Most venues come and go within months. Bad management, shadiness, income loss, lack of booking prowess, drugs, and expired leases usually sound their death chimes on so many short lived musical venues. For some reason, these particular 12 venues below seem to continually brave the dingy four-walled norms, then steadfastly transcend ahead over time to permanently root themselves into each of our musical landscapes. I would better describe these venues as “necessary places of worship,” really. Here’s the list. Bon appetit:
DOUG WESTON’S TROUBADOUR (West Hollywood, CA) – The Troubadour, which opened in 1957, has remained a crucial musical cornerstone since its fruition. In the 1960s, it was a gathering place for Los Angeles’ folk music elite where musicians could gather, meet, and coalesce. This budding scene helped spawn The Eagles, The Byrds, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. On August 25, 1970, Neil Diamond introduced a young Elton John onto the Troub’s stage to play his first U.S. concert. On March 12, 1974, John Lennon was forcibly ejected from the club for drunken heckling during a Smothers Brothers show (Lennon, under scrutiny by the U.S. government for immigration issues at the time, then allegedly stepped outside and punched a photographer). On June 6, 1985, the newly solidified line up of an unknown local band called Guns N’ Roses took the stage billing their show “A Rock N Roll Bash Where Everyone’s Smashed.” Doug Weston, before his passing in 1999, sold the club to a new owner, but made the new owner contractually agree to keep the club cosmetically the same, even down to ensuring that his trusty bar back could never be fired. That’s rock & roll.
Current show calendar:
http://www.troubadour.com/calendar/
Queens of the Stone Age (featuring Dave Grohl) “No One Knows” Live at the Troubadour:
Wikipedia entry on the Troubadour:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubadour_(Los_Angeles)
CAIN’S BALLROOM (Tulsa, Oklahoma) – Built in 1924, this former service garage turned venue—now on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places–has seen more wars than you and your grandma combined, survived Prohibition, the Great Depression, and has hosted everybody from Bob Willis and Hank Williams to the Sex Pistols (Malcolm McLaren booked the Pistols here in 1978 to ruffle some serious Bible Belt feathers–and succeeded; Sid Vicious even punched a hole in a wall the night of their show and the venue has kept the hole ‘as is’ ever since). Most importantly, this location hosted everything from blues, jazz, country and ragtime music back in the 1930s. Over time, a new sound emerged from this cross-pollination and became known as “hot hillbilly music,” then “western swing,” and then “rock & roll.”
Current show calendar:
Sex Pistols “God Save the Queen” Live at Cain’s (*watch the interviews at the end of this clip*)
Wikipedia entry on Cain’s Ballroom:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain’s_Ballroom
BOWERY BALLROOM (New York, NY) – Built right before the Stock Market Crash of 1929, this building stood vacant until the end of World War II and didn’t become an official venue until 1997, but has since become one of New York’s finest music venues. The sound is pristine and, even when it’s packed to the gills, you can still see pretty much wherever you stand.
Current show calendar:
Fleet Foxes “Mykonos” Live at Bowery Ballroom 7/9/2008:
Wikipedia entry on Bowery Ballroom:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowery_Ballroom
APOLLO THEATER (New York, NY) – Also on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, this building/soul music Mecca located at 253 West 125th Street in Harlem was built in 1913. When it came under new ownership in 1934 by Frank Schiffman and Leo Brecher, things began to change. Taking a cue from the Post-World War I Great Migration of African Americans from the southern U.S. states to northern cities like Chicago and New York, Schiffman and Brecher realized that they could “offer quality shows for reasonable rates” by hiring less expensive black entertainers to satiate their steadily growing black community. The rest is history and the importance of the performances that took place here is immeasurable—James Brown, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald . . . the list goes on and on and makes me wish I had a time machine.
Current show calendar:
http://www.apollotheater.org/calendar
Lauryn Hill getting booed off stage at The Apollo at age 13!!!
Wikipedia entry on the Apollo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Theater
PAPPY AND HARRIETS PIONEERTOWN PALACE (Pioneertown, CA) – Where else can you journey to the edge of the desert (The Joshua Tree National Park—where the body of the late Flying Burrito Brother Gram Parsons was burned), lose all cell phone reception (glorious), journey through an old western town (a movie set erected in the 1940′s to film westerns by Roy Rogers and the like), and then tuck yourself into a little lost piece of roadhouse beauty for some dinner, drinks, and some of the best damn music you’ve ever heard in your natural life? Pappy and Harriets. Yes, this place is real. Real and truly worth the experience for any real music fans out there. It will never fail you. Robert Plant stopped by to perform an impromptu set once, and if you snoop the calendar around Coachella time, you might get to see some of the biggest bands in the world play here. There’s an indoor stage that provides a perfect intimacy as well as an outdoor stage where the desert and moon are your only backdrops. Unfortunately, Pappy’s is in danger of being sold, so make this a priority on your musical ‘to do’ list. Did I mention the BBQ?
Current show calendar:
http://www.pappyandharriets.com/events
Arctic Monkeys featuring Josh Homme “Dance Little Liar” Live at Pappy and Harrietts 4/18/2010:
STUBB’S BAR-B-Q (Austin, TX) – C.B. Stubblefield, or “Stubb,” was born in Navasota, Texas, in 1931. After garnering two Purple Hearts in the Korean War, Stubb was reassigned as a “Mess Sergeant,” where his cooking became so popular (Stubb supposedly inherited his love for cooking from his father, a Baptist evangelist preacher who would who would feed his congregation barbeque along with the gospel) that many officers tried to have him transferred to their units. The original Stubb’s Bar-B-Q was located in Lubbock, which sat about 75 and had a jukebox. Local musicians including Willie Nelson, Joe Ely, Terry Allen, and a young Stevie Ray Vaughan would come and sit in for the “Sunday Night Jam” music jams there. Facing legal woes with the IRS, Stubb was forced to close his Lubbock location and relocate it to Austin. The rest is history.
