BU Central

Oh BU Central — you bastard offspring of a music venue and the old Student Union game room — it’s a shame you can’t decide what the hell you want to be. The concept could be really cool if you did.
BU Central is supposed to be Boston University’s late night music/​entertainment alternative for students who don’t want to party out in the city (or who aren’t 21 yet, and can’t get in anywhere). During the day, BU Central is just a big room in the basement of the George Sherman Student Union (the second ugliest building on BU’s campus) with really nice chairs. It’s in the basement, and it looks like it. It’s still got a lot of the legacy of the old game room in it, including a few pool tables. On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays during the school year, though, BU Central transforms into a venue for live entertainment… sort of.
The problem isn’t the staff or the talent — the BU Central people bring in some pretty cool acts and some decent music. I saw Bang Camaro for the first time here, and during their «enthusiastic» performance of Push Push, the lead guitarist almost punched out one of the ceiling tiles (because the ceiling is so, so low). You can’t get that sort of good time in just any music club. There’s a good online calendar that lists upcoming events, and it’s not a bad place for an up-​and-​coming band to try out its stuff in front of a mostly easy to please college audience.
The problem with BU Central is the space itself — it wasn’t made to be a music venue, and it shows. The room is split in half, with a small section at the far end for pool tables and a big TV, and there used to be a holdout crowd of kids who didn’t WANT the place to turn into BU Central, so they stuck around and watched TV and played pool even when there was a concert going on. There are giant pillars running the length of the room that completely block the view of the small stage for half of the room. The ceiling is really low. The room’s got no ventilation and no acoustics to speak of, and there isn’t anywhere to get a drink — alcoholic or otherwise. There are some vending machines in the hallway, if you don’t mind $ 1.50 for a coke (I guess that’s less than you’d pay at an actual venue, though).
The benefits of this place are pretty straightforward — you can sometimes see decent local acts for no money or virtually no money, it’s an intimate space, and if you’re at BU already, you don’t have to leave campus to have a good night out. Much like Northeastern’s after HOURS venue, it offers a cool option for students who want to experience some fun of Boston’s nightlife, even if they can’t either afford the ACTUAL city’s options, or they aren’t old enough. Unlike after HOURS, though, BU Central’s space sucks.
Guest rules are pretty strict — you got’st to be either a BU student, or a guest of one, to get in. Each student can bring 2 guests if they want. Like most college-​specific events or resources, this rule is a little more relaxed if the events of any given night are not expected to be particularly popular. For a band or act with a decent name, though, expect the administration to clamp down pretty hard on guests.