SHOWTIME: The C Note will host its last performance on September 27. Staff members celebrated local bands and enjoyed dressing the part for theme shows, like Yacht Rock Night with Blufish. Shown in costume are Lisa Hennessey, Lori Coleman, Barbara Rhind, and Kate Barclay. Click here and here for more memories of the C Note’s 18-year run. [Courtesy photos]

By Carol Britton Meyer

The memories will linger long after the C Note – often referred to as “the South Shore’s best live music club” – closes its doors next week.

This popular music venue on Nantasket Avenue – which opened in 2008 – was slated to close during the COVID19 pandemic, but fundraising – including outdoor concerts where some fans voluntarily paid $100 to $300 for one performance in a show of support – and donations saved the day.

This time, though, it’s for real.

The stage will go dark on Sunday, September 27 after A Tribute to the Great American Songbook with Michael Maloon and Melanie Whelan. The club added this act after the original final performance – a September 26 show featuring the Aerosmith tribute band Draw the Line – sold out quickly.

“We have definitely had our ups and downs over this 18-year span,” longtime C Note bar manager Barbara Rhind, who has a long history in the music business and books all the entertainment – an eclectic mix of rock, rhythm and blues, disco, punk, tribute and cover bands, and original music – told The Hull Times. “The biggest drawback was the 17 months we were forced to close in April 2020 because of COVID.”

At that time, C Note owner Charlie Fruzzetti thought that would be the end of the road, but with encouragement from staff, musicians, and patrons, he agreed to allow Rhind to start a fundraising campaign with the hopes of reopening.

“It was an incredible effort to ask for donations, but a number of bands stepped up to the plate,” she recalls. “Bands who donated their time played to an empty room for those 17 months because the concerts were being live streamed from the C Note. We could not have done it without our terrific sound man, Greg Campia. He ran the sound while I sat at my laptop thanking each person who donated during these fundraisers.”

‘We were back in business’

In August 2021, the C Note reopened during a two-week heatwave.

“We were packed that night, and even though our ice machine and air conditioner stopped working, people stayed anyway because it was the first time back with live music in a nightclub,” Rhind said. “We were back in business – at least for the next six years.”

Rhind has often been told that the C Note is the Johnny D’s (a Somerville venue featuring world music) of the South Shore, “a fantastic club that sadly has also closed.”

The first Friday of each month was dedicated to all-ages shows and benefits for local charities (including Magical Moon Farm, Rolling Wave Foundation, Hull Seaside Animal Rescue, veterans, Hull senior center, and the Hull High School music department, among others).

The biggest overall draws were Booty Vortex, Draw The Line, and Blushing Brides – and locally, Terpene Profile, The Wickies, Ali & The Biddies, Thirsty Boots, Fit 2B Tied, and a number of tribute bands.

Click here and here for more memories of the C Note’s 18-year run.

One of Rhind’s personal favorites is Fat City Band, which opened the original Sea Note club in 1990 and then opened the C Note 18 years later.

“They are the only band I can think of that performs entirely original music,” she said, noting that she has worked with them since the 1970s, when she started her music career at The Bell Buoy in Scituate.

“I also love Blufish, a terrific yacht rock band. And yes, our staff always dressed in those captain hats and striped shirts – so much fun!” she said.

Other popular performers include The Gratefuls, Assisted Living, Toni Lynn Washington, and the Love Dogs.

Highlights for Rhind over the years include the annual Halloween Party with Booty Vortex – “you actually felt uncomfortable if you did note have a costume on!” – the annual show with Hull Pride (“always a blast!”) and Dr. Jim Mitterando’s annual Mardi Gras events (“with great bands, costumes, and the terrific barbecue he served up”).

Anchor of Hull benefits

For a few years in a row on the first Sunday in May, the C Note hosted a benefit for The Anchor of Hull, which provides a safe, sober, and supportive environment for building community, wellness, and recovery.

“Those events started at 8 a.m. with music by a trio from the North Street Community Chapel Church of the Nazarene in Hingham [The Anchor is a ministry of that church] and even a minister and pastor who preached and also gave communion,” Rhind said. “It was particularly interesting to have a rehab church event in a bar. [No alcohol was served during these events]. So you could say that we have done it all at the C Note!”

Favorite memories include the night she booked “a fabulous band called Bad Actor and they asked if it would be OK to have their friends Dalton & the Sheriffs join them. Well, how could you turn a show like that down? It blew the roof off!”