Current show calendar:
Muse “Knights of Cydonia” Live at Stubb’s from SxSW 2010:
THE FILLMORE AUDITORIUM (San Francisco, CA) – Although the original location of the Fillmore Auditorium changed in 1968, the venue still remains today a crucial music center point in American history. Popularized by legendary concert promoter Bill Graham,whose real name was Wolfgang Grajonca (a Holocaust survivor from Berlin, Germany), The Fillmore concert scene launched the careers of Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and Santana amongst others and even brought Otis Redding in front of his first white audiences (a very radical move at the time). This is where the modern day concert “light show” was developed to coincide with the music that was being performed on stage. Fans attending The Fillmore were greeted with a basket of apples and a unique concert poster at each show. The venue closed for some time during the 1980s. Graham died in a helicopter crash in 1991, but friends close to him followed his wishes and reopened the Fillmore in 1994.
Current show calendar:
http://www.livenation.com/The-Fillmore-tickets-San-Francisco/venue/229424
My Morning Jacket “Golden” Live at The Fillmore 11/12/2005:
Wikipedia entry on The Fillmore:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fillmore
RED ROCKS AMPHITHEATRE (Denver, CO) – Set in the middle of Red Rocks Park just west of Denver, Colorado, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, with its natural red sandstone backdrops, is possibly the most breathtaking outdoor venue in the United States. John Brisben Walker “had a vision of artists performing on a stage nestled into the perfectly acoustic surroundings” and began holding concerts there in the early 1900s. The Beatles performed here on August 26, 1964. U2 saw its rise to stardom with their famous concert here on June 5, 1983 (with the taping of their concert film “Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky”), a brainchild idea by their manager Paul McGuinness who sought to make a concert film to showcase U2’s live capability to U.S. audiences and break them here stateside.
Current show calendar:
http://www.redrocksonline.com/Calendar.aspx
U2 “Sunday Bloody Sunday” Live at Red Rocks:
Wikipedia entry on Red Rocks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rocks_Amphitheatre
40 WATT CLUB (Athens, GA) – Along with CBGB’s and the Whisky a Go Go, this Athens, Georgia venue was crucial in launching what was to become “New Wave” music in the 1980s. Curtis Crowe, who started the club back in 1978 (in its original location), aptly named the venue because of a single 40 watt light bulb that hung from the ceiling. Today, everyone from R.E.M., Vic Chesnutt, Neutral Milk Hotel, Drive-By Truckers and Of Montreal can thank the 40 Watt for their existences.
Current show calendar:
http://www.40watt.com/schedule.php
R.E.M. Live at 40 Watt Sept. 2006:
Wikipedia entry on 40 Watt Club:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40_Watt_Club
FIRST AVENUE/7th STREET ENTRY (Minneapolis, MN) – First Avenue (with its smaller attached sister club, 7th Street Entry) is named for its location: at the corner of First Avenue and 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis. Originally a bus station built in 1937, this legendary rock venue got its real start when owners Danny Stevens and Allan Fingerhut secured a liquor license and decided to host Joe Cocker for two nights in 1970. U2 purportedly wrote part of their October record during a sound check here. In 1984, Prince truly put First Avenue on the map with the film Purple Rain, but the club was also a perfect place to see the rise of influential bands like The Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum and The Jayhawks. When Fingerhut was forced to close the club in 2004 due to financial difficulties, massive protests from local music fans saw to it that a judge quickly resolved the bankruptcy issues. Shows were back on without a hitch within one week!
Current show calendar:
http://www.first-avenue.com/calendar
The Replacements “Customer” Live at 7th Street Entry:
Wikipedia entry on First Avenue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Avenue_(nightclub)
RYMAN AUDITORIUM (Nashville, TN) – You could say I have a thing for historically recognized U.S. music locations . . . this one included. Built in 1892 by Thomas Ryman, a riverboat captain and saloon owner in Nashville, the Ryman Auditorium was originally called the Union Gospel Tabernacle. Ryman “conceived of the auditorium as a tabernacle for the influential revivalist Samuel Porter Jones.” The Ryman was the home of the Grand Ole Opry broadcasts from 1943 to 1974, showcasing an unprecedented number of musicians including, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, the Carter Family, Bill Monroe and Ernest Tubb. When the Opry left the Ryman to move to a larger venue, the auditorium remained unused until 1992 when Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers played a show there and renewed interest in the venue, where it is today a thriving venue and a museum.
Current show calendar:
Wilco “Monday” Live at the Ryman:
Wikipedia entry on the Ryman:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryman_Auditorium
9:30 CLUB (Washington, DC) – Rounding out our list of 12, the 9:30 Club in DC simply couldn’t be skipped. It’s just too good not to be listed here. The 9:30 Club got its name from its original location, at 930 F Street NW (incidentally, this original location hosted The Police’s very first show in the U.S.). The club, when it finally settled to its final resting place in the early 1980s, allowed kids as young as 16 years of age admission, thus spawning an angry punk scene which saw the rise of bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Fugazi, and Government Issue.
Current show calendar:
Minor Threat Live at 9:30 Club circa 1983:
Wikipedia entry on 9:30 Club:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/930_Club
By: Jay Skowronek
Jay Skowronek currently lives in Los Angeles, where he sits in the dark and dreams of yoga instructors. He is also an occasional touring drummer when the mood hits him.
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