Sad, and then More Sad

Maxwell's is closing.  It's surreal.  For all the changes that have happened in Hoboken, Maxwell's was one place I was sure would endure, would fight the good fight until the tolling of the final bell.

A lot is happening in this crazy world, but right now, it all takes a back seat to the moment of silence we need to respect for this imminent loss.

I get it.  The people who make Maxwell's Maxwell's are moving on, going where the life is, where the ground is still fertile for the kind of creativity that once grew in the rotting wood of the waterfront.  And it's true that the green spaces and some of the restaurants are nice, but the condos have taken more than they have given, and we'll be biting back tears for a while.

The list of acts I've seen perform at this temple, four blocks from my home, over the last I don't even want to say how many years, includes, among others:

Alex Chilton
Nels Cline
The Baseball Project
Bonnie Prince Billy
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Harvey Sid Fisher
Magnetic Fields
Mission of Burma
Roy Loney
New Pornographers
Kurt Vile
Doug Gillard

And, yes, The Feelies, Richard Barone, Spent, and of course Yo La Tengo.

We've lost other clubs, and theaters, and record stores and book stores and restaurants and coffee shops and somehow we go on.  But it's driving me a little insane that the yuppies are driving out what a hurricane couldn't budge.  Next month.

I feel like gravity has been revoked.