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The Boston music venue Great Scott opened in 1976 and remained in operation for 44 years before finally closing in 2020, during the COVID pandemic. The venue was known for its indie dance nights and queer dance parties, and it also served as an important spot for generations of Boston-area indie bands. Now, there’s a Taco Bell in the former Great Scott, and you can imagine that nobody is too thrilled about that. Today, though, Great Scott has announced plans to reopen in a new location.
For several years, the owner of Great Scott have had plans for a new location in the works, and now they’ve officially announced that it’s happening. The new Great Scott is returning to Boston’s Allston neighborhood, and it’ll situate itself at the corner of Harvard Avenue and Cambridge Street, close to the original location.
The club’s longtime booking manager Carl Lavin has worked with Redefined CEO Paul Armstrong and real estate developer Jordan Warshaw to open the new Great Scott. It’s feature two different venues, the 300-capacity Great Scott and the 75-cap O’Brien’s Pub, as well as a mixed-use retail space. Instead of renting, they’ve bought the space. In a press release, Lavin says:
Since Great Scott closed four years ago, there has been such an outpouring of support for its reopening, but we live in a difficult economic climate where in the past few years more small venues have closed than have opened. This partnership with Paul and Jordan has enabled us to create an economic model that will not only allow a new Great Scott to be built, but for it to be successful for many more years.
The owners of the new Great Scott are targeting a 2026 opening.