In the beginning, the C Note featured blues artists such as Albert Castiglia, Tab Benoit, and Sugar Ray Rayford, but as the years passed, there were so many other venues hosting blues acts that this kind of music became less of a draw for the C Note.

That’s when this popular night spot began leaning toward different genres of music, and the only blues act Rhind booked regularly was Toni Lynn Washington – know as Queen of the Blues.

“It was always an honor to have her grace our stage,” she said.

‘Our staff has been wonderful’

Rhind has high praises for the C Note staff, which although small in number, “has been wonderful, always stepping up to the plate when needed. Our staff is family, and the C Note is our home away from home.”

The C Note has always been about live music.

“We don’t have a kitchen and even though we have a TV, it is a rare occasion that you will see it on,” Rhind said. “We are not a sports bar or restaurant. We are a nightclub through and through.”

Rhind noted that “another cool thing about the C Note is that numerous single women mentioned how they didn’t mind going there alone, because they always felt safe and protected by our staff. That’s high praise for a nightclub of any kind.”

The music is what makes the C Note special, staff and fans agree.

“We are forever grateful to every single musician who has ever stepped on our stage,” Rhind said. “I have loved every minute working with all of the bands and have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for each musician who has made this his or her livelihood and who has called us their home. They are family to us, too.”

When asked about the reasons behind this unexpected closing, Rhind said that building up the customer base after the COVID19 restrictions were lifted was challenging.

“Many people were still masking up, and some had family with COVID, including some bands that were forced to cancel,” Rhind said. “So during that time, a lot of people hosted outdoor events at their homes in their backyards, where people could bring a cooler. They weren’t about to come to a club and pay a cover charge for an evening show after they had been partying outside all day.”

Even afterward, when people started to trickle back into the C Note, “it was still hard times,” Rhind recalled. “Other venues started doing outdoor events, and that really hurt business as well, so we struggled onward and we have had our share of great nights and slow nights. That’s the nature of the beast.”

Restricted parking an issue

Another contributing factor is that the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which operates the Nantasket Beach Reservation, began locking the entrance gate to the parking lot across the street as early as 8:30 p.m.

“Needless to say, this killed our business, as we have a license to operate until 1 a.m.,” Rhind said. Those already inside the gate are allowed to exit, but the closure had a significant impact because of limited street parking.

“Not to mention that the state police would throw on their blue lights and cruise the lot after they locked the gate. In my opinion, totally unnecessary because it scared more people off,” Rhind said. “We watched cars turn around and leave Hull and blow right past the C Note’s front doors looking for some other place to go because they could not find parking. We’ve even had to refund tickets to people who arrived later because they had gone to dinner first someplace else and there was no parking available. It has been an endless battle.”

In addition, she said, the number of condominium buildings that have been erected surrounding the C Note over the past number of years have in her opinion “taken away all the charm this little town once had.”

Another ‘intimate nightclub’ closing its doors

“As Bob Marley sang, ‘One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.’ A truer statement there could not be,” Rhind said. “The love and joy of live music is the common thread that sews us all together. We dance, we laugh, we meet new people, and we make lifelong friendships, and meet future spouses – myself included. Even our staff frequents the C Note on their nights off. I know they and our fans, patrons, and the musicians are all saddened by our closing. It is tough to see yet another intimate nightclub close its doors.”

One of the most difficult tasks Rhind was required to perform when Fruzzetti announced the closing was canceling all the shows from October 1 into 2027 that she had already booked.

“It was heartbreaking,” she said.

Future plans for the building, which was sold by its longtime owner in July for $1.1 million, are unknown.

Rhind expressed appreciation for the C Note staff over the years and to Fruzzetti “for keeping it going as long as we could. We gave it our best shot.”

She also appreciates “all our loyal customers, true fans of the C Note” and all the bands that played there over the years.

“The C Note couldn’t have survived without them. I encourage everyone to continue to support live music and smaller venues such as the C Note,” she said. “There aren’t many left.”

While Rhind will miss “our family of staff and musicians, our fans and patrons, and my boss, Charlie, it’s bittersweet because now we can all go out and see and enjoy full shows of all the bands we love and those we never got a chance to see because we were all working.

“I’m looking forward to those nights. See you on the other side of the bar!”

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