First came the Rathskeller suite at Kenmore Square’s swank Hotel Commonwealth. Now get ready for The Channel to be immortalized at General Electric’s new Fort Point headquarters.
According to the Boston Globe, General Electric will recognize the famed Boston rock club, which welcomed thousands of bands and artists between 1980 to 1991. The new GE property sits atop where the Channel once operated at 25 Necco St., a site that hosted performances by Metallica, James Brown, The Pixies, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, Motörhead, The Cars, New Order, Slayer, Minor Threat, Run-D.M.C., Bad Brains, Bauhaus, and countless others.
Part of this recognition could include a space for live music. More from the Globe:
“The property’s rock music legacy will be recognized. Klee said the new restaurant might have a section that pays homage to The Channel, the legendary music club that closed at the site in the early 1990s. There could be live music there on Friday and Saturday nights. No word on whether The Pixies or The Cars will reunite for a show.”
Last April, The Channel was honored by VH1 as one of “10 Most Legendary Heavy Metal Clubs Of All Time”.
“A confluence of Boston’s college-connected bohemia and Southie-adjacent roughneck rock-and-roll, the Channel dominated the city’s hard-and-heavy scenes throughout the 1980s,” wrote Chicago-based writer Mike McPadden in the VH1 roundup. “Utilizing a monster sound system designed by industry legend Dinky Dawson, radio DJs from WBCN spun platters and broke fresh sounds in between cutting-edge acts. Early on, new wave defined the Channel, but as the decade wore on, metal, punk, and hardcore sounds took over with mosh pits uniting revelers in slam-bang abandon.”
The Channel had a legal capacity of 1,700 people, placing it, size-wise, somewhere between current local venues The Paradise and The House of Blues.
Watch some old videos from the Channel below, including clips from Gang Green, The Proletariat, and others, and click here for more of the club’s history.