Positively Philadelphia: A Legendary South Street Music Venue Returns
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - For years, the bar "JC Dobbs," at 304 South Street, hosted hundreds of unknown and up-and-coming musicians.
And until it closed in 1996, Philadelphians got the chance to see some famous performers, and some performers before they became famous.
"I saw Bo Diddley here, Oasis here," says Robert Damerjian, president of the recently rechristened "Legendary Dobbs." He went there years ago and has now brought the music venue back.
"I saw Pearl Jam when they were very small, I saw Nirvana," recalls his partner, Heshey Schlachterman.
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And Damerjian says the Legendary Dobbs is picking up where JC Dobbs left off.
"The bands could really come and have a following and have a place to play in Philadelphia. It's not a huge venue. It's just a small, cozy venue that attracts musicans from around the world," he says.
And Schlachterman has been familiar with South Street for decades.
"For years Dobbs was the focal point of South Street in a lot of ways, a meeting house for people to come and just hang out and meet their friends, just like I did as I grew up," he notes.
Another partner, Justin Wolk, says he knew about Dobbs from working in the music business in New York.
"There are only three or four major rock clubs in America -- and JC Dobbs, now the Legendary Dobbs, when you talk about a rock club -- are known. And that's why we got involved."
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So, any night you're there, you never know who you'll bump into.
"It's a place where people who are in the music business come as their hangout," Wolk says. "The Roots have been here. G. Love has been here. All the people on the wall, from Green Day to Pearl Jam."
That's Positively Philadelphia!
Reported by Lauren Lipton, KYW Newsradio 1060
