Toad’s Place shut down
Due to “serious default in rental payment and other obligations” the venue has been shut down. I guess we won’t be seeing Dinosaur Jr after all.
Toad’s Place! So long! Richmond’s elder mid-sized venue is apparently closed due to “serious default in rental payment and other obligations.”
Yikes.
No word on if Toad’s can work something out with the landlord who has exercised “its right to re-enter the premises and remove Tenant from possession.”
Best Toad’s Place Eulogy wins these now defunct Dinosaur Jr tickets I have sitting here!
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Ross Catrow
Founder and publisher of RVANews.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
Son of a. I knew it was too good to be true. At least I liked the National better anyways.
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. I just thought it would take longer for one of them to cut the other’s head off and GAIN ITS POWER.
Is the Neko Case show going to be moved to a different venue?
Thank goodness…this place was awful!
Yeah I wonder how that works with the already booked shows. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.
I’ll tell you how it most likely will turn out: they ain’t playing unless they are a big draw.
I think this sucks.
That does suck. They weren’t even around long enough to book more than a half-dozen decent bands.
Stephanie: Please be more specific and tell us why this place was “awful.”
it served a vital purpose….
That’s sad. Ya know before more of you Debbie Downer richmonders bash a closing venue think back to why you bash things that try to do good. Yea it might not be just local acts. However, its music and artistic and we are a city that thrives on that. I am sad to see closing doors on any venue, I’ve seen enough of that in my time. That’s all.
what’s interesting is that one of the owners was also part-owner of the now-defunct Tonic (a pretty good martini bar that didn’t last very long) – maybe he needs to give up starting these ventures – short attention span maybe?
I thought Toad’s was really nice! That’s a shame.
Seriously? That’s hilarious.
According to our sources Toad’s Place the entity is being given the boot. The building will still remain a club, the same staff will remain with the owner of the building actually “owning” the venue. All the shows are still 100% a go. Basically nothing is changing except the name and the owner.
I want to punch someone in the face!
I just read that the venue will continue being run by the owner of the building and that all currently booked shows will still happen.
I really liked seeing shows and playing there, what a shame
Some more on the story:
http://tinyurl.com/bzgqml
indeed it seems that management was the club’s downfall. how else can one explain the longstanding existence of the Canal Club, who seems to have just as much trouble getting drawing bands through the door. surely they would have shut down years ago if it was just a matter of not filling the calendar, right?
Well I worked there until about 2 weeks ago, so it wouldn’t surprise me for it to fail with all the things that go on within the private workings.
Somebody at RVAnews interview Abby and get the scoop.
Hey we are always available for tell-alls and exposes via info@rvanews.com
Compare these criteria vs the National:
-overall sound quality
-quality of act
-amount of clientele-related disturbances
-ability to see the show while tcb at the bar
-overall set-up (balcony value? graded floors? location of merchandise?)
Maybe that’s what she meant by ‘awful’? I saw Okkervil at Toads and then Iron n Wine at the Nat’l in the same night and the proof was in the pudding. Now they’re ‘pudding’ the Toads mgmt out on the street and I hope it’s for the better.
that is absolutely terrible news….
Ungrateful fools. Think back to the time when all we had was goddamn Alley Cats.
It went all down hill when the GM Jeff Sadler left last year. He’s the one that fought so hard to get Toad Place where it is (location). After he left the acts changed and the place just wasn’t run in the same manner. It’s nice to see the owners wanting to keep it going but unless they get someone in their that knows what they are doing, its only a matter of time.
I really enjoyed the one show I saw there. Buddy Guy. Totally rewarding to pay $30 a ticket and then watch him play on a monitor. Whoever designed the stage location and audience space needs head examined. Knowing the origin of why there was Toad’s Place in Richmond in first place, answers the question, of why it failed.
I had a really fine experience every time I went, the Ween show was one of the best, anywhere ever.
Unfortunately a lot of bands I would have paid to see still execute the all too familiar Chapel Hill-to-DC Virginia flyby maneuver.
Better luck to the National!
All it needs is people who know what they’re doing and people who care about more than a paycheck. If it reopens, it will have to be something that I absolutely cannot miss, but I know I won’t go to the restaurant after the way things happened with their new management.
It’s very poorly designed, unlike the National. Christopher Elford pretty much laid it out above. I’ve seen several shows at the National and only one at Toad’s Place (The Swell Season) so you can put me down as not having an equal comparison. Even Glen Hansard complained while onstage about the sound and the endless yapping coming from the bar that drowned out the music. I’ve not seen several bands just because they played there. Horrible layout of the entire place in terms of seeing or hearing anything.
I didn’t think Toad’s was all that different as far as layout from other places I’ve been like the Norva, 9:30 etc. Maybe just a tad smaller. But I only go to see bands and musicians that I really care about, and I arrive early so I can get up front. So it all looks the same to me! But the one great thing about the National is the inclined floor – even a shorty like me can see from the back of crowd. That’s worth everything.
9:30 Club is great, and the Norva is pretty good too. The National is my favourite place to go (not that it being right here in town doesn’t give it an edge). When we went to T.P. we moved around during the show trying to figure out where the best sound was and everywhere seemed to suck. Hard to see much even upstairs from what I remember. We’re often up front too, but the inclined floor is great for when we aren’t (not to mention the option of seats in the balcony).
bring back nanci raygun!!!!!!!!!!11oneoneon