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The Middle East is a live music venue, bar and restaurant in the Central Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Having featured a huge variety of musicians over the last 25 years, The Middle East is one of the most important alternative music venues in New England and features "nothing less than the finest indie-rock shows around", according to one local newspaper.

Reputation

According to the Weekly Dig, The Middle East "reigns supreme as Boston's best rock and/or roll joint" and the Boston Globe has called it the city's "hippest night spot." Rolling Stone has called this place "the exalted Middle East."

The importance of The Middle East to the music scene in Greater Boston spans many genres. The Boston Phoenix describes:

Still the premier place to hear indie rock, the Middle East also has garnered a reputation for serving up the cream of the indie hip-hop crop. Voted best hip-hop club by our readers for the third year running, the Middle East has played host to Mr. Lif, 7L & Esoteric, Los Nativos, Jedi Mind Tricks, Killah Priest, Outerspace, Irepress, Masta Killah, and Jake the Snake, to name a few. The Middle East has no rival when it comes to underground hip-hop.

In addition to those music forms already noted, The Middle East is a venue for artists in other genres including "jazz, blues, funk, reggae, ska, pop, punk, and various combinations thereof."

The Middle East also won the April 2009 Boston Phoenix "Best of Boston" Reader Award for best Middle Eastern Restaurant, and was featured in the April Issue of the newspaper.

Venue

Begun in 1974 as a Lebanese restaurant owned and operated by the Sater family, The Middle East has since expanded into adjacent storefronts and is now a complex of four different areas each with its own entrance. They are (from left to right):

• Upstairs at the Middle East, a 194 person capacity concert space
• ZuZu, a restaurant and bar with sophisticated decor and menu that features live music several nights a week with small occasional cover charge
• The Corner, a 70 person capacity restaurant and bar that features live music several nights a week with no cover charge; often has belly dancers (Sunday/Wednesday) and Lebanese musicians to complement the Lebanese cuisine
• Downstairs at the Middle East, a 575 person capacity concert space that has hosted many better-known, national artists.

Musicians

In addition to those artists mentioned above, a partial list of musicians who have played at The Middle East includes:

Recordings

There have been several live recordings at the Middle East Downstairs including The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' Live from the Middle East, Dinosaur Jr's Live at the Middle East DVD, The Minibosses' Live at the Middle East, and Mr. Lif's Live at the Middle East.

Collaborations

Since at least 2000, the Middle East has been host to the WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble, a well-publicized "battle of the bands" more than three decades old. The Middle East is also a prominent participant at the Cambridge River Festival, an annual musical and cultural event along the banks of the Charles River between Central and Harvard Square.

Miscellaneous

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (August 2008)

In April 1999, officials of the city of Cambridge pressured owners of The Middle East nightclub to cancel a booked Church of the SubGenius performance because of a mistaken belief that the organizers were affiliated with the Trenchcoat Mafia (an organization which was accused of being responsible for the Columbine High School massacre).

References

1. ^ "nothing less than the finest indie-rock shows around" quotes from Boston Phoenix. The Middle East Cite error: The named reference "middleeast" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
2. The Boston Globe at Boston.com
3. Rolling Stone July 9, 1999
4. Perry N. Finley Foundation Ltd.
5. Best of Boston Awards Page "http://thephoenix.com/theBest/Boston/Food/IceCreamParlor/"
6. Cambridge Arts Council
7. Cambridge Chronicle

External links

• Official website - The Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub

42°21′50″N 71°06′05″W / 42.363835°N 71.101420°W / 42.363835; -71.101420

• Articles with trivia sections from August 2008
• Restaurants in Massachusetts
• Music venues in Massachusetts
• Nightclubs in the United States
• Punk rock venues
• Buildings and structures in Cambridge, Massachusetts