The opinions expressed above do not in any way reflect…
The records will show that John Zorn played the final concert at Tonic, last night. The music itself? Not fading away. Walking to today’s 11am protest in front of the club, I expected to find something rather impotent, but the loose-knit group—including musician and longtime LES resident Rebecca Moore and Vision Festival organizer Patricia Nicholson-Parker—has the right idea(s). As movers loaded out fixtures from the club, Marc Ribot and others have been inside, onstage, playing for an audience of about 50, ostensibly without the foreknowledge of Tonic co-owner John Scott, who looked on with an expression that came to be familiar to Tonic-goers over the years: smiling and calm, with a patina of worry.
Marc Ribot, like, ten minutes ago at Tonic
There’s a lot more to come from this group of musicians and activists, including a Tuesday-afternoon press conference at City Hall (check takeittothebridge.com for info), but the plan for today is to continue playing right up till 3pm, when Tonic’s landlord is scheduled to come by to take the keys. The group is asking that all musicians who can get down to Tonic with their instruments be there by 3pm. No one there seems the least bit interested in being arrested or committing any violent acts—merely to wail some musical truth to power and spread the word about the impact all those condos are having on the LES’s cultural scene. A music-in, or something. See you back down there.
Update: The last piece of music played at Tonic was “Bread and Roses,” performed at about 4pm by Marc Ribot on guitar and vocals with Rebecca Moore on piano. It was a pretty nice way to go. Two cops stood by, letting them finish the song; afterward, Ribot shook one of the officer’s hands. Then the cop more or less politely asked everyone to leave, and everyone more or less did, slowly. Both Tonic owners were present at the end, with their month-old boy, Addison; at one point he started to cry, and his dad looked up and said, “He just doesn’t like cops.”
Just updating this story that Marc and I were indeed arrested that day, in our attempt to keep the music playing at Tonic, the performance space this music community had raised over $100,000 dollars in funds to try to keep open and attempt to keep the rent paid. Nothing can pay these insane rents in NYC, no art or community can survive under these circumstances. Brooklyn and Queens are not exempt and falling prey to the same circumstances. It is not a coincidence that the Blue Building Luxury Condo building is now finished, people are moving in to their million dollar residents there, and Tonic has had to shut down. I submitted myself to arrest for this reason, and hope word spreads and others are moved to stand up against real estate being the sole determining factor of what culture and art and music and people get to stay in NYC.
You’re rad!
Boooo Tonic! Hurray Blue! We need more condos so that the supplies can go up and prices will go down! My family and I need to live in Manhattan! Who the hell care about experimental music!