At this point, it’s almost getting to be a tired Philebrity trope to lament What South Street Has Become — which is to say, how the street has deconstructed and imploded over the last decade or so, as both chain and local stores have moved away/gone under, to be replaced by one of three options: A) Nothing; B) a worse chain than the one that was there in the first place (see Tower>Walgreen’s): or C) a cel phone store. But could it be that the street is cycling back to something of original self? This is the hope we almost dare not to utter, but it’s also the first thing we thought when we got the news that J.C. Dobbs, once the venerable and definitive South Street live music venue, is re-opening. If you are of a certain age and rockist leaning, you have no doubt bored people to tears with the stories about the time you almost saw Nirvana there/did see Cat Power not freak out there, or better still, smoked a joint in the dressing room with The Go-Betweens and Bethany Klein. Whoa! Point is, there was a time when Dobbs was the only game in town for young, up-and-coming bands both local and otherwise; and then it morphed into the Pontiac Grille, which never really caught on in the iconic way that Dobbs did. But come June 25th, Dobbs will regain its proper place on South Street, when the venue opens its doors with an appopriately scuzzy bill featuring, among others, The Lustkillers, (members of Lords of The New Church/Black Halos) and DJ Twig from Trash/Glamdammit NYC. According to one of the venue’s new bookers, Candace Kilstein, Dobbs is under the new ownership of Hank Henry and Heshey Schlachterman, who’ve gone a long way to de-Pontiac-ing: “There have been renovations and the place is looking great,” she says. “The main stage is on the first floor where large shows will be held and the second floor stage will be used for more acoustic/loungey events.” No word on whether the big neon “D” will be replaced behind the drum riser, but something tells us it can’t be far off. At the very least, though, now you’ll have somewhere very close to Lorenzo’s where you can get drunk enough to eat Lorenzo’s.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 11:55 am.