Ryan Cormier

The News Journal

After 3-1/2 years as one of the top original music venues for local talent in the state, Newark's Mojo Main may have fallen silent for good.

The restaurant and music club closed Sunday night after a harsh winter and lawsuit settlement left the club "financially crippled," says co-owner Jeff McKay.

The club, which opened in Sept. 2010 at the site of the former East End Cafe, will be closed for at least the next several weeks as the owners decide what to do next.

McKay says selling the bar, bringing in a new partner and renovations are all options being considered. The club at 270 E. Main St. employs about 20 people.

McKay kept Sunday night's closure a secret, fearing a replay of the East End's final night in 2010, which ended with flying beer bottles and police cars.

Last year, Mojo Main was sued by Broadcast Music Inc., an organization that collects licensing fees on behalf of songwriters, composers and music publishers.

BMI alleged the club infringed on the copyrights of artists it represents when the songs were performed during a karaoke nights and played through the bar's sound system. Penalties for the offenses range from $750 to $30,000 per song with seven songs cited in the lawsuit against Mojo.

McKay says Mojo Main settled with BMI and finished paying off the unspecified penalty in January. McKay says the settlement is confidential, per the agreement.

Elaine Papantinas, co-owner of the building, says she hopes Mojo Main's owners can recoup their loses.

Mojo Main had a pair of shows scheduled tonight, including a concert by Connecticut folk rock act Little Ugly.

Scott Birney and Scott Hobson of The Sin City Band -- the act that was performing the night the East End Cafe closed in 2010 -- was also set to play its weekly Monday night happy hour gig this evening.

In an odd twist, The Sin City Band was also the first band to perform when the East End Cafe opened in 1987. At the time of the East End's closing in March 2010, Hobson said, "That's the end of an era for us."

In the end, the site of the East End stayed closed (and quiet) for only six months before the owners of Holly Oak rock club Mojo 13 stepped in. (Mojo 13, located on Philadelphia Pike, remains open following Mojo Main's closure, McKay says.)

McKay and partner Jerad Shaffer re-opened the East End as Mojo Main in September 2010 and retained the venue's long-held tradition as a home for original music.

The club was the center of the town's music scene, largely fed by University of Delaware students and graduates. It hosted everything from rap and metal to rock and country.

After learning the club had closed and his long-running weekly gig on Main Street was canceled, Sin City's Birney had this to say Monday afternoon: "I 'm feeling blue. Another one bites the dust at the same location."

Birney says the veteran band already has offers from other local bars to transplant their Monday Night act. He jokes, "I hate to think we'll have to have a band meeting to figure something out. We haven't had one in 20 years."