After an almost 15 month lapse, live music returned to Maxwell’s Tavern this past Friday with the debut performance of singer-songwriter Elise Testone in Hoboken. After reopening the iconic bar and music venue at Eleventh and Washington Streets as a family friendly Italian restaurant in July, new owners Peter Carr, Evan Dean, and Rick Sorkin have gradually moved Maxwell’s closer to a classic bar and grill concept, expanding to a tavern menu and hosting nights for trivia, stand-up comedy and fantasy football. Finally, in reaction to a community survey that demanded two things—beer and rock ‘n’ roll—the owners made the decision to renovate and revive Maxwell’s back room stage.
But in returning to live music, Carr and his compatriots have no intention of resurrecting the punk rock iconoclasm of the 1970s and ‘80s that made Maxwell’s famous. Hoboken, they say, has changed, and Maxwell’s must reflect the city as it is, not as it was.
“We’re trying to cater to the demographics that we see in the town.”—Peter Carr
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Maxwell’s has retained its iconic name, but like the former Maxwell House coffee plant it alludes to, the current establishment shows no signs of returning to a past that is no longer viable in today’s Hoboken.
Going upscale
In the back room, the black sheet rock that covered the walls and ceiling has been torn out and replaced with bright paint. A service bar carries six taps of craft beer, and the owners have dreams of hosting sit down dinners serenaded by jazz artists. Before Testone went on this past Friday, the room was being used as a gallery for paintings by local artists.
“It’s not an old broken down stage with PA systems and your feet sticking to the floor because the floor hasn’t been washed in two weeks,” said Carr. “The old place was a dive.”
The updated tavern menu features crab cake sliders and French cut pork chops, but remains centered around a selection of thin crust pizza with fresh ingredients. The kitchen, which was also completely renovated, is run by Jay Donnelly, previously the General Manager at a high-end private country club according to Carr.
Maxwell’s also offers 21 taps of beer, including Brooklyn Lager and Flying Fish Hopfish IPA from Somerdale, N.J. “We probably have as good a variety if not better than most of the bars in Hoboken,” said Carr.
In seeking a new upscale concept, Carr holds little nostalgia for the Maxwell’s that was. “The place has been completely redone,” said Carr. “It’s nice, it’s clean, it’s open, the food’s good, so it’s a whole different type of atmosphere than the old Maxwell’s, where you would have the people…come in and have a hamburger and drink and spill stuff all over the floor and go into the back room and jump up and down and get their ears blasted out. This is a lot higher quality.”
New artists for new venue
If the bright paint and thin crust pizza wasn’t indication enough that Carr is seeking to build a new type of music venue, the artists he has selected for the next month of live shows at Maxwell’s make it abundantly clear.
To reopen the Maxwell’s stage, Carr selected Elise Testone, a singer-songwriter based in Charleston, S.C. By all accounts, Testone is a talented musician whose voice earned her sixth place in the eleventh edition of American Idol, but her tastes skew toward soul, blues, and rock, not the post-punk and grunge that made Maxwell’s famous. The closest Testone will likely get to the raw angst of Nirvana or the Buzzcocks is when she covers Led Zeppelin—“Whole Lotta Love” earned her a standing ovation during American Idol.
Maxwell’s will follow up Testone’s opening night with a Halloween eve show by The Nerds, a group of seasoned New Jersey spoof-masters, on Oct. 30. In plaid and glasses, The Nerds have been peddling their enthusiastic covers of funk, R&B, party rock and everything in between since 1985. The band’s original members all hailed from Hudson County, and the group has returned frequently to Hoboken, most recently for the St. Ann’s Italian Festival in July.
A number of additional bands have been lined up for the remainder of November. The Bell Bottom Blues, an Eric Clapton cover band, will play on Nov. 7. Blues guitarist Murali Coryell, the son of famed jazz fusion guitarist Larry Coryell, will perform on Nov. 8. Coryell will be followed up by Papa J on Nov. 14 and Michael Powers on Nov. 15.
Despite a shift in genre, Carr says he wants to continue Maxwell’s history of seeking out and patronizing local bands. Hoboken-based musician and promoter Dave Entwistle has been brought in to curate shows, and his bands The Fave and Liam Brown and the Pounds were given the honor of christening the new Maxwell’s stage at a sound check cum private party on Oct. 17. Even Elise Testone was born and raised in Kinnelon before moving to South Carolina for college. “We’re trying to get back to some of the roots of Maxwell’s,” said Carr.
One of the ideas Carr is considering a Hoboken Indie Night devoted to local bands on the first Friday of every month. In addition, Carr is in talks to reprise Maxwell’s role as a co-host of the annual Hoboken Music Awards, which Entwistle founded in 2009. “We want to dedicate some time going forward to the local bands and try to do some more stuff with the community,” said Carr.