CURATOR: Bye, Bye CafÃ© Metro

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CURATOR: Bye, Bye CafÃ© Metro

POSTED: Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 4:41 PM

Filed Under: Music The Curator

Every Tuesday, Critical Mass pokes around the blog world so you don't have to.

Photo | www.timesleader.com

The now defunct CafÃ© Metropolis

Everyone welcome our newest curator, Sean. Fourteen years ago and about two hours north on the northeast extension in a small town called Wilkes-Barre, a club called CafÃ© Metropolis opened its doors. For years it was the home of Northeastern PA's underground music scene and served as its own kind of highway between the Northeast and Philly. It gave bands from the northeast like Title Fight, The Menzingers, and An Albatross their start before most made the inevitable migration to Philly. This past Saturday, to the dismay of many of the venue's patrons, CafÃ© Metro closed its doors. Many kids growing up in Wilkes-Barre, like myself, remember a much different downtown scene — when CafÃ© Metro was at its prime. There were abandoned buildings, parking lots full of empty Hurricane bottles and the only surrounding businesses were a skate shop and strip club. In a town with so little to do, Metro, for many kids, was the only reason to come to downtown. Now a Barnes and Noble, a movie theater and a few restaurants line the streets, providing evidence of the years-old city beautification initiative meant to stimulate the local economy that's been stagnant since the 70's. With new business comes an increased cost in rent. And for a place that's barely been able to break even for 14 years, the outlook for Metro became grim. Though many patrons have long since moved on from Metro, it's still sad to see it go. Here's to some good times.

Lily

Posted 2010-09-22 16:06:36

rip metro. i will never forget all of the bad things we did in the parking lot

ERIK

Posted 2010-09-24 12:20:57

The heartbeat of the city has now flatlined

Posted by Sean Kearney @ 4:41 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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