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The Blackstone
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Music:
- DJ, Live, Juke Box
- Best Nights:
- Thu, Fri, Sat
- Happy Hour:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- Outdoor Area/ Patio Only
- Coat Check:
- No
7 reviews for The Blackstone
I visited Blackstone with a couple friends this past Thursday for the Sound Session festival's hip hop showcase. None of us had ever been to the Hope Artiste Village before, so we toured that first, before getting into the bar, which is actually something everyone should know: in order to actually get in the bar, the "front door" is not actually an acceptable entrance at all. Instead, you have to pretend that there are signs showing you where the entrance is, and go into the mill building itself (the village), and enter through a very nonchalant (or inconspicuous?) door.
Anyway, once you're inside it's pretty smooth sailing. The "bouncer" blends in and you can see him smoking on the back patio, talking with the patrons. The "venue" is more of a bar, but the stage is a small and comfortable addition, with speakers that are pretty good. During the hip hop performances, the vocals sometimes got in the way of the beats and vice versa, but that may have been the sound engineer more than anything else.
There is one bar at Blackstone--it's this large quadrangle, with three sides that are open for service. This is a hip place. They have both Hoegaarden and Guinness on tap, along with all the standards. It was difficult a couple times, with all the sound, to order the former, as the bartenders kept hearing "Blue Moon," apparently. For hard stuff, the place is packed with upper-end items. There was a wide selection of pricey whiskeys, some delicious-looking brandies (too much for me!), and the like. The beer was your average four dollars a pop.
The place has a couple of pool tables (which are mediocre--very small, and it feels cramped to play them), and a fooseball table. There is a ton of seating, which is a plus, and that previously-mentioned back patio which gives smokers a close-by but sectioned off place to do their business. The patio also has a bunch of furniture, which impressed me.
Most of the bar is dark due to the brick walls, and the color selections for most of the interior design, but there was a lot of effort put into lighting. The lighting styles are pretty schizophrenic. I think I counted about five or six different styles (including Christmas lights, small spotlights, neon lights, and a colored ambient lighting near the stage), but I consider the lighting a plus. It gives the place character.
Speaking of which, one of my favorite features about the bar was this enclosed little sitting area (enclosed but not exclusive!) dominated by black leather chairs and tables. The chairs were essentially recliners, making the place feel like a living room; though this was not necessarily a good thing for people not wanting to spill their drinks, it was a welcome addition to the place. Other seating not previously included: several types of raised tables with high chairs, and a couple small bars built into some walls and room partitians.
And if the place was already going in a thousand directions, throw in two or three wide-screen, high-definition televisions (showing baseball games), and you've got a closer picture to what the place has to offer.
One downside is that the bathrooms are technically located outside of the bar. You have to leave through that ill-mentioned door (brought up earlier in this review) and the bathroom is across the hall. Kind of strange, but it works.
I really dug the clientelle. I don't know what type of people go to this place on a regular basis, but the event that I attended brought all sorts of interesting characters. Of course you had your hip hop crowd, both the hip hop artists (which included a wide variety of styles) and their fans. Seeing where the place is located, and the city that Pawtucket is next to, it's easy to understand the sheer amount of young hipster-types that were there too, but unlike the AS220 in Providence, the place did not really seem conceited or stereotypical. It had a more mature vibe about it. I wish I had known about it during my time at college, because it's everything that college bars are not.
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Beware of the Blackstone!
With years of experience playing good, bad and ugly gigs this one was the WORST.
Great venue which unfortunately is run as unprofessional as can be! Owner/booker/sound-person communicates sporadically at best so ends up booking too many bands (4 for 3 time slots) and still decides to show at 10:00 for a line-check. Every band thought they were playing at 10:00 and told their fans the same. Tensions were high to say the least and the manager decides to ignore the problem. Now bands are pulling each others gear off stage, people are getting on each other's nerves and even the staff (bar as well as security) are talking about how they wish they could pool money to buy the owner out as she is ruining a fantastic venue. Wish they could...
End result is that after traveling as far as 85 miles to get to this gig from Mass. we get squeezed out of this gig after we were the first ones booked to play it because we challenged our set time of approximately 12:45 -1 AM. Too bad...
Learn from our mistake NEVER play the Blackstone Club at the Hope Artist Village in Pawtucket Rhode Island.
Cool setup, usually good bands, great bartenders too.
Huge space in the suprisingly cool Hope Artist Village (a revamped factory space) just out over the providence line in The Bucket.
Huge, huge space.Big. Huge. TV's, pool, patio, music stage, tons of seating. It is big enough that you can ignore the band and just booze (when I was there, a terrible Indigo Girls-esque band was whining away) I have heard they get some really good local talent.
Clientele is a mix of bikers, artists, artsy junkies, normal folk and Pawtucket residents (which, more often than not, are a strange socio-economic assortment falling between white trash and ghetto fabulous, with a touch of grease monkey and debatable mental stability )
It is great for groups and events, and the clientele was actually exceedingly friendly despite the somewhat rough around the edges appearance.
Reasonable drinks and a likewise enormous patio round out a generally doable experience.
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I am a fan of Blackstone! Although, I've only been there a couple of times, it's enough to keep me wanting to go back on the weekends. There's a great crowd, excellent drinks, and a funky atmosphere.
I went to celebrate my birthday and there was a B-52's band covering. I was more than excited. I would recommend going here if you're looking to hang out with a group of friends. It's a HUGE place and the bar is easily accesible from wherever you are hanging out. The drink prices are reasonable.
Don't be put off by the fact that it's in Pawtucket... it's right off North Main and definitely worth checking out!
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Impressive use of space, loads of beers available. Two pool tables & foosball table is a nice distraction. Good place to see a live band or just hang out.
Ah yes, The Blackstone. Their new location (opened this summer in '07 after they moved from the old location in Cumberland) in Pawtucket is pretty awesome really. It's a decent sized space with the stage set up in the back for the live music that they have going on on most nights. They have pool tables and darts and a TV's and a loungey-couch area (my friends and I dubbed it "the necking area"). Also, there is a long L-shaped bar area with many stools as well. And they also serve food, as well. Anyway, it's cool with brick walls and hard wood floors, which makes the sound quite "live". The lighting is also good, not to bright, but you can still see what people look like, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, the cool thing is that Marion (co-owner with her husband/sound-woman/booking-woman, etc) really gives a shit about what she books there, unlike A LOT of places. She really tries to put together musical line-ups that make sense. And she really cares about the place in general.
She's been very supportive of my band, so I thought I'd give a shot out to The Blackstone.
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