By Any Other Name

The Bad Idea Factory's Philly venues renamed, y'know, just for the hell of it.

When Live Nation announced last month that the Theatre of the Living Arts would be officially rechristened the Fillmore Philadelphia with the April 27 performance of Philly native Todd Rundgren, it issued a release describing how Bill Graham's legacy will be San-franchised down to the last detail — vintage gig posters and the trademark bucket of apples included. The release even blithely acknowledged that the "South Street institution" that is "known to Philadelphians as the TLA ... has been a catalyst in the careers of several local Philadelphia artists including The Roots, Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild and G. Love & Special Sauce." Name changing hasn't homogenized history so arbitrarily since Ellis Island. Is there no better way to create authentic atmosphere than by co-opting nostalgia created a coast away? We might as well have every last homegrown artist stop by to reopen our favorite music spots with names plagiarized from hallowed halls in presumably more legitimate cities.

1. Was: The Trocadero Now: Sixth Borough CBGB's

2. Was: Zanzibar Blue Now: The Zanzibar Blue Man Group Experience

3. Was: The First Unitarian Church Now: The Holywood Bowl

4. Was: The Mann Center Now: The Personn Center

5. Was: The Tower Theater Now: Royal Albert Hall & Oates' Rockin' Revue