Idolator
Once upon a time, the Knitting Factory's location in Hollywood was not terribly glamorous; it was surrounded by gift shops, liquor stores and the 18th Street Gang, and had an abandoned entertainment museum as an immediate neighbor. But Hollywood has shaped up quite a bit in the last few years post-Hollywood and Highland complex, and now that the property has become more valuable, the Knitting Factory is apparently not the sort of tenant the city of Los Angeles wants around.
Apparently, it's going to come down to a hearing next Thursday.
"The Los Angeles Building Department is aggressively trying to revoke our CUP (Conditional Use Permit)," wrote Morgan Margolis, the venue's VP of National Operations, in an e-mail that was passed around the internet yesterday. A CUP is required to run many types of businesses in a city. It can determine opening and closing times, where to queue ticket lines, and other operations in order to help mitigate impact on the surrounding residents. But now, the city is saying the club is a "nuisance" and does not comply with "upscale restaurant guidelines." The venue refutes those accusations.
The Knitting Factory was never one of my favorite LA venues, but it was home to a Flaming Lips show the day after Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots was released, one of the few truly excellent concerts I happened to catch while living there. Still, it seems like Hollywood is a better place for its presence on Hollywood Blvd. and holding a bar, however upscale it might someday want to be, to "upscale restaurant guidelines" seems a little ridiculous. If you're ordering food from the place where you're seeing a show, you get what you get. But it seems the forces are lining up against the venue in this case, with written allegations, signatures from neighbors and the LAPD all siding with the city. Fight the power, Knitting Factory, and best of luck, either in this location or the next one.
Comments
I wish I could say I was moved to tears by this news, but, um, no.
I'm with Ned. Twas a time when the Knitting Factory pulled in good shows; those days are long gone. I don't think I've seen a show there in at least 2 years. It was a great venue and I saw lots of great shows there, but I won't be terribly saddened if it goes under. There are lots of other, better
places to see a show these days.
People love to go to fancy restaurants below an LA Fitness with its dirty sweat hogs milling around stinking up the area.
The only thing they love more is having to interact with the homeless people buying booze at the Walgreens or even better the many Jack Sparrows and Storm Troopers who ditch their post in front of the Chinese Theater to walk around the Fresh and Easy supermarket looking for free samples of trail mix on hot days.
Gutter punks will put up with this, rich people, not so much.
I saw a few shows there when I lived in LA, although I can't remember who performed. Nice facility, strange location ... kind of an antiseptic vibe to the whole place.
After what they did to Kramer and Shimmy-Disc, I don't give a crap what happens to Knitting Factory.
I think the Knitting Factory is a fantastic place for new bands passing thru and we should support them in their fight to stay open.
Same exact thing happened to Blue over on las Palmas in Hollywood. Got it's CUP license pulled or whatever for being a nuisance. It's reopened as something else, still a night club. But it's a trendy hip hop club instead of a goth club...so I guess message received loud and clear city of los angeles.
Knitting Factory is kind of a lame venue. It's nice for indie rock bands if the crowd is about 100 kids with planet of the apes hairdos...but any big shows just end up smelling like puke. I'd like to see the Knitting FActory move into Echo Park or something...leave hollywood to the tourists and beautiful people.
Yeah, Knitting Factory isn't a great venue by any means, but let me get this straight:
A bunch of Century City-shopping, iPhone carrying, Forever 21 credit card-charging, "I Wear Slim-Fit Jeans Cuz Pete Wentz-Says So" a**holes who does coke then hangs out at Amoeba Records has a problem with the venue, so they're shutting it down?
Piss on them!!
The Knitting Factory initially was a simulacrum of what people thought a trendy NYC club was like. Then after a year the front lounge was demolished and replaced with a second stage. Then it became a pseudo-pay-to-play venue in which bands had to presell their tickets if they wanted to avoid being charged for them.
Bottom line... *zzzz*
@Ned Raggett: Agreed. It is just me or is the security staff there a bunch of jerks.
what is this "Lost Angeles" you speak of?
I saw some incredible shows there during its first couple of years, but it was a cockmagnet of a place. They did that 'surprise: this show ends at 9:45 thing so we can bring in a new, different group of people for the dance club' thing a few times to me (completely unpublicized), causing me to miss shows I'd bought tickets ahead of time for, and the staff were total dicks.
Bring back the Hollywood Galaxy theater upstairs, goddamn it! They always showed the low grade horror flicks!
Having lived in Hollywood from '96-'02, I think the neighborhood has actually gotten dirtier AND more unsafe in recent years!
Wait, is the Power House still open?
How about that shitty "bowling alley" they opened there that wouldn't let me inside to bowl because I had a Dodgers cap on?!
I'm torn. I love you Hollywood, but you suck.
I've seen a half dozen or so good shows there, but they were all more a function of catching excellent bands (Hold Steady, Explosions in the Sky, Some Girls)on good nights at close range than they were functions of anything about the venue itself.
@Chris Barrus: Seconded.
shithole. Anyone good looking for a venue this size would be at the Echoplex.
Candlebox are playing Knitting Factories in Boise and Spokane next month. Are those copycats, or is there some sort of franchise thing going on?
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