A minute before midnight on January 28, Gravity Lounge manager Bill Baldwin sent a mass e-mail addressed to "friend[s] of Gravity Lounge." The e-mail mentioned that Gravity Lounge was "faced with closure—within a few days," and then named the price for keeping the space open: roughly $200,000.
In the e-mail, Baldwin mentions the space’s financial difficulties—start-up capital that ran out when the space opened, slow revenues that could not reliably cover expenses. He elaborated in a phone interview with C-VILLE.
"About $200,000 would allow us to pay off all of the debt and try to re-launch as a nonprofit," said Baldwin. "Which is probably the only way such a venture is viable in the future." Particularly when faced with local venue competition: The Jefferson Theater, Coran Capshaw’s music hall located within blocks of Gravity Lounge, is slated to open towards the end of 2009.
Baldwin’s e-mail includes a link to a page on Gravity Lounge’s website where people may donate money in the amounts of $25, $100, $250 and $1,000. He added that others have sent checks to Gravity Lounge’s mailing address.
“I’m not proud," said Baldwin. "We’ll take help from wherever we can get it.”
More after the photo.
Gravity Lounge hosts a wealth of local musicians (including longtime Gravity guest Paul Curreri, pictured), in addition to regional and national touring acts.
Recently, Gravity Lounge hosted songwriter Alejandro Escovedo for what was said to be a large crowd that paid between $20 and $25 for the show; the space also hosted two sold-out gigs by folk musician Bonnie "Prince" Billy last August, and was voted "Best Small Venue" in C-VILLE’s 2008 "Best Of" issue.
And such concerts are indicators of the space’s success on certain nights; not every show, according to Baldwin, lost money. However, he estimates that the $200,000 price tag averages to roughly a $100 loss per concert at the venue.
So here’s the question, folks, with a hefty price tag before us and a few closed music venues in our wake: Do we need Gravity Lounge as a music venue?
