{"id":129,"date":"2013-03-08T19:43:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T14:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/?p=129"},"modified":"2013-03-08T19:44:27","modified_gmt":"2013-03-08T14:14:27","slug":"a-trip-down-the-key-club-memory-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/2013\/03\/08\/a-trip-down-the-key-club-memory-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"A Trip Down The Key Club Memory Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Bansal<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few days ago, news started circulating that one of Hollywood\u2019s premier rock and metal venues, the Key Club, previously known as Billboard Live and Gazzarri\u2019s before that, is going to shut its doors permanently on March 15th<\/sup>. Ian Shepp, the operations manager, issued this letter:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>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<\/sup> 2009 and June 1st<\/sup> 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\u2019t like, but even so, it\u2019s almost like saying goodbye to a loved one.<\/p>\n

On the bright side, this gave me a chance to take a fond trip down memory lane and think back about the times I\u2019ve spent at the club. It\u2019s 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\u2019s going to be like. At that time, I had not even started reviewing gigs and didn\u2019t 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<\/sup> 2008 in that kind of a setting, standing a mere two feet away from the stage. That\