What would you do with The Lantern?
My colleague Amy Matzke-Fawcett, at the New River bureau, turned in this piece on The Lantern’s demise.
The room brought in a good many bands over the past year. I only got down there a couple of times, but it was everything I love in a rock ‘n’ roll dive. The room was sort of colorfully dingy, with good, greasy food and a beat-up stage with no buffer between band and crowd — in short, a great indie-rock Chitlin’ circuit joint.
I’d love to see someone with some gumption rent that room and let it be what it’s made for. What would you do with The Lantern?
August 11, 2009 - 11:53 AM
Lack of food sales crushed the lantern. The commonwealth requires a certain percentage of food sales to qualify for a liquor by the drink ABC license. Obviously in a college town people want to drink and mark up on liquor by the drink results in large profits. Since they never sold enough food and where unable to then sell liqour they never made squat for money. IMP there seemed to be some other management decisions that could have been better but they gave it their best. I hope someone can get something rolling in that building but i won’t hold my breath, b’burg has been w/o a viable music venue for sometime now. Sign o’ the times i guess.
I played at Pedro’s for a year or so of Wednesday nights back in the 90s. Even though cigarette smoke hovered at head level when on stage, the acoustics were pretty bad, and the road-in was awful, I had fun playing there. It should be resurrected into a music club since there are so few left in the New river Valley.
I am not from Blacksburg, but in my opinion they already have more restaurants than they can support. A place with the Lantern’s vibe isn’t going to pack in people looking to eat unless the food is exceptional and it seems like the food side of the business was an afterthought. If I owned the Lantern I would look into the Virginia laws as it pertains to private clubs. If the law is favorable you wouldn’t have to sell a ton of food, could rent the facility out to organizations for parties, and still bring in quality bands. Whoever gets the Lantern has their work cut out for them. Blacksburg is the high rent district of the NRV and making enough cash to be profitable will be very tough.
I have played there 3 different times and everytime it was under different ownership.I like the place but nothing ever succeeds there which is unfortunate
Case inspires the question — is this a cursed business site? You know, the spots where nothing ever seems to last, no matter what the concept.
The last band I was in played there a couple times when it was called Waterstreet, I think, and it was a great bar with a great stage setup for the band and crowd.
You always hear of college towns getting some of the best small club shows(indie,punk,alternative,etc) from some of the best smaller national touring acts.
Not Blacksburg…..
Went to Chapel Hill a couple months ago to check out a band I like at a club called Local 506.
They have sooo many acts rolling through there nonstop and the place is a dive.Good sound and nice people, but it’s a concrete floor dive.
Of course, ABC laws are different in NC, and that bar doesn’t even sell food.
If this state relaxed the ABC/food sales laws I think we’d see some change for the better.
I think what Eric said curses alot of spots in Virgina when it comes to the ABC laws.Most of these venues in SW VA usually change multiple times.Every venue in Roanoke has changed pretty much except Awful Arthurs and Cornbeef.Market St Pub has closed now also.I do think the Lantern is in a bad location.It is on a side street with minimal parking around alot of other choices to eat which hurts its food sales.