Ben Salmon on the Frequency blog reports that the Midtown Music Hall is back under new/old management:

Co-owners Rhoda and Creig Jones and Duane McCabe and Lise Hoffman-McCabe are taking back control of the venues. The quartet ran the Midtown for years until 2007, when they leased its operations to a new team. (They had put the property up for sale in 2006. It never sold.)

In the 2-1/2 years since [under the "new" management], though, the Midtown’s live-music offerings have dwindled. Random Presents continues to host shows there regularly, but the Taylor/Fought/Dickey team never established a consistent slate of shows. The Midtown Web site has been “under construction” for months. These days, the venues are quiet most nights.

The Midtown’s deterioration over the past couple of years has been a sad thing to watch. Not only has the concert schedule become a ghost town (besides the Random shows), but the physical conditions inside the building have declined. Grime covered many surfaces, junk was piled in corners, the bathrooms were a mess. And that was just from casual observation.

The bottom line is it was an increasingly uncomfortable place to attend a concert, much less enjoy your experience.

That’s why the return of Jones/McCabe is terrific news for local music fans.

Discuss.