Los Angeles Music Scene: Current Outlook as of October

The Satellite

In terms of music venues (unless I missed some news), no "major" local music venues have closed since July. In July, to refresh memories, Saint Rocke, The Factory, The House of Machines, and The Satellite all announced they were shutting down.  

I do know that a small DYI venue, Sun Space, announced they were closing in early October. Perhaps some will complain that I'm not considering this a "major" local music venue. We all know that The Hi Hat property is up for sale. Per Belle's Bagels' Instagram, I came across this tidbit: 

Today marks the end of an era. Monday will be our last day of service out of the Hi Hat . . . We had hoped that with all the uncertainty around music venues and bars that we could have remained at the Hi Hat at least for a little while longer but unfortunately that would not have been possible without the building owner effectively tripling our rent as well as imposing a myriad of contingencies that for us were just too risky for an uncertain time. 

"Myriad of contingencies," I wonder what that implies. It perhaps meant that the new property owner would get to decide if Belle's Bagels would need to vacate. Anyways, it is a loss of income to The Hi Hat property owners, which I would assume gives them even more incentive to sell.

The big news that I recently came across regarding the fate of local music venues came from the LA Times (Oct 19):

Even just a few weeks ago, venue owners and industry advocates were optimistic that help was on the way. The Save Our Stages Act, championed in the Senate by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), would provide $10 billion in grants to local music venues to pay for expenses like rent, utilities and insurance not covered under the Paycheck Protection Program.

. . . Several L.A.-area venue operators said they’re giving it until the new year to make existential decisions about whether to even stay in business. They said they’re starting to feel like they’re in an airplane with a blown-out engine: suspended in midair, waiting for the drop.

. . . “That’s the giant anxiety pill everyone swallows before bed,” said Alex Hernandez, owner of Long Beach’s two-decade-old punk stalwart Alex’s Bar. “What if I’m just paying rent for no reason? I already took out another business loan and borrowed more money than I paid to open this place. But when does it put my wife and three kids in a dangerous place with no savings to keep a roof over our heads?”

At this point, is the Save Our Stages Act at $10 billion even adequate? My understanding is that the bill only provides six months of financial support. Venues in Los Angeles have now been closed since mid-March, or 7.5 months. Like the first paragraph of the quote states, there was optimism about the passage of the Act. But then other political considerations got in the way. Maybe something passes by the start of 2021? If so, we're talking 10 or 11 months of venues making hardly any money. Unless the Act is doubled to $20 billion, does it do any good? 

If I'm a Los Angeles music venue, any portion of the $10 billion that I receive immediately goes to either my landlord or the bank. Also, I suspect Los Angeles music venues will remain shut down until at earliest, July, and at the latest, early 2022. So even $20 billion might not be adequate. You might really need to see something hitting $30 billion or $40 billion (assuming all venues across the nation remains shut, which is probably unlikely as I've already seen photos on Instagram of live music occurring indoors in other states).

The second paragraph of the quote gives an idea of why we haven't heard any additional news about closures from other venues since July. Come early 2021, we might hear bad news coming out from venues such as the Bootleg Theater, Moroccan Lounge and Zebulon. 

The third paragraph of the quote indicates the decision making that these owners are going through. My interpretation: I love the music scene, but I also have a family to consider. That is the reality of the situation and one can't hold that against the owners of the venues no matter what decision they make in 2021.