The Echo Lounge closed for good this past weekend (liquor license issues).
The Masquerade closes later this year.
The Cotton Club is gone, too.

Strange. All three mid-sized clubs hosted plenty of great bands. I'm sure there will be others opening to fill the void, but this could be the worst Atlanta has seen in over a decade.

I still don't get the Cotton Club closing when it was basically free rent space in the bottom of the Tabernacle. Echo Lounge was pretty much THE place to see up and coming bands. Masquerade has kind of sucked for awhile now, but they were around since '89 and used to host some bigger names.

Times change.

That's thoroughly disappointing to read.

I lived in Atlanta back in 1990 for a while. I loved to go dancing at The Masquerade.

More recently, I saw The Donnas there and it was a packed show.

This is all happening so that they can push Underground as an attraction. They are buying up all these good clubs and letting the owners re-open in Underground with less restrictive alcohol liscenses etc. to attract more people and more tax revenue etc.

Nevermind that going to Underground is about as safe as Compton. You can forget about ever seeing any good shows at these clubs. I know some bands that just skip over Atlanta entirely at this point. So now we're stuck with shitty mainstream crap.

Underground as in the mall? Where is the space in that "mall" for a music venue. It's been about a good 8 years since I've been in that mall, but I don't remember any sort of space for music.

Hmmm, are you speculating about this or do you know this for sure? Who is buying all these clubs? Masquerade is turning into possible condos. Echo lost their liquor license. Cotton Club I'm not sure about. I think you are right about some clubs moving to Underground, but the ones I mentioned aren't part of that push. When Underground Atlanta reopened in the late 80's there were a few clubs down there (many music-related) and for a time people actually went. It will be interesting to see if they can get people to go back down there again at night. I have zero desire to be around that crappy area.

From a Creative Loafing article:

Well, it *is* no accident that the new alcohol laws have a specific exemption for venues at Underground Atlanta. Make of that what you will. I can see where some club owners would jump at the chance to be able to serve until 4am, but I wouldn't be caught dead at Underground at that time of the morning. Well, I actually probably *would* be dead, given the crime rate. But I digress....

I never quite understood the whole "Cotton Club at The Tabernacle" thing (in my book, the only Cotton Club was on Peachtree near 10th). And The Masquerade could have closed 5 years ago for all I care. And I never went to the Echo Lounge, so in that case I don't know what I missed.

But if you think Atlanta's bad, move to Charlotte. No decent bands *ever* come here, which is why the missus and I braved "Ice Storm 2005" to come see Keane at the Roxy this weekend. Of course, lots of good bands play at Chapel Hill, but driving there from Charlotte takes as long as driving to Atlanta. And since I'm from Atlanta, I can get free room, board and food from friends or family, which is a much better deal.

Anyway, even the clubs here are bad. There's only like three of them and two of them are notorious for padding your tab. It's so bad that the missus and I bought an HDTV 'cos we spend so much time at home lately.

Sorry for the rant. As much as it sucks, I can't feel any sympathy for you guys. Lucky bastards.

Yeah, I've been to both of the Cotton Clubs, and I greatly preferred its days on Peachtree.

The Tremont Music Hall in Charlotte seemed to get some pretty good acts, at least once upon a time. I saw Tuscadero there when I was in college and had a great time. Charlotte's still in better shape musically than Greenville. Even Charleston and Columbia, despite being considerably smaller, have something resembling a scene, but Greenville hardly has any place for local acts to play. If a band's not playing an arena (The Bi-Lo Center) and isn't a bluegrass act (The Handlebar, who does periodically book other kind of acts, but no one I'd really want to see), I have to drive to Atlanta or the Orange Peel in Asheville to see pretty much anything.

I haven't been to Atlanta in quite some time, but I definitely saw some excellent shows at the Masquerade, and I just loved the building. To me that was an Atlanta icon, and I've never been really impressed by Underground. It's a mall-underground! Wow!

As far as I've found, there is no 'alternative' music scene here in the Triangle. The closest any non-college-rock-or-cover-bands come is Charlotte, Greensboro, DC, or Myrtle Beach. It's sadly disappointing, especially after having spent 5 years in Athens, when almost every night you can drop 5-10 bucks at a club and have a good chance at seeing a band you know or will like.