{"id":2402,"date":"2009-11-02T11:42:58","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T16:42:58","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-11-02T11:42:58","modified_gmt":"2009-11-02T11:42:58","slug":"wrecking-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wrecking-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrecking Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Never being mistaken for the World’s Most Enthusiastic Concertgoer, I’m naturally skeptical over the feelings that fans and musicians have been known to express when a landmark concert venue is being closed down – and even knocked down. <\/p>\n

“I don’t want to say goodbye to this place. I don’t even want to think about it yet. I just want to keep . . . rocking.”<\/em> – Eddie Vedder, kicking off the last concert ever at the Spectrum<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not immune to these feelings on a grassroots level, having joined in with Townspeople who expressed disappointment over Philadelphia’s old TLA (Theater of the Living Arts)<\/strong> getting a phony, new name<\/a> and bemoaning the long-ago demise of intimate local clubs like JC Dobbs<\/strong> and Bacchanal<\/strong>, but the sense that a building is somehow sacred and should be saved<\/em> is foreign to me. <\/p>\n

On Friday, Vedder expressed similar regrets. “Why don’t they just save the f- place?” he asked. “Forty-two years is not that old. I’m 44,” he said, showing off his biceps.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe we’ve never had that historic a rock venue in Philly, or maybe I never appreciated the soon-to-be demolished Spectrum<\/strong>, the basketball\/hockey\/concert arena that has stood since the late ’60s. I like my share of hoops – and lord knows I love my Flyboys – but the Spectrum as some legendary concert venue? Eh…<\/em><\/p>\n

Have you ever lost a rock venue that really mattered to you, the way the loss of the Spectrum obviously meant to Eddie Vedder?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Never being mistaken for the World’s Most Enthusiastic Concertgoer, I’m naturally skeptical over the feelings that fans and musicians have been known to express when a landmark concert venue is being closed down – and even knocked down. “I don’t want to say goodbye to this place. I don’t even want to think about it […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}