this past sunday, august 5th, was the closing night for Lovejoys. Heart & Soundsystem and friends spun reggae, soul, and assorted dancefloor burners all night to a ridiculously full house. i had never seen the bar so packed in all my years of going there. it was touching to see so many people saying goodbye to the place. and i have to give a salute to Captain Jim Bradford for holding down that weekly for so long (8-9 years?) and for letting me jump into the mix for the past year or so.
i really wanted to write something heartfelt, but i don’t want to come off cheesy and/or bitter. it’s just difficult to write something that doesn’t feel aggrandizing or pontificating about “just a bar.” except that Lovejoys wasn’t “just a bar” to many people, myself included. in the run-up to the final night, i’d read several missives and articles calling Lovejoys essentially an oasis of cool in an expanding desert of downtown douche-baggery. and while i agree with that sentiment to a degree, it just feels like a revisionist narrative. (does anyone else remember the awful, pervasive haze of smoke in that bar before the smoking ban?) don’t get me wrong, Lovejoys will always have a special place in my heart. but it irked me that so many people championed Lovejoys online in articles and posts once its imminent demise was announced, and yet spinning there every Sunday night for roughly the past year made me witness to the simple fact that not enough people were coming out to support the place. i’m not bitching… well, yeah i’m bitching.
i’m just sad Lovejoys is closed. i can’t even write about it, really. except to say she was a complicated yet lovely lady, and she’ll be missed.
we’ll be relocating Heart & Soul Sundays to another location soon. so stay tuned. and a sincere thank you to everyone who came through and sent Lovejoys off in style.
