What happened to BB King?
Not the guitarist, the club. B.B. King, the great bluesman (and smart businessman) recently opened a blues club in the heart of Times Square. This is not cheap real estate—probably some of the most expensive real estate in the world, actually. In addition to being great for the blues, it is an interesting experiment in whether it’s actually possible to build a blues club in New York. When he opened, the place was hopping. Featuring a mix of classic and new blues, it looked like BB had it all figured out. Then, this week, I opened out Time Out NY and saw the listings of who’s playing next week: Dave Mason Motley Crue’s Vince Neil A Pink Floyd cover band and Pigface with opening act Trill Kill Kult Well, they may be paying the bills, but they’re sure not playing the blues! What happened? It seems to me that there’s a Purple Cow problem. Specifically, there aren’t enough people in New York with a blues otaku. People willing to pay attention to who’s playing and to drive across town, pay $
