Or “The Nokia Theatre Times Square is now The Best Buy Theatre”
You might recall a recent blog posting where I welcomed back to the world of live performance the venerated Rock concert venue Irving Plaza. Of course, the space had never truly gone away per se, but after running under that name for many decades, it’s purchase by Livenation found it restamped as “The Fillmore NY at Irving Plaza”. You had to admit that it was quite a mouthful but that whole tale can be better examined HERE. Now where was I? Oh yes, the discussion about the venue formerly known as the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. Depending on your age and concert visiting habits, you might only have known this space as the Nokia Theatre because its been that way since early 2005 but before it was converted into one of the cooler places to catch a live band it was a movie theater called the Loew’s Astor Plaza. During its time in this manner it hosted up to 1500 movie lovers and boasted to the world how it had the largest single screen in New York. That was pretty cool, and if my memory serves me correctly I had seen a couple of the Star Wars and Star Trek films here before the conversion. Moving on, I loved when this opened up as a concert venue because now it would fit over 2000 people and depending on the concert would often sell out. The venue is owned by AEG Live (a very well-established concert promoter) and it’s title reflecting its advertising sponsorship. The bright corner sign positioned above 44th and Broadway on Times Square could be seen for blocks depending on your direction of approach and often informed the Metal Republic of sad occurrences such as performance cancellations.
Continue reading The Song Remains The Same, Yet The Name Does Not
“ album. Having never been inside the place before I had some high hopes as to what I would feel once inside its walls. I liked what I was seeing, but since I was so interested in the show more than my surroundings I had to leave it as “really good” as an experience. Of course I wish I could have said the same for Marillion who had seemed to lose me with this recording and show. Musically it was true that the band was different with Steve Hogarth now on vocals, but I had enjoyed his earliest stuff with them and based on all the changes to format was growing distant from the band as his tenure progressed. Anyways, this is not about my Marillion concerns and is slightly off topic from where I was going with this narrative. So where was I? Oh yeah, the Irving Plaza venue. Well, in 2007 Livenation (a division of Clear Channel Communications) took over the place and did some serious renovations. The standard stuff in regards to paint, interior sprucing up and oh yeah – they also renamed the joint. Ladies and Gentlemen presenting “The Fillmore NY at Irving Plaza”.
