The whole story is that Robert, the owner of RiFiFi, gathered a bunch of the people who do shows (and some of staff at the bar) the other night and basically said that the bar will close under present ownership at the end of February, but that he was willing to let any of us take over the lease and try to take it over under new management. There are a few more details than that, but let's just leave it at that for now.
Bobby Tisdale, host of Invite Them Up, posted this message about the potential closing:
It is true there is probably a five percent chance Rififi may exist under new management, but without a doubt, Invite Them Up will hold its last show at that particular venue on the 27th of February.
That doesn't mean the show is over-- we will be doing some specials from time to time throughout New York City and probably go on tour in the future.
Bummer that this means the end of Invite Them Up, prob the best downtown show out there. Where will the other Rififi shows move to...Piano's? Brooklyn maybe?
As for Flying Carpet, I'll do one more at Rififi (Feb. 5) and then prob move to a secret undisclosed location for the next one after that. Could actually be very cool. Stay tuned.
