Maxwell's

History

The club was opened in August 1978 by Steve Fallon. When the Fallon family bought the corner building in uptown Hoboken with its street-level tavern, Steve Fallon's sisters Kathryn Jackson Fallon and Anne Fallon Mazzolla along with brother-in-law Mario Mazzola were interested in turning the factory workers' tavern (General Foods' Maxwell House Coffee factory was a block away on the Hudson River) into more of a restaurant. The Hoboken band "a" (featuring Glenn Morrow, Richard Barone, Frank Giannini and Rob Norris; the latter three later forming the Bongos) asked if they could rehearse in an unused back room and play a few gigs in the front for the restaurant's patrons. The live music quickly caught on and Fallon started booking bands in the back room. Over time, his booking taste, freewheeling personality and respectful treatment towards musicians made Maxwell's and Hoboken a stop to look forward to on many bands' tours. By making the blue-collar mile-square city with a rough-and-tumble reputation a cultural gathering place, Maxwell's was instrumental in sparking Hoboken's first wave of early 1980s gentrification — the artists and musicians. In that light, it is also believed that the Mazzolas may have offered the first successful Sunday brunch in Hoboken.

Maxwell's eventually become so successful that it spawned Pier Platters, an independent record store near the PATH train station that Fallon invested in; a whole music and cultural "scene" epitomized by the "Hoboken Sound" (which was featured in an hour-long television special on a local NYC station); and Fallon's own record label, Coyote Records. Fallon hired Todd Abramson to take over the booking of the acts in the mid-1980s. Abramson has, essentially, been booking the venue ever since (except for a short period in the late 1990s after Fallon sold the club and Maxwell's was converted into a short-lived brewpub.)

At a time when one of the Fallon siblings wanted to divest their interest in the business, Peter Buck (guitarist for R.E.M.) bought their piece to help his friend Steve Fallon keep it open as a resource for enthusiasts of new music.

When Fallon wanted completely out, he and his partners sold Maxwell's in December 1995 to William (Silverback) Sutton, who then turned it into a brewpub. Abramson, Steve Shelley (drummer of Sonic Youth) and Dave Post of the Amazing Incredibles and Swingadelic arranged to bring Maxwell's back, and renovated and reopened it on July 26, 1998. While some longtime patrons missed the more freewheeling Steve Fallon days, Maxwell's again became as vital a part of the independent music community as it was in the 1980s and 1990s.

Parts of the music video for Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" were filmed at Maxwell's on May 28, 1985. The music video was directed by Hoboken resident John Sayles.

The video for the song "Away" by the Feelies, directed by Jonathan Demme, was recorded at Maxwell's in 1988. After a 17-year hiatus, the Feelies reunited to appear at Maxwell's in July 2008, and they made appearances again every July from 2009 through 2013.

While on tour supporting their debut album Bleach, Nirvana appeared at Maxwell's on July 13, 1989. Early in the day, before the show, photographer Ian Tilton took several pictures of the band around Hoboken while John Robb interviewed them for a Sounds front cover feature. The picture of frontman Kurt Cobain has since been used in dozens of magazines, newspapers and websites before and after his death.

In the early 1990s, Maxwell's was voted the "Best Club in New York — Even Though It's in New Jersey" by The New Yorker magazine.(subscription required)

In addition to serving as a concert venue, Maxwell's offered monthly swing music by owner Dave Post's band Swingadelic, provided a forum for local musicians (with its free "New Jersey Songwriters in the Round" concerts), and opened itself up to weekly Tuesday DJ nights. Maxwell's also sponsored monthly art exhibits on its walls, with supporting opening events.

In the 2005 Village Voice Best of NY poll, Maxwell's was voted "Best Reason to Leave the State for Dinner and a Show". Also in 2005, The New York Times wrote that Maxwell's was "so New York that it's in New Jersey".

The indie rock band Yo La Tengo usually rented out the club for the eight nights of Hanukkah every year.

In April 2013, Maxwell's came in third in Rolling Stone magazine's "Venues that Rock" list of the best clubs in America.

In June 2013 it was announced that Maxwell's would not renew its lease and the club would close in July. The club closed its doors on July 31, 2013, preceded by an afternoon block party on 11th Street between Washington Street and Hudson Place, beginning that afternoon, to commemorate its final night.

Maxwell's reopened temporarily in August 2013, solely as a bar and restaurant, while the owners sought to sell the venue; Justin Timberlake was allowed to film a commercial there.

In early 2014, it reopened under new ownership (Pete Carr and Evan Dean), with the name changed to Maxwell's Tavern.

Bands

The first band to play at Maxwell's was "a", which included the three original members of the Bongos (Barone, Norris and Giannini; the latter was Maxwell's cook and devised their first menu), fronted by Glenn Morrow (later of the Individuals and founder of Bar/None Records). The Bongos rehearsed in the club by day, were the first from the new crop of bands to be signed to a major label (RCA Records) after a series of British singles and tours, and were seen at the time as ambassadors of the new Hoboken pop scene. The Cyclones, the Individuals, Urban Allies, Gut Bank, the Fleshtones, the Raybeats and the dB's were also mainstays in the beginning, with the Feelies playing frequently towards the later half of the 1980s.

In 1980, the Athens, Georgia band Pylon played there three times. In the mid-1980s, fellow Athens band R.E.M. played there on a frequent basis.

The club was important to emerging 1980s and 1990s trends as diverse as punk, grunge and indie rock. Bands like Husker Du, the Replacements, Pixies, Firehose, Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Archers of Loaf, the Cynics, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Juliana Theory, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Tad, Melvins, Mod Fun, Nirvana, Hole, the Afghan Whigs, the Posies (including solo shows by Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer), the Smashing Pumpkins, Tiny Lights, G Love and Special Sauce, Buzzcocks, Blue Öyster Cult, the Fall, the Minutemen, Robyn Hitchcock, Katrina & the Waves, Flipper, Rain Parade, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Cowsills, Wire, the Pogues, Los Campesinos!, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Joe Jackson, Schoolly D, Crime and the City Solution, Killing Joke, Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Snakefinger, Living Colour, David Byrne, the Slits, U.S. Chaos, X, Joan Jett, Dick Dale, the Psychedelic Furs, Royal Crescent Mob, the Strokes, Matt Nathanson, John Doe, Mary Lou Lord, Electric Six and the Ataris all played at Maxwell's. The club continued this tradition into the 2000s with bands like the Dirtbombs, Lemuria, Crooked Fingers., and the Wrens

Live albums

Several bands recorded live albums at the venue, including Guided by Voices (For All Good Kids), The Reigning Sound (Live at Maxwells), The Meat Puppets (Live at Maxwell's 2.08.01), My Chemical Romance (The Black Parade Is Dead!), and Imperial Teen (Live at Maxwell's).

Criticism

As a music venue, Maxwell's was not very large. In fact, it only held about 200 people and was considered dark. The live music at a club in a residential area led some neighbors to complain about the noise as well as dancing in the streets during the early days of the club, before the expansion into the back room for appearances by musical acts. A Hoboken restaurant survey website gave Maxwell's a rating of 3.33 out of a possible 5 in October 2008.