This Friday night, the Royal Lee will open its doors to teens coming to see punk bands from around the region.
But this will be the last show they can come to at the Chinese restaurant-cum-bar, the end of a tradition at the Royal Lee. There may be concerts there in the future, but they will not be open to all ages.
Doug Giancoli began organizing the all-ages shows more than a year and a half ago, in March 2001, to serve in part as a showcase for his band, Cheerleaders of the Apocalypse.
Since then, COTA has gotten a recording contract, so they didn’t need the Royal Lee shows for exposure, he said. But he kept booking them at the encouragement of restaurant’s management.
"We started doing six or seven shows a month, and there wasn’t a market for that," Giancoli said. "I’ve been putting a lot of effort into this, and it’s been eating into the effort for my real job, tutoring high school and college students."
It is not the end of the line for live music at the club, though. An employee of the restaurant said that they may book other acts in the future, but only open to 21 and over.
"When you book these shows, everybody wants water, water, water," he said. "Nobody makes any money. We want to give young people a chance to come in, but business is business. But this is not the last show at the Royal Lee."
Giancoli said he may book some more all-ages shows in Arlington in the future, maybe even at the Royal Lee.
"I can probably talk the owner into letting us do this sometime in the future," he said. "He’s not a bad guy. He’s just not into the scene at all."