Sign up for our newsletters Subscribe
The profile of Mortville seems to be drawing the most heat, and for understandable reasons. Though journalists of course want to follow compelling stories and provide their readers with the most complete possible picture of the local music scene, writing about an illegal space makes the happenings there that much more likely to attract the attention of the people—police, landlords—who can shut the place down. Late last year the Village Voice ran a profile of deposed Roc-a-Fella honcho Dame Dash that gave plenty of ink to the unlikely indie-leaning DIY space he was running out of the basement of his Tribeca loft; he immediately shut it down before he could get busted for it. A 2005 article Liz Armstrong wrote for the Reader on the Wicker Park house of hedonism Jerkstore was widely considered the reason its proprietors got the boot from their landlord. Most other stories I've heard about unlicensed venues that have been shut down (as opposed to imploding over interpersonal disputes) involve either a writer or a promoter getting overenthusiastic and bringing the place too far out into the open.
I'm sure the people who run Mortville and enjoy shows there would really like the place to stay underground—a category that does not tend to allow for features, however well-intentioned, in glossy magazines.
Comments (31)
Showing 1-25 of 31