The former Carroll’s in Medford Square had half-walls separating the bar from the restaurant. When architectural designer Jeff Wetzel decided to blow out the bricks to open up the space for the new location of Deep Cuts, which he co-owns with Ian McGregor, he picked up a sledgehammer himself.
His arms are still shaking, Wetzel joked recently, as he and his colleagues scrambled to put the finishing touches on Greater Boston’s newest neighborhood live performance space. When the club opens on May 20 with 2015 Rock and Roll Rumble winners Zip-Tie Handcuffs, Medford will be rocking.
Originally opened as a deli, the new Deep Cuts will feed Boston’s growing appetite for more small and midsize music venues. That’s been a goal for McGregor since the closing of Allston’s Great Scott in 2020, a place he frequented.
At one point, McGregor says, he was in talks with Great Scott’s Carl Lavin to work together on a new location for the club, but those plans fell through. Instead, he and his team focused on finding a suitable location for Deep Cuts that could accommodate a performance stage. When they got a tip that Carroll’s was set to close, Wetzel says, they pounced.
“This was one of the original buildings in Medford Square,” says Wetzel, who, like his partners, is in his late 30s.
The space has a large kitchen and an enormous basement, where Wetzel, a former co-owner of Everett’s BearMoose Brewing, has installed a five-barrel brewing system.
McGregor and Deep Cuts bar manager Dan Hastings previously worked together at SoulFire, the Allston barbecue joint that closed in 2017. After work, they’d bring fried chicken over to Great Scott for the staff. Eventually, McGregor cooked up an idea for a monthly night at the club dedicated to service industry professionals called Treat Yo Self.
The team behind Deep Cuts plans to book live bands of various styles as well as comedy shows and live podcast events in the room, which has a capacity of 240. They’ve already dialed in their menu (including an Italian sub named for McGregor’s mother, Catania) and beer offerings, such as Here Comes Your IPA, a nod to one of the great Boston bands, the Pixies.
Each of the team members has an abiding love for music. Wetzel used to play bass in metal bands. Hastings, raised on emo and hardcore in Central Massachusetts, grew up playing bass. McGregor’s brother, Ryan, who is the new room’s sound man and production manager, has a passion for free jazz and world music.
“I’m probably the odd man out,” he says with a laugh.
But it’s Ian McGregor’s tastes — “in the garage-psych-indie realm,” as he puts it — that will have the most bearing on the club’s performance calendar, at least in the beginning, according to talent buyer Alex Pickert. Doing business as Get to the Gig Boston, Pickert and his associate, Jordan Prange, will be the primary booking agency for Deep Cuts while McGregor establishes the day-to-day operations of the kitchen.
Pickert is also the talent buyer at the Crystal Ballroom in Davis Square. He previously worked at the Middle East and ONCE Somerville, as well as for Crossroads Presents, the concert promoter in partnership with Live Nation.
The addition of Deep Cuts to the area’s stages is “a godsend for me,” says Pickert. “This sized room has been missing from the city since Great Scott, ONCE, and Thunder Road all closed.”
In the last couple of years Boston has added larger venues, including Roadrunner with a capacity of 3,500 and the MGM Music Hall at Fenway, capacity 5,000. Crystal Ballroom accommodates 500.
But up-and-coming touring acts and local bands who have outgrown tiny spaces such as O’Brien’s in Allston need more options in the middle range, Pickert says.
“It’s really cool to build an act — have them sell out O’Brien’s, move to Deep Cuts, and then move up to the Crystal Ballroom,” he says. “That model is what Live Nation does.”
Deep Cuts is not the only new venue helping to fill the void. The Fallout Shelter in Norwood, capacity 100, has just announced a schedule that includes the Dogmatics on May 25 and former Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau on June 3. In Marshfield, Levitate Backyard is set to reopen its outdoor space on May 18.
The team at Deep Cuts, which sits a block away from the revitalized Chevalier Theatre, hopes to become an anchor of a burgeoning nightlife destination spot. Wetzel says there’s a tequila bar and an Irish pub coming to the neighborhood.
“Davis Square is still growing,” says Pickert, who also books the Somerville Theatre’s live performances. “I can’t wait to see that happen in Medford Square.”
Like his colleagues, he can feel the sound waves already: “I’m shaking with excitement for next week.”
James Sullivan can be reached at jamesgsullivan@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @sullivanjames.