By Andrew Bansal
A few days ago, news started circulating that one of Hollywood’s premier rock and metal venues, the Key Club, previously known as Billboard Live and Gazzarri’s before that, is going to shut its doors permanently on March 15th. Ian Shepp, the operations manager, issued this letter:
As soon as I read it the first time, my heart sank. I realized how big a part the club has been in my metal adventures and explorations through the past few years. Despite the fact that the Key Club took a hiatus from hosting metal gigs in the six-month period between November 29th 2009 and June 1st 2010, it remains my most frequented venue, by far. After all, I attended 68 shows there. 68! No wonder my heart sank at the news of its closing. There were things I really liked about the club, and there were things I didn’t like, but even so, it’s almost like saying goodbye to a loved one.
On the bright side, this gave me a chance to take a fond trip down memory lane and think back about the times I’ve spent at the club. It’s been such a huge part of my recent life that it was like my home away from home. I remember the first time I went down there in late 2008, having no idea what it’s going to be like. At that time, I had not even started reviewing gigs and didn’t really have media access as such, so I was able to attend very few shows. And I had landed in LA only a year before that, and was very much new to the whole metal scene in general. I had been to a mere 17 shows in total, and the only club gig I had attended up till my first visit to the Key Club was the Helloween/Gamma Ray show at the House of Blues down the road a month earlier. In comparison, the Key Club was a lot smaller and intimate, with no barricade separating the stage and the audience. It was hugely exciting for me to watch Kamelot, Edguy and the other bands on that eventful night of October 26th 2008 in that kind of a setting, standing a mere two feet away from the stage. That’s a feeling I simply never got tired of, and that’s why I kept revisiting the club whenever it hosted a hard rock/metal show.
Through these 68 shows, I’ve seen some of the most legendary rock and metal musicians from all over the world grace that stage. The number of great shows I’ve seen here are just too many to allow me to single out anything without doing severe injustice to the others, but I’ll try. Whenever I think of the Key Club, my first time seeing Armored Saint with Death Angel in March 2009 comes to mind immediately. The Gojira show in May 2009 was also a memorable one for different reasons. It’s funny that I saw them play to about 100 people back then, met the whole band easily by just doing to the back door and chatted with them for an hour, and now they’re this worldwide phenomenon headlining theatres. I’m glad I caught them early, when they were a rarity and a novelty. There are several other shows coming to mind, and it’s interesting that I remember the earliest shows much better than the recent ones. The Destruction show in March 2009 stands out as the most violent thrash show I’ve ever been a part of. It was pure insanity!
Michael Schenker, Doro Pesch, UFO, Exodus, Y&T, Devin Townsend, Accept, Paul DiAnno, Blaze Bayley, Saxon, Yardbirds, Nevermore, Loudness, Forbidden, and so many more. The Key Club was where I saw these great musicians for the first time, and a few of them multiple times after that. Besides seeing bands I was already a fan of, the prime location of the club in the heart of the Sunset Strip made is easy for me as a downtown LA resident to come visit the club even for metal bands that I wasn’t hugely familiar with. Some of the extreme metal bands come in this category. I became a fan of such bands, at least in the live setting, through my experiences of seeing them at the Key Club. Bands like Obituary, Satyricon, Ensiferum, Vader, Nile, Epica, Rotting Christ, Aura Noir and Grave are a few I can think of. But in general, the venue hosted all kinds of rock and metal shows and wasn’t really particular on sticking to one kind, which is why I’ve witnessed the entire gamut of heavy music. Even Steel Panther had a Monday night residency here for a number of years, and funnily enough, I only developed a liking for them a long time after they left the Key Club. But that’s a story for another day.
Besides all the wonderful music, the Key Club was also the venue of my first ever interview, with Warbringer vocalist John Kevill, when they opened for Obituary on September 9th 2009. Even though the interview itself was an epic fail, for me it began a journey that has never stopped, nor will it ever will. Interviewing bands has evolved into an activity I can hardly live without, and I’ll remember the Key Club for being its starting point.
