Say Goodbye to Lindberg's

Posted on 21. Nov, 2008 by thederosh in News

Will Saturday night be the last time you ever get to sit here?

Will Saturday night be the last time you ever get to sit here?

We were struck speechless by the news from co-owner Jodi Blamey this morning: Lindberg’s will open its doors for the final time this Saturday night. Blamey says the club has been barely getting by for some time, and earlier this week she and husband Ryan sat down and delved into the numbers and decided they couldn’t continue.

The Blameys don’t own the building or the Lindberg’s name, but Jodie says she and Ryan currently plan to auction off the bar’s contents (furniture, etc.) sometime after Saturday night. However, she added that interested suitors could meet with her and Ryan if they would be interested in taking over the lease, even offering to show a potential new owner the ins and outs of what she and Ryan have learned in the year and a half they spent running Lindberg’s.

It’s a sad, even anticlimactic end to Springfield’s oldest–albeit not continuously operating–live-music club. (Lindberg’s first opened under that name in 1979, staying open until 1990.) However, Blamey believes there will be a third act. Ron Walker, the owner of the Lindberg’s building, previously tried to open the club himself, booking local bluegrass heavyweights Big Smith for back-to-back nights in August 2006. Disagreements between Walker and business partner Mark West stalled the bar’s official opening after that, and the building lay dormant until the Blameys took over. Blamey says she thinks Walker is too personally invested in the Lindberg’s name to let the bar fade away completely; we can only hope she’s right.

If Blamey is right, Walker or whomever would take over has a tough climb ahead. Construction on Commercial Street has kept traffic–by vehicle and foot–away for a few months now, and other new-era C-Street businesses such as the restaurant Peabody’s also went under. Even established businesses such as Paradise Lounge closed their doors, although rumors persist that we may see Paradise resurface in another location. Blamey says she was told the construction on Commercial Street would be finished in mid-December, but the bar couldn’t hold out that long financially.

The last hurrah for the club’s current incarnation will, effectively, be what local musicians and fans make it. Blamey says the scheduled acts for the night backed out, but she’s received numerous calls from musicians wanting to come and perform on the stage for what may be the last time. As a result, the night will be a sort of open mic night, with musicians coming on and off the stage throughout the evening. If you’d like to join the sendoff, come down with instruments in hand. That, or just raise a toast to a bar that deserved a better fate.

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No Responses to “Say Goodbye to Lindberg's”

  1. The Spilken8r

    21. Nov, 2008

    Well, let’s give them a good last weekend. ilijah and The Adam Stanley Project tonight!

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  2. grant

    21. Nov, 2008

    dammit.

    Reply to this comment

  3. Monkey [STFU!]

    21. Nov, 2008

    Sad news! I really liked playing there.

    Reply to this comment

  4. Ryan Blamey

    21. Nov, 2008

    We will still have the bands that were slated to play Saturday night (the last night) coming out to contribute.

    They are “The American Life” fresh off of touring with “The Plain White T’s”. They will be playing with “The Handme Downs” who they are currently on tour with.

    There will be no cover and some insane drink specials. Also local musicians who kept Lindy’s alive for the better part of two years will be on and off the stage throughout the night for this Pub’s Irish wake.

    For the last time:
    Cold Beer, Warm Service, Great Music: Lindberg’s

    (417) 862-3747
    318 W Commercial St.
    Corner of Campbell and C-Street

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  5. ole Coot

    21. Nov, 2008

    Not all can make it, but there will be Brown representatives in the building. Many a drink will be had.

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  6. James Legault

    21. Nov, 2008

    This hands down is some of the worst news I have heard in quite some time. Lindberg’s has been our favorite place to play since we discovered it. Ryan and his crew have gone well out of their way to make us feel like a major label world touring band. Even through all the crap they had to deal with while the roads were worked on the crew at Lindberg’s focused on one thing and one thing only, making each and every person who walked through that door feel welcomed.

    Springfield has just lost a major player in the fight for local music. They’ve also lost one of the coolest venue owners that I’ve had the owner to know.

    Thank you Linberg’s for letting us rock out to some awesome people.

    Thank you Ryan for showing Springfield how a music venue should treat his customers and his bands. Springfield could have learned a lot from you.

    James
    The Magnificents!

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  7. globalfayre

    22. Nov, 2008

    How much of the problem has been the road closure?
    We had similar issues in the summer on S Campbell, and it seemed like our city decision makers had little or no compassion or understanding for the difficulties that road closures like this cause. Ok – the area gets an uplift, but that doesn’t replace months of lost customers and lost income, or the cost of advertising to remind those customers where you are when the road finally opens.

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  8. grant

    23. Nov, 2008

    the road thing brought severe stress to an already delicate situation. bringing 21-40 year old ladies and the men who follow them to commercial st after dark is one thing, making it hard to park, walk to and see is quite another. it’s a lot like the city doesn’t plan ahead and then, when business comes to an area, they’re like ‘crap, we better upgrade the sewer/drainage/etc’ which then causes the business to close and makes the upgrades wasteful. Thanks Springfield!

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  9. EK

    25. Nov, 2008

    I for one was obviously upset to see the place go. I was the sound engineer there for the past year or more and witnessed several inspiring and inspired performances from some of Springfield’s best, not to mention the national acts that were just starting to feel at home. This is a great loss for the music scene . I don’t think people will realize how much until one of the other last venues closes due to lack of support. The city was no help and often did not respond to inquiries or pleas from the ownership to move things along faster, or at least financial hardship compensation of some kind. They just didn’t care. If they did they had a funny way of showing it. Not to mention I’m now out of work. I loved my job. So did the others that worked there. We had a great family and ultimately it was cast aside like many other Bush -era families. I hope that somehow this can be retrieved from the dustbin of society.-EK

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