In one large room, a popular local rock ‘n’ roll band glows in the blue and green spotlights at full volume as a crowd of 500 or so looks on in approval. In the other smaller night club-like room, the crew disassemble a drum set from the previous show and eagerly awaits the National Fetish Rights group “Bound” to pile in for their monthly party.

This is a quiet and extremely normal night at Hartford’s Webster Theater, and its little brother of sorts, the Webster Underground. The Webster Underground is used as a second stage and is usually used simultaneously with the main stage, for a festival feel. It is also rented out for parties.

The larger room actually was a very popular movie theater in the ’40s. This popularity soon waned as the Hartford night life started to fall short of respectable in the ’70s.

In order to keep the business open, current owner Justine Robertson’s father played to the crowd and turned the Webster into a porn theater for a few years until it had to be shut down completely.

When it was re-opened by Justine Robertson and her father, Justine took an almost solo control over its future as a rock club. Today, the Webster is receiving unwelcome bids by CBS and Clear Channel for ownership, but the Robertsons are keen on keeping it in the family.

The Webster, though, does accept some very small contribution and sponsorship from Ovation guitars, and many of the acts end up signing one to be put on display after their show.

Andrea Sinclaire, a manager at the Webster, admits that they “are not experts in fetish nights,” but they are experts in local music. While almost all acts are welcome, they leave room for the extra eager ones to prove themselves. Each local band shares the responsibility to sell tickets for their show, and the hard work pays off when Webster showcases their act.

This unique and personal assistance has placed the club in the minds of people as a friendly place to see their friends play on the same stage as the big boys. Sinclaire explains that it is important to push and encourage the bands, because of the club’s unique history of helping the little guys gain sometimes-extreme popularity in the world of music.

Staind was signed backstage at the Webster by Fred Durst himself. Incubus and No Doubt once opened for 311 when the two bands were barely known.

Good Charlotte, who was once one of the Webster’s ‘little bands’ returned to play a couple years in the midst of their height in popularity, and after the show MTV reporters helped to nationally report the near carnage their young female fans were administering to the band’s tour bus.

Maroon 5 was once one of their up and coming regulars, when they would drive cross-country in a van, all looking sickly and accepting a mere $150 to play for an hour and a half.

“It’s nice to see nice guys do well,” Sinclaire said.

Despite their popularity, Sinclaire explains how it is a contact battle against the stigma of a rock club. They got near-national recognition two years ago just after the pyrotechnics fire in Rhode Island at the Great White concert. They were, to a certain extent, hurt by the fact that they let Great White play almost immediately after the deadly fire. The Webster seems to welcome the weird stories, though. It gives them a level of mystique that helps sell tickets.

Steve-O has made himself bleed, puke, he balanced a ladder on his chin and he stapled a certain part of his anatomy to his thigh on the same stage that has welcomed Guster.

Unique and exciting are two words that are too simple to describe the Webster Theater.

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