have come on board, for which I am grateful. Welcome! There’s an excellent chance that many, or most, of you haven’t combed meticulously through the ever-expanding Freak Scene archive. It’s also possible that you’re not steeped in the arcana of the ’80s indie-rock underground. So, maybe you’re wondering: what’s with the name Freak Scene? So glad you asked.
This newsletter is named after the song “Freak Scene” by Dinosaur Jr., which opened the band’s third album, Bug, in 1988. As I noted in the first issue, “The Amherst trio helped focus national attention on Western Massachusetts at the height of the ’80s indie underground, though the group is still sometimes lumped in with Boston acts.” The song is a lo-fi riot of churning guitars, but it’s also catchy and disarmingly sincere.
A friend suggested the name (thanks, Dave!), and it instantly seemed like a good fit: Dinosaur Jr. are local, they’re influential and they also gave me their blessing to borrow the title of their song. So, thanks to them, too. Other questions? Ask away!
I’m away on vacation at the moment, so that’s it for this week. Freak Scene is always seeking submissions. You can send music for coverage consideration to erdanton at gmail or reply to this email. Check out these guidelines first.
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