Talking of the venue itself, I’ve always written honestly about the good and the bad in my past reviews, and I’ve analyzed every single aspect of it in detail. I always thought the stage was great, aptly sized, of a good height from the floor, and at the perfect location within the club. The sound is another important aspect that the Key Club always excelled at. I hardly ever came across any bands or audience members complaining about the sound. Even though the stage lighting in recent times didn’t exactly find approval amongst photographers, I think it created a good vibe for the audience, and that’s what matters most. The place was adequately spacious and even in sold-out shows it always felt comfortable.
For metalheads, the two biggest negatives associated with the Key Club were the $6 extra cover charge for those under 21, and the overly strict security check at the entrance. I could understand the $6 charge because they were essentially making the shows all-ages and for the club it ensured they wouldn’t lose money due to the fact that the under-age people won’t buy drinks at the bar. As for the security, while I’ll admit that their ways of checking at the door often annoyed me, it was probably because of their lack of knowledge of metal shows. Some of the security personnel treated metal audiences like street punks, which is a totally different crowd. Plus, past tragedies in metal shows elsewhere, a.l.a. Dimebag Darrell, have taught such clubs to always be on the cautious side.
Aside from that, I’ll always remember the Key Club more for the good reasons, and knowing now that I’ll not get to visit the club before it closes down next week, there will be a feeling of emptiness whenever I visit the Sunset Strip. I’ll bring this piece to an end by listing down all the shows I’ve attended at this historic venue. Key Club, you mill be dearly missed.
2008
1. 10/26 – Kamelot w/ Edguy
2. 12/07 – Exodus
2009
3. 03/06 – Armored Saint w/ Death Angel
4. 03/24 – Destruction
5. 03/26 – Forbidden
6. 05/24 – Gojira
7. 06/09 – Michael Schenker Group
8. 09/09 – Obituary
9. 09/20 – Doro
10. 09/29 – Edguy
11. 09/30 – Soulfly
12. 10/08 – Satyricon
13. 10/27 – UFO
14. 11/18 – Ensiferum
15. 11/19 – Municipal Waste
16. 11/29 – Vader
2010
17. 06/01 – Dark Tranquillity
18. 06/11 – Exodus
19. 06/17 – Murderdolls
20. 08/17 – Otep
21. 08/26 – Y&T
22. 08/28 – Volbeat
23. 09/03 – After The Burial
24. 09/16 – DevilDriver
25. 09/28 – Nevermore
26. 10/14 – The Devin Townsend Project
27. 10/19 – Accept
28. 10/29 – DimeBash – Dimebag Darrell Memorial Event
29. 11/15 – Beatallica
30. 11/16 – Nile
31. 12/07 – Epica
2011
32. 01/05 – Paul DiAnno
33. 02/01 – Gamma Ray
34. 02/04 – Led Zeppelin 2
35. 02/08 – Ensiferum w/ Finntroll
36. 02/22 – Death Angel
37. 03/08 – Deicide
38. 03/29 – Rotting Christ
39. 04/29 – Kill Devil Hill
40. 05/11 – Loudness
41. 05/22 – Destruction
42. 06/06 – Aura Noir
43. 06/13 – Possessed
44. 06/15 – Joey Belladonna
45. 06/20 – Hate Eternal
46. 07/06 – Blackguard
47. 07/09 – Armored Saint
48. 07/10 – Animals As Leaders
49. 07/16 – Adler’s Appetite
50. 07/21 – Slaughter Survivors Tour
51. 08/07 – Exhumed
52. 09/16 – Viza
53. 09/18 – Periphery
54. 09/19 – Grave
55. 09/21 – The Yardbirds
56. 09/24 – UFO
57. 09/28 – Saxon
58. 10/02 – Weedeater
59. 10/03 – Warbringer
60. 10/06 – Evergrey
61. 10/16 – After The Burial
62. 11/02 – Cavalera Conspiracy
63. 11/05 – Led Zeppelin 2
64. 11/10 – Blaze Bayley
65. 11/21 – Obscura
66. 11/23 – Cynic
67. 12/07 – Korpiklaani
68. 12/14 – DimeBash 2