Out Of Focus on the demise of Ludlow Street’s Luna Lounge.
When the Lower East Side wasn’t yet the ultimate destination point for all things … uhm … nightlife related? OK, let’s start over. Many years ago (10, to be specific), a small bar opened on Ludlow Street. Eventually, bands started playing there. And before you knew it, Luna Lounge became a Lower East Side institution — a place where people could see live music by promising new bands without having to pay a cover (!), and everyone loves no cover, no?
Yeah, everyone loves getting in for free. Especially when it furthers the notion that live music isn’t worth paying for and all new bands are a bunch of interchangable stooges who don’t deserve to be paid — they’re just stuck on an endless hamster wheel of “showcases”.
No disrespect to the Luna Lounge ownership, staff, patrons or those that enjoyed playing there. But there’s something to be said for a cover when most or all of it goes to the artists. And on that tip, you can make a paypal donation to Tonic — perhaps not a Lower East Side institution, but somehow managing not to be the Coconut Teazer East Coast, either —here.