THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 13, 1995 TAG: 9510130058
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALICIA LUMA, HIGH SCHOOL CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
THE HORNET'S NEST. Atlantic Beach Club. Cabaret Voltaire. The Nsect Club. The Peppermint Beach Club.
The list of clubs, coffeehouses and concert halls where the under-18 crowd could (often if not always) go, reads like a long, sad obituary.
No matter how much we supported or how hard we grooved, because of poor or frustrated management, building snatchers, lack of funds or lack of interest, they all went under.
Gone are the glory days of the Peppermint's three all-ages nights per millennium and the caffeine ODs at the Cab or the sweet sight of ``under-18 permitted'' on Nsect Club fliers.
Sigh.
Unless you are operating an underground club in your basement that I don't know about, there are only two all-ages, live music clubs in the area. One is a large, Cellar Door-owned concert hall and the other is a loud little dive above a locksmith shop at the beach.
The former is the Boathouse on the downtown Norfolk waterfront. The latter is The Fire Escape at the Oceanfront. Both have character, a unique style and interesting origins.
And the second one may be going the way of the dinosaurs.
The Fire Escape's past is as checkered as its black-and-white floor. It all started in the '70s when it was The Upstairs, a small coffeehouse. It had a house band called Isacc that, when The Fire Escape was born, donated an ancient PA system (which was recently overhauled for better sound. Yea).
Over the years, many groups have run The Fire Escape, and it has changed looks, formats and styles pretty often. A crazy variety of bands has played there. It is now in a hardcore/punk/mellow and dance music phase that will probably last until the clock runs out.
A church bought the whole corner that The Fire Escape sits on and is planning to tear it down and make a parking lot. The last show is scheduled for mid-November.
The Fire Escape has always had as its heart the hard work and determination of the managers, volunteers, patrons and bands. This solid support is what has kept it going for much longer than most other clubs at the beach.
Surviving 2 1/2 decades, a weak and much jumped-on floor, dozens of storms and some really hard times, The Fire Escape's footing will finally fail when the wrecking balls come.
But no one is crying over the death of the building; They are too busy trying to resurrect the club elsewhere. Those who kept the Escape going are looking toward a future that might involve a plot of land near Lynnhaven Mall or a vacant building at the beach.
I doubt that the Boathouse will ever go under the way of The Fire Escape, for even Harbor Park couldn't crush its bones. Sometimes it seems that all is right and good somewhere in the world.
The Boathouse was opened in the wake (no pun intended) of an old marina in September 1983. It boasts a forever-long list of all the bands that have played there, including Squeeze, the Psychedelic Furs, Rollins Band and Letters to Cleo.
It is one of the highest-rated clubs in the nation, ranked in the top 10 in a Pollstar poll and nominated by artists in Performance magazine for small hall of the year in 1991.
Soul Asylum played so hard the power went out.
It seems the new nipple-ringed patrons appreciate the Boathouse for what it always ached to be. Cool.
And that's a good thing, because in less than a month, for the under-18 crowd, it will be the only live-band gig in town. MEMO: Alicia Luma is a home-schooled high school junior. Her column appears
twice a month in Teenology. If you'd like to let her know what's going
on, call Infoline at 640-5555 and enter category 8989.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Steve Earley
The Fire Escape at the Oceanfront has changed looks, formats and
styles often over the years.
by CNB