With new management, new hours and a new look, the new Paradise Lounge formerly the Paradise Rock Club and M-80 reopened its doors yesterday to a new, wider audience.
‘We’re coming in here to bring back rock ‘n roll,’ said Paradise Manager Blair Dreyfus, 23. ‘This neighborhood was definitely jumpin’ back in the day we want to bring that back.’
The front area of the club features a newly installed full-menu kitchen, a bar counter that spans across the open floor, balcony seating that doubles as a VIP area, a DJ stand and small stage.
The back area houses the rock pit that made Paradise’s musicians famous. U2, The Police and Billy Joel are just a few of the now-huge acts that played at the lounge when they were up-and-coming.
‘Paradise was one of the four biggest clubs in the country in its earlier days,’ Dreyfus said, referring to this heyday of hit rock acts. ‘U2 played its first American show here. When bands would come over from the U.K., this is where they’d play.’
In the late 1990s, after years of success, Paradise began having frequent problems with the law. Liquor and overcrowding violations plagued the once-famous nightspot, causing a struggle to keep their doors open. In 1998, the club came under siege after New England Patriots players Drew Bledsoe and Max Lane stage dove and allegedly injured a patron at a show.
According to Patrick Lyons, the new owner of Paradise, these are problems of the past.
‘We were out to exorcise the demons of M-80,’ Lyons told the Globe in an interview yesterday.
To achieve this task, the Paradise Lounge must attract a dedicated audience. Dreyfus, an aspiring musician himself, said the Lounge is trying hard to publicize itself to a wide array of patrons, from Boston University and Boston College students to the members of the Allston and Brighton communities. Paradise wants to promote an atmosphere where ‘a young person with bright pink spiked hair can fit right in with a mid-40s neighborhood resident in khakis and a polo shirt,’ he said.
‘We’re trying to keep it about the music, not the scene,’ Dreyfus said. ‘It’s about paying tribute to rock ‘n roll throughout the ages.’
Paradise, which will soon celebrate its 25th anniversary, has recently hosted shows featuring the Flaming Lips, the Wallflowers and Jack Johnson.
As for Boston University students, Dreyfus said that although the club isn’t allowed to promote liquor on campus, they have a number of BU students working with them to spread the word.
‘We’re trying to do a lot of promotion,’ he said. ‘We’re really amped about the fact that anyone [over 21] can come.’
Nicole Spezia, a College of Communication sophomore who recently transferred to BU, said she is excited to see what the new lounge is like.
‘I didn’t hear many good things about the old M-80 club, but the inside of the new Paradise Lounge looks great,’ she said. ‘I’m definitely going to check it out.’
