Maxwell’s will say goodbye with a farewell block party on July 31
Maxwell’s
1039 Washington St., Hoboken
Wednesday, July 31, free, 4:00
201-798-0406
www.maxwellsnj.com
For more than thirty years, Maxwell’s has been a key part of the metropolitan music scene, hosting a diverse array of emerging and established indie and alternative bands in an intimate environment in Hoboken. Over the decades, such bands as Nirvana and Sonic Youth, the Bongos and Yo La Tengo, R.E.M. and the Replacements, the Pixies and Lucinda Williams, and the Psychedelic Furs and the Feelies played there; we remember seeing great shows by Bob Mould, Robyn Hitchcock, fIREHOSE, Richard Thompson, and the Mekons at the Washington St. venue. But on Wednesday, July 31, Maxwell’s will join other recently shuttered local venues, most notably CBGBs, when it closes for good. In this case, however, co-owner Todd Abramson is not walking away because of a rent dispute or because the club is broke; he just feels it’s time. (He’ll continue booking shows at the Bell House in Brooklyn.) Maxwell’s farewell tour has included July performances by Freedy Johnston, Ted Leo, Screaming Females, Mission of Burma, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Ian Hunter and the Rant Band, and the Muffs. On July 31, the club will say goodbye with a free block party beginning at 4:00, featuring an unannounced lineup that is expected to feature “a,” the first band to play Maxwell’s, way back in 1978, along with DJs spinning tunes from the myriad groups that have rocked the house over the years.