We’re quickly approaching the end of the year, but a new calendar unexpectedly materialized this week that suddenly approaches the end of an era. Good Life, the beloved and respected downtown Boston bar and nightclub at 28 Kingston St., which merged hip-hop and dance music like few other spots in the city, will permanently close on December 17.
The venue made the announcement on social media yesterday (December 1), asking those who have partied in its intimate and welcoming basement lounge over the past 17 years to come out and raise a glass. Good Life will be open each weekend from now until the last beat drops two weeks from Saturday.
“We can’t stress this enough… this is NOT a time to be sad,” Good Life writes. “This is a time to celebrate with us. WE ARE STILL OPEN. So please, walk through the door, have a drink and let’s make some final memories together. Save all the wishy-washy memory posts until after we’re actually gone. WE NEED Y’ALL TO COME IN HERE! Anyways, we’re open EVERY WEEKEND until Saturday, December 17. That is our very last night of business. So that’s 3 weekends left (excluding Friday Dec. 9, that’s private). Again, we intend to do something in the future, but it will never be like this again.”
They’re not kidding. At a time when DJ culture in Boston and around the world has been whored out to influencers, frauds and pay-to-players, the Good Life booth was always a sacred space, one a DJ had to earn to call home for a night. The list of talent to hit the cozy and unassuming booth is endless, as Good Life over the years welcomed the likes of Grandmaster Flash, DJ Premier, Moodyman, Mala, Kool Herc, Spinderella, Stretch & Bobbito, John Tejada, DJ Funk, Derek Plaslaiko, Addison Groove, Nina Sky, Swishahouse Records founder Michael Watts, Jamie 3:26, Maseo of De La Soul, and countless others to work their craft to an engaged and often rowdy and appreciative crowd.
As dance music began to rise in the late 2000s, and Boston’s usually gate-kept scenes began to open up, that crowd was fueled by Good Life’s uncanny ability to draw from, and cater to, all walks of life across the city, thanks to the endless support from owner Peter Fiumara, who took over the space in 2005, and PR director and promoter DJ Knife. It was a spot for all — hip-hop specialists, indie kids, techno heads, bridge-and-tunnel fun-seekers, and anyone else who crashed the subterranean lounge for drinks and dancing — hidden away underneath its own street-level cocktail lounge and restaurant.
The Good Life team offered a bullshit-free space to various city subcultures that became a haven for mish-mash parties and eclecticism, and the annual DJ Appreciation Parties were stuff of legend, the type of “if you remember it, you weren’t there” throw downs buoyed by the banning of phones and documentation. Long-running events like Social Studies, Fresh Produce, CSC, Steady Leanin’, Shake!, Picó Picante, Bassic, and the legendary PVRPLE — we’re sure we’re forgetting others — livened up the usually stale and stiff downtown scene, and gave nearby Fort Pointers a rare place to call home.
Good Life drew a diverse crowd through carefully crafting a chill environment that was fashionable and hip without trying too hard to be either, catering to a bubbling underground that often danced just off the outskirts of the mainstream. It just rolled the way it wanted to, put a focus on the music and the people, and naturally, the city took notice. It gave people purpose, it gave party people an excuse to experience something outside their circle, and it gave the city a pulse. And without it, Boston is a lot less cool. This closing does for dance and hip-hop what the closing of Great Scott in Allston did to indie rock.
“These memories aren’t gonna cherish themselves,” Good Life notes. “SO LET’S GO OUT WITH A BANG!”
More info on why Good Life is shuttering will emerge in the coming weeks, but it’s easy to take a look around the city’s current nightlife landscape, especially after the past two years, and understand why, on the surface, the venue is calling it a day. Like any good party ambition, we’ll worry about the details in the morning after. In the meantime, raise that glass.
GOOD LIFE FINAL RESIDENCY :: Weekends through Saturday, December 17 at Good Life, 48 Kingston St. in Boston, MA :: No details needed, just post up :: Instagram
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