Let’s hope this works. Not for the least of reasons being that the city of Charlotte ponied up $2m. for an access road to the sprawling site.

Now comes word that the Lazes have affiliated their 2000-seat music venue with the Fillmore brand being rolled out by uber-promoter Live Nation. OK. Quick and easy metric for me to tell if this is working will be the number of acts that quit by-passing Charlotte in favor of the House of Blues venue in Myrtle Beach, yet another Live Nation brand.

Case in point, stunt metal freaks Dragonforce. Their “Southern leg” of their current tour consists of Atlanta, Orlando, and MB. Would Live Nation attempted to book them into the Music Factory? Or maybe the incarnation of Yes that is going to HOB? And would that have been instead of or in addition to stops in MB?

It is easy to see why Live Nation would want a Charlotte presence — it does not have much of a smaller venue footprint in the state. As such it will now compete directly with outlets in town like Amos’ Southend, which is smaller at a 1200 capacity, but which has also booked some of the exact same “tribute” acts that Live Nation has used to fill out its HOB roster in Myrtle.

One hopes this competition leads to more — and more varied — live music options for Charlotte. But there is no guarantee that it will.

Now, some ultra beatdown:

Update: The Uptown paper of record breathlessly heds this development Iconic music venue to open in Charlotte. Readers quickly correct that to an outlet of the new “McFillmore” chain is being hyped.

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