Hull's First Halloween Without the C Note: Where the Music Went

For years, the last weekend of October on Nantasket Avenue meant the C Note's Halloween party with Booty Vortex. Barbara Rhind, the club's longtime bar manager, told The Hull Times that "you actually felt uncomfortable if you did not have a costume on!" This year the room is dark. The last show was on Sunday, September 27: A Tribute to the Great American Songbook with Michael Maloon and Melanie Whelan. The club added that date after the planned final night, a September 26 show with the Aerosmith tribute band Draw the Line, sold out quickly.

Hull still has music this Halloween weekend. It has moved into rooms that also serve dinner. That is a real change for a town where one address on the beach side of Nantasket Avenue held a club built only for music, under different names, for about half a century.

One stage, four names

The C Note was the latest of several clubs, not the first. In a Hull Times history piece, David Kellem traces the line back to the 1970s:

1. The Eudemon Disco at 159 Nantasket Avenue. Nick Sabbag owned it, his son David ran it, and DJs like Jeff Schiffman played records there.
2. Toby's Place, which took over after the Eudemon.
3. The Sea Note, opened by Joe Phillips. It booked the James Montgomery Blues Band, Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, and Taylor Made.
4. The C Note, renamed by owner Charlie Fruzzetti in 2008.

Some bands spanned the change. Rhind told The Hull Times that Fat City Band opened the original Sea Note in 1990 and opened the C Note 18 years later. She has worked with the band since the 1970s, when she started her music career at The Bell Buoy in Scituate. Kellem's piece also describes the first C Note gig by Assisted Living in January 2012, after which the band played there regularly. He credits sound engineer Greg Campia and Rhind with shaping the club's culture.

What stayed the same through four names was the purpose. The room existed for music. As Rhind put it to The Hull Times:

"We don't have a kitchen and even though we have a TV, it is a rare occasion that you will see it on. We are not a sports bar or restaurant. We are a nightclub through and through."

Why a music-only room was hard to keep open

The C Note had no kitchen to fall back on, and it held a license to stay open until 1 a.m. It had already come close to closing once. It shut in April 2020 for 17 months. During that time, bands donated their time and played to an empty room for livestreamed fundraisers while Campia ran the sound. It reopened in August 2021.

Rhind told The Hull Times that rebuilding the customer base afterward was hard. Backyard gatherings and outdoor events at other venues competed with an indoor show that charged a cover. She also named parking. In her account, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which runs the Nantasket Beach Reservation, began locking the gate to the lot across the street as early as 8:30 p.m. The club was licensed to stay open until 1 a.m., and street parking nearby is limited. She said the club sometimes refunded tickets to people who had gone to dinner first and then could not find a space.

Getting to Hull without a car also got harder this fall. The MBTA's weekend timetable for the Hingham–Hull ferry, effective September 12, 2026, ended weekend Hingham–Hull service on October 11. The weekday route through Pemberton Point runs year-round.

The building sold in July 2026 for $1.1 million. The Hull Times reported that the plans for it are unknown. One of the hardest jobs after the closing was announced, Rhind said, was canceling every show she had already booked from October 1 into 2027. Those canceled dates explain why this Halloween calendar looks the way it does.

Halloween weekend, venue by venue

The costume parties that once centered on the C Note are now at restaurants by the water. Here is what is listed for this weekend:

The earliest event on the list is a lunchtime party. The Hull Times calendar lists the Senior Center's Hulloween for Thursday, October 29, at 12:30 p.m., with music by the Hull Holiday Singers. On Friday, the Boathouse Bistro has Honey Cuervo Band from 8 to 11 p.m., with prizes for the best costume, drinks and food. Daddy's Beach Club has PITCH BLACK on Friday and The Pitfalls on Saturday. The Pitfalls bill their show as a Halloween party that is "BACK at Daddy's" for 2026.

None of these venues runs like the old club. Daddy's calls itself a "Family Friendly Restaurant/Tavern located directly on Nantasket Beach," with live music four nights a week and brick oven pizza. The Boathouse Bistro is promoting its Halloween night with food, cocktails and a costume contest. A restaurant that hosts a band has its kitchen and its dining room to fall back on on a slow night. A room with "no kitchen" and a TV that stays off, as Rhind described the C Note, had only the band.

November runs through the dining rooms too

After Halloween, Hull's live music settles into regular weekly slots, almost all in restaurants and bars that serve food:

• Tuesday nights: WSU Blue Grass at Daddy's Beach Club, listed on HullNext for 7 to 9 p.m.
• Friday, Nov. 6: Those Four at Daddy's.
• Saturday, Nov. 7: Back Nine at Daddy's.
• Sundays: open mic at Jo's Nautical, with Nov. 1 and Dec. 6 on the LFG Tonight calendar.
• Karaoke at Jo's Nautical: Nov. 12 and Dec. 3.
• Saturday, Nov. 28: A Little Bit Shaggy at Daddy's, 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.

November 28 is also the date of the Hull Holiday Showcase, listed by the Hull Nantasket Chamber of Commerce from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Nantasket Beach Resort, 45 Hull Shore Drive. That makes it the busiest Saturday on the late-fall calendar, with the showcase during the day and A Little Bit Shaggy late at night. These calendars are live pages, and venues change their lineups. Check the posting before you head out.

The C Note bands are still looking for a stage

The bigger question is what happens to the bands the C Note built its calendar around. The Hull Times named its biggest draws as Booty Vortex, Draw the Line and Blushing Brides. The local favorites were Terpene Profile, The Wickies, Ali & The Biddies, Thirsty Boots and Fit 2B Tied, along with Fat City Band, Blufish, The Gratefuls, Assisted Living, Toni Lynn Washington and the Love Dogs. The paper's musicians' tribute piece included remembrances from Neill Byrnes of Draw the Line, Paul Redmond of Fat City Band, Mark Coronado of Booty Vortex, Wayne Gay of Terpene Profile, Jay FitzGibbons of Thirsty Boots, and Emily and Spencer Payson, Ali Howshall and Erich Hochstrasser of Ali & The Biddies.

None of these bands has announced a new home in Hull. The Halloween lineups at Daddy's and the Boathouse Bistro feature different acts. The C Note also hosted events that a dining room does not easily take on. On the first Friday of each month it ran all-ages shows and benefits for groups including Magical Moon Farm, Rolling Wave Foundation, Hull Seaside Animal Rescue, the Hull senior center and the Hull High School music department. For several years on the first Sunday in May, it also held an alcohol-free morning benefit for The Anchor of Hull. Its annual calendar also included a show with Hull Pride and Dr. Jim Mitterando's Mardi Gras events.

Rhind's parting request was simple. "I encourage everyone to continue to support live music and smaller venues such as the C Note," she told The Hull Times. "There aren't many left." She also said she was looking forward to seeing full shows by the bands she used to book, as a customer: "See you on the other side of the bar!"

When people ask me what Hull is like, a calendar like this one tells them more than any listing sheet can. If you'd like to talk about the town, the music it has now, or what's changing along Nantasket Avenue, Alice Pierce is always glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.