An annual First Avenue tradition is moving to a new venue

The longest-running annual gig at First Avenue is moving to a new home.

Curtiss A’s 46th annual Tribute to John Lennon, held every Dec. 8 on the anniversary of the Beatle’s murder, will be held at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul this year instead of its usual spot inside the famed Minneapolis rock club.

The reason for the relocation is as obvious as the need to hire string players to pull off “Eleanor Rigby” at every show.

“Many of the people who love the Beatles are boomers who are well into their friggin’ 70s now,” Curt “Curtiss A” Almsted said Monday, “and for them the show will be more enjoyable if they’re able to sit down.”

The Fitzgerald is owned and operated by First Avenue Productions, which bought it from Minnesota Public Radio in 2018 after MPR stopped using the venue to host Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” The venue holds 1,058 people, a little less than the First Ave Mainroom, and it is all reserved seating. That means advance tickets are a more vital purchase this time around for fans of the tribute. The theater setting also means tickets are going to cost a bit more money.

Seats are on sale via AXS.com priced $33-$66 plus fees.

“I’m hoping all the people who’ve been on the guest list for the past 45 years will cough up a little money now,” Almsted cracked.

Other than that, though, not much else will change about the concert, including the usual large cast of co-performers who are officially billed as “Curtiss A with a Little Help from His Friends.”

Almsted helmed the first tribute in the hours after Lennon’s murder in 1980 with Safety Last as his backing band in the newly opened 7th St. Entry. Except for one year at the long-gone club Goofy’s Upper Deck in 1981, the event has been held annually under the First Ave roof ever since.