January 22, 2008
Velvet Lounge Finds New Owners
Chris Connelly is selling The Velvet Lounge. In an email almost a month ago to an old listserve that was once used for the venue's now defunct open bar nights, Connelly announced his plans to move on, and that after three years of searching, he found buyers who "would remain true to our tradition of providing the best sounding small venue on the east coast and perhaps the world and honoring our deals with bands."
Connelly was reluctant to name the buyers until the official sale is approved by the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, but City Desk says the new owners will be former Local 16 bartenders Abdul Kayoumy and Haile Berhane.
The Velvet Lounge name will stay, as will most everything else. Rob Curtis, the award-winning man behind the boards, will stay on to run sound and book shows with the help of Scott Verastro, who had booked several shows at the now-defunct Warehouse. The ability get live recordings with accompanying hi-def video will also still be available.
Although Connelly plans to spend much of his time in Costa Rica giving surfing and kayaking lessons, he still hopes to stay involved with the Lounge in some capacity and will continue his commitment to D.C. nightlife by offering his services as an adviser and expediter to those who would like to purchase or open their own bars. In his email, Connelly also encouraged patrons to continue to support the Lounge as well as other venues that support musicians and their fans, and to boycott the now-approved Fillmore venue in Silver Spring and the potential D.C. House of Blues.
The new owners' commitment to rocking out seems evident, as we've heard from Curtis that they are also buying the adjoining space with eventual plans to almost double the venue's size. Curtis adds, "Things are going to only get better."
We haven't heard back from Kayoumy yet, but here's one thing we'd like to suggest they make "better" right away: The Velvet Lounge web site. Not only does it look like it's straight out of 1997, but it never offers any details on crucial information like show times and prices.
Photo by Eye Captain. Hat tip to Jeffrey Young for the original email.
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My God, I hope they update the web site. The thing has said "NOTE: Please be patient while we redesign the website!" for as long as I can remember. Easily four or five years, if not longer.
"the now-defunct Warehouse"
The Warehouse is still alive and tentatively open through summer.
There is "an informal conversation about the future of the Warehouse Next Door" scheduled tomorrow (Wednesday, January 23) at 7pm).
js adams -- the Warehouse Next Door, where the bands play, has been closed since last summer, along with the bar/cafe. The art gallery and theater are still open though.
i wish someone would open the velvetlounges old neighbor kingpin, my former favorite bar in dc. everytime i went there i would get into a fight with my bf or a friend. once a good friend of mine fell down the stairs and got her cell phone. good times . . .
The Velvet Lounge meets Local 16?
It's like a vivid nightmare where the beers cost too much!
All this assumes, of course, that the nimbys who bought condos next to the Velvet Lounge only to realize belatedly that it's a live music venue don't succeed in putting the
kibosh on the liquor license approval.
It would be really wonderful if a city council person actually stood up for nightlife in DC (like Mark Leno did for nightlife in SF in the late 1990s -- he's now the state senator from San Francisco), and actually created a system to protect existing clubs from the Nimbys.
I can't, though, get behind the boycott of House of Blues and the Fillmore. More music venues, no matter who owns them, is only going to improve music around here. It's amazing the fear that DC has to anything that doesn't have some sort of indie-cred. Cities with actual kick in the arse music scenes seem to do just fine with that mix. Because people who really like music, don't worry so much about where its coming from, as long as it sounds good.
Oh that's right. No one in DC puts any effort into upgrading their sound systems -- so they are afraid that if people here what music is SUPPOSED to sound like, they'll be out of business.
Update the website? Who fucking cares! The last thing Velvet needs is hipster designers rendering Adobe Flash animations for a venue that prides itself on word-of-mouth promotion.
DC1974-
I think the fear here is that the new corporate-owned venues will take a lot of the acts away from the indies simply because they can offer them way more money to play shows. I can definitely see the House of Blues poaching a lot of the acts that currently play the 9:30 and the Fillmore getting people from Black Cat, Velvet, RnR. The other bad thing about Fillmore and House of Blues is that there's simply no way they'll book the lesser known experimental, metal and punk acts that Scott does at the Velvet. That and tickets to those venues are always way more expensive and if people pay those prices for some bands they would've otherwise seen at indie venues, the indies eventually go out of business. Which sucks if you want to see decently priced shows in your city and/or you're not a big fan of Coldplay.
I'm totally with you though on protecting existing places from NIMBY's, f*ck those clowns.
I'm totally with you though on protecting existing places from NIMBY's, f*ck those clowns.
U Street circa 2008 is not U Street 1991. If rich honkeys want to take over the neighborhood, that's their problem. The small venues on H Street NE seem to be doing just fine; and when they get priced out of there, the music will move up Georgia Avenue or further out where it's cheaper and don't have to sell $9 Belgian lambics in order to pay off the rent.
The other bad thing about Fillmore and House of Blues is that there's simply no way they'll book the lesser known experimental, metal and punk acts that Scott does at the Velvet.
That's exactly why Velvet probably has nothing to fear from the House of Blues or Fillmore. I think the 9:30 Club and to a lesser degree the Black Cat are the ones that stand to lose from those venues coming into the area. At the end of the day it's all about how many seats you can fill. The "corporate" venues don't really care what kind of music you play as long as you sell tickets. So if you're a band that can draw a crow to HoB or Fillmore, you shouldn't and wouldn't be playing at Velvet anyway.