Bowery Presents expands in Boston, hires Carl Lavin and Josh Smith of CQ Presents

New York-based concert promoter THE BOWERY PRESENTS has expanded its Boston bandwidth with the hiring of CQ Presents talent buyers CARL LAVIN, pictured above, and JOSH SMITH.

The move aligns two additional venues under the Bowery's regional network: Allston’s 240-capacity Great Scott and 330-capacity T.T. The Bear’s Place in Cambridge. Lavin and Smith will continue to book those venues while working with Josh Bhatti, who currently heads up The Bowery Presents: Boston, in bringing national and local bands to the 775-capacity Tremont Street nightclub Royale and the Sinclair, a 525-person Harvard Square live music venue and restaurant set to open in October. (Last night, we reported on the first few shows coming to the Sinclair this fall.)

"We're excited to have Carl and Josh joining the Bowery team," writes Bhatti in a press release. "We've been big fans of their work and they've proven their commitment to promoting great concerts in and around Boston for a number of years... T.T. The Bear's has a storied history of bringing in great acts and we look forward to further enhancing the venue, and Carl has done an amazing job of putting Great Scott on the map and bringing in and nurturing emerging talent."

Lavin has operated Great Scott’s live music schedule since 2004 and co-founded independent booking agency CQ Presents with Smith, formerly of MassConcerts, in January of last year. He says the programming at the Allston venue and T.T.’s will not change with this merging with Bowery, and is excited to further strengthen a lineage of independent venues around town.

"We're most excited to become part of a company that has proven over the years to find such great success and respect while holding true to the same core ideology as we've always strived to maintain here in Boston," writes Lavin and Smith in a joint statement. "We feel that this is such a natural fit and the opportunity to share ideas and get different perspectives on the industry with a team like The Bowery Presents is something that was undeniably enticing and ultimately what makes this new chapter so exciting for us."

Bowery Presents currently books concerts at New York venues Terminal 5, Mercury Lounge, Music Hall of Williamsburg, the Wellmont Theatre, and the Bowery Ballroom, in addition to rooms in New Jersey, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Upstate New York.