Friday, April 26, 2013

NoDa venue reopening postponed; Foals moved

Opening night at NoDa's Neighborhood Theatre has been postponed. The theater, which has been undergoing renovations since early March, was set to reopen Wednesday with a concert from the UK band Foals (pictured). That show will now take place at Visulite Theatre.

"We've taken on so many changes in the room, especially on the bar side. We knew we were pushing it to the wire," explains Gregg McCraw of MaxxMusic, who recently took over managing and booking the venue.

McCraw, who books concerts at Double Door, Evening Muse, and Blumenthal Performing Arts venues, decided to move the concert to one of the other venues he works with to give the new Neighborhood Theatre a few more days to acquire its certificate of occupancy in order to operate legally.

Concert goers should check the venue's website for updates on upcoming shows. An announcement as to where the Paul Thorn Band concert currently scheduled for Saturday, May 4, will take place should come soon. McCraw expects the renovated venue to be open by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart's show on May 8.

Renovations include a new PA and lights, fresh paint, new bathrooms, a new stage curtain and completely new bar.

"The bar area you’d not recognize. It’s so completely different," McCraw adds. "About the only thing that’s the same is the marquee letters. There was public outcry for those to stay."

Changes will continue even after the club reopens. 

"The logo right now has a gear that says 'under construction.'  We'll keep that for a while. We had a long list of things that needed to be done and we’re clearly not going to get everything done even if (we open) May 4. It's going to be a work in progress. There’s a lot of little things that we want to get done over the next few months," he says. 

"We're disappointed we didn’t get to open up the day we wanted to, but the show goes on," he says of the move to Visulite. "When we open the doors people are going to see why it took a little longer to get open.”

Tickets for Foals' show with Surfer Blood and Blondfire are still available. Previously purchased tickets will be honored at Visulite Wednesday.