Jeremy Rusen can’t recall who was on stage the first time he squeezed his way into the crowd at Federal Hill’s iconic concert venue The 8×10 some 20 years ago, but he never forgot the feeling.
“The 8×10 has an energy,” say Rusen, now an 8×10 regular and local trades craftsman. “It’s all about the music.”
Praised as one of the East Coast’s premier places to experience a live show, the small-but-mighty 8×10 has hosted the likes of Nirvana, Billy Joel, Chuck Berry, Phish, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and other national names since opening in 1983. But it’s also been a springboard for independent artists across all genres—like Charm City soul fixture Cris Jacobs, who holds the unofficial record for most shows played on the 8×10 stage.
Given its storied status, the local scene was understandably rattled last winter, when current owners Abigail Janssens and Brian Shupe announced their plans to retire and close the venue for good on June 30.
But thanks to Rusen, Jacobs, and Rising Sun Presents (RSP)—the Philadelphia-based production company behind Ardmore Music Hall—The 8×10 is here to stay. Built on a shared love of live music, production chops, family, and Baltimore, the new ownership group will officially take over on July 1.
It’s what Janssens and Shupe hoped for. “We believed the universe would deliver The 8×10 the right owners if we waited long enough,” Shupe said in a statement, “and it obviously did.”
The backstory of how the stars aligned starts with Rusen, who has seen numerous artists at The 8×10 throughout the years. In mid-2025, when he heard that Janssens and Shupe wanted to sell, he knew who to call. His younger cousin is Chris Perella, managing partner of Rising Sun Presents.
Perella first discovered The 8×10 in 2008 while managing the Delaware band Long Walk Home, and had seen several subsequent shows there while visiting family in Baltimore or seeing his beloved Orioles play.
“I told him that we couldn’t let it go to a corporate entity,” Rusen recalls.
While Perella appreciated Rusen’s suggestion to buy the intimate, 300-capacity 8×10, he was focused on operating his Philadelphia venues at the time. Fast forward to February 2026, Rusen phoned again. Kismet or coincidence, that call was followed by another to check Perella’s temperature on taking over The 8×10.
“Dave Rather, who has owned The 8×10’s building for 25 years and [rebranded it as] the Funk Box briefly before he sold it to Abigail and Brian, called,” Perella explains. “I know him from Jazz Fest in New Orleans, and he’s come up to Ardmore for a few of our New Orleans All-Star shows.”
After connecting about Rusen’s desire for a career change into venue management, the cousins put together a partnership group that includes Rather (also the former owner of Mother’s in Federal Hill), Jacobs (who happens to be a close friend of Perella’s, having performed at his wedding and at all RSP Philadelphia venues), and others.
For his part, homegrown singer-songwriter Jacobs needed no persuasion. “I think Chris Perrella is one of the true good guys out there,” Jacobs says. “I knew he was in it for the right reasons—to steward the next chapter of this place that’s so near and dear to my heart. It was a no-brainer.”
Moving forward, RSP’s plan is to maintain the intimate connection between artist and audience that Janssens and Shupe fostered at the club for so long, booking more than 230 shows per year. It’s ultimately what captivated Rusen, Perella, and Jacobs.
“You have a level of trust there with people who come 50 times a year, which is unusual for most live music venues,” Perella says. “You might see a band you’ve never heard of because you know that the programming is well curated, and you know and love the staff. It’s comforting for our team to be able to further cultivate and enhance the whole experience so that the community feels even more at home and excited to be there.”
On June 30, the venue will close for the summer while RSP prepares for an October grand reopening. Improvements to the four-level space will include a new bar, renovated green rooms, updated décor, and monitor installation to improve sight lines. The team is also focusing on upgrading food and beverage, developing a membership program, and booking national tours—as well as a residency by Jacobs, who will, of course, continue his famous “Very Jerry Christmas” Grateful Dead tribute shows around the holidays.
He says he loves the idea of having a home to “try new things out and experiment with new projects and ideas.”
“I’ve played a lot of venues, and there is something about that place that makes you really feel connected to the crowd,” Jacobs says. “There’s a transference going on where the band hypes the crowd up, which hypes the band up. It was basically my home in my twenties when I was in [beloved Baltimore jam band] The Bridge. It was like a coming of age for me musically.”
Overall, Jacobs sees The 8×10’s next chapter as an important example of keeping live music venues community-owned.
“There’s the intangible factor of the tradition of small independent music venues in the age of corporate mega-venues and mega-festivals,” he says. “The 8×10 is a place where it’s all about the human connection and relationships. That’s where the real culture is—hubs that exist in the real places where people can exchange ideas and really help each other along in life.”