Legendary Boston music venue Great Scott will be back — and better

Great Scott had been a bright light in the Greater Boston music scene for decades, and a launchpad for up-and-coming artists since 1976.

But the economic strain from the pandemic forced the shutdown of the historic Allston venue, and that bright light was suddenly dark — that is, until news broke that, under new leadership, Great Scott will once again open its doors just two blocks away from its original location. 

Carl Lavin, who took over the club’s intellectual property and liquor license to revive the venue, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to discuss the reopening, slated for 2026. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: Carl, to start off, you’ve been involved with Great Scott well before this. Tell us a bit about your involvement with Great Scott, and then we’ll talk about the reopening.

Carl Lavin: Yeah! So I just started booking a show — a weekly show — with Great Scott back in 2003. I kind of got the hang of the venue and started to realize that it was being underutilized for what it could be, as far as a live music venue goes.

I talked management into making the pivot to being a rock venue in 2004, and then have been responsible for — or, part of the team — that’s been booking shows there up until its closed.

Rath: So you really had a hand in making it the Great Scott that we knew when it closed in 2020.

Lavin: Yeah. I mean, it was definitely collaborative — definitely had a lot of people that had some other good ideas as well. But I kind of spearheaded it and got the ball over the proverbial goal line to get them to have a little bit of a format switch.

Rath: Take us back to those dark days in 2020, because you more than anybody would know what it meant to lose this place.

Lavin: It’s kind of interesting to look back. You know, I think a lot of the news has brought out a lot of the memories of what it was like when it closed. I think that the overall uncertainty about the future of live music, in general, was probably something that I hadn’t revisited in a while, and it kind of washed over me when it was just... there was uncertainty about everything, really, back then. I hadn’t really thought about that in a while.

But yeah, it was definitely tough when Great Scott was going to close. We didn’t know how long any other venues were going to be able to hang on. We knew that whenever businesses — retail and public businesses — were open again, we knew that live music was going to be the last of the tiered openings, just because of the nature of the way people congregate in a live music setting.

It was definitely curious, strange and uncertain times for everyone in the industry, not just venue operators.

Rath: Tell us about how the revival came to be. When did it first strike you — or anyone — that we could bring this back?

Lavin: Well, within a matter of days after Great Scott announced it was going to close down, my wife actually pointed out that there’s an organization called Mainvest where you could have people invest money into resurrecting something — or supporting starting a new business, rather than just having a GoFundMe or Kickstarter, where you’re just out on the corner shaking a cup, trying to get the clubhouse back open.

Within a week or so, the idea of being able to maintain and resurrect Great Scott was floating out there, and we just weren’t able to make it work out at the original location. The landlords wanted to go with something that wasn’t quite a rock club, so they went in a different direction.

We’ve just been looking around, trying to keep it in the neighborhood. Allston has been such a big part of why Great Scott succeeded, and I feel like Great Scott has been such a part of what helps define part of what Allston is, as far as a neighborhood in Boston and its identity goes.

After looking around at a bunch of different venues, we finally landed on something where it was going to be the right size, the right price, the right management — you know, all the things that could be in place that don’t have any flashing red lights that could come along with any other type of location and [with] different arrangements. We’re very, very excited to be able to take this step forward and see what comes of it.

Rath: And you got a spot just two doors down from the original, right? How is it going to compare, do you think?

Lavin: Yeah, that’s — I mean, it’s an Allston block. It’s a couple blocks, it’s basically the other end of Harvard Ave. And, you know, we’re going to be starting from scratch. The original location was a very, very Boston-type situation where you try and make something out of what already exists.

I think we did a pretty good job shoehorning a music venue in the original layout for Great Scott, but now, to be able to have the opportunity to design it from brick one, it gives us a lot of options to be able to rebuild it the way you could, as opposed to the Great Scott where you just had to make do with configurations and the layout.

It’s definitely very exciting to be able to choose to incorporate what we feel was more the essence of Great Scott’s original location, without having to endure some of the disadvantages — you know, you wouldn’t put bathrooms in the back [where] you had to walk through the crowd to get to the bathrooms for sold-out shows, and things along those lines.

Just being able to have things laid out differently, while also having the ability to make sure it’s intimate and still maintains that charm that a venue that size has, is something that we’re very much looking forward to in the design process.

Rath: Nice. Are you expecting the lineup to be similar? Will it just be rock acts, or different types of performers?

Lavin: Great Scott did — I mean, we were fairly diverse. I think we definitely were a little more indie-rock leaning than other genres, but we’ve definitely had our share of hip-hop shows, Americana, some country and all kinds of dance nights, DJ nights, and things along those lines. We anticipate it’s going to be pretty much the same sort of programming as we go forward.

But also, we’re talking about a live music climate that’s fairly different than it was four, four-and-a-half years ago — or the six years it’ll be by the time we actually open the door. We’re open to anything that’s going to be the best opportunity for us to make the best use of the space and to be able to showcase the talent that’s either percolating in Boston, or coming up nationally and making a stop in Boston.

Rath: You mentioned how the landscape of performing live music has changed. I’m curious if you could talk a little bit more about that. I mean, it seems wonderful now — so many more live performances are coming back, and this is a great example of it. But what’s different now?

Lavin: I mean, I definitely think the economic model has shifted a little bit. I think that bands are significantly more reliant on what they’re able to do when they’re touring — not only just from selling tickets but being able to directly market to their fans and sell merchandise, build their name and their following that way.

It’s a little bit more difficult to gain attention with the way music is listened to and distributed being so organic. It’s so much more user-driven than it is a tastemaker — like, a radio DJ or a top 100 list might have had an impact on things in the past. It’s on us to be able to make sure that we recognize the shift in the dynamics, as far as that goes.

Especially for bands at this stage of their career arc. It’s fair to say that not everybody has everything exactly figured out when they book their first show at Great Scott. So it’s on us to definitely help make sure that they understand what it is that goes into a live performance, what it is to be able to market to your fans and help get people out and take advantage of other avenues that present themselves to, again, make sure that the best situation — for the band and the fans — coalesce in the live performance when the date comes.

Rath: And the reopening is set for 2026?

Lavin: As best as we can project. We’re looking at breaking ground sometime next year, with the idea of being able to start having shows in 2026.