When East End music venue Anthology closed its doors in July 2022, it did so without any major announcements. The last show staged there was Philadelphia band mewithoutYou, in town on a goodbye tour.
Anthology shows largely arrived courtesy of the concert promotion company After Dark Presents, headed up by Chris Ring, in conjunction with Phil Fitzsimmons, who owned and operated the venue.
When the lights went off, the venue itself sat empty. But the operations remained turnkey.
“The beers are still cold,” Ring told CITY in late 2024. “You could open tomorrow, and the venue’s in better shape, having been closed for three years, than most venues that are operating on a day-to-day basis.”
Cold beverages will come in handy on Mar. 1, when Anthology officially reopens under the management of SCN Hospitality. The group runs several restaurants in town, including The Revelry and Branca Midtown, and previously ran the music venue Essex on University Avenue (they’ll transfer all operations and bookings to Anthology).
Josh Miles, SCN’s president and CEO, said he aims to build upon Anthology’s existing foundation.
“[Phil and Chris] always brought talent that was very high caliber,” Miles said. “What we’re doing is we’re blending in my hospitality, Chris Ring’s network, our new network and kind of creating a super group out of it.”
For the time being, Fitzsimmons still owns the Anthology building, located at 336 East Ave., and SCN Hospitality is his tenant.
Upcoming shows at the venue will be handled by the in-house group Anthology Presents Booking, run by Miles, Mack Hartman and Zack Mikida. They’ll be in partnership with Ring’s After Dark Presents, which also books at local venues Water Street Music Hall and Montage Music Hall.
Anthology’s reopening comes in tandem with the SCN’s closing of Essex. All scheduled shows at Essex after Feb. 28 will now be staged at Anthology.
First up? The slightly psychedelic Saranac Lake-based bluegrass act The Blind Owl Band with support from Buffalo rootsy quartet Folkfaces. That show takes place Mar. 8.
The new chapter for Anthology begins a few months after a test run: two Joywave concerts in December billed as “Joy 2 the World.”
“Everything was recently brought into really great working condition for the Joywave shows,” Miles said. “We’ll double-stamp that and make sure that everything is where it needs to be.”
It’s a cause for celebration among Rochester music fans. Anthology holds just under 1,000 concertgoers, making it a bigger room than Essex, which maxed out around 800. Larger venues can mean a more appealing tour stop for national acts as well.
Anthology’s placement in the East and Alexander entertainment district also makes it a prime nightlife destination. Miles said he’s already looking to expand Anthology’s footprint.
“There’s space in the front and above that used to house Tonic (nightclub), and that area was once Rochester’s most impactful destination in food and beverage,” Miles said. “We’re looking to bring a form of that back.”
When Essex launched in October 2023, the crew behind the venue told CITY about their emphasis on hospitality in every facet of the operation, including the green room for the artists. For his part, Miles is ready to continue that approach.
“It’s just a rounder experience in terms of the warmth and the interaction from the hospitality standpoint, and also it’s our M.O. from the band side as well,” he said.
Past Anthology bookings have included indie heavyweights Father John Misty and Japanese Breakfast, emo stalwarts Thursday and Cursive, groove-pop acts Aqueous and Rubblebucket and metal legends Cannibal Corpse.
Ring said the musical diversity was key to the venue’s past success and ideally will contribute to its next chapter.
“It wasn’t just pigeonholed as an all-ages kid venue, a jazz venue, a jam-band venue, an EDM venue,” he said. “It kind of housed everything, and it’s important to have that.”
Patrick Hosken is CITY’s arts reporter. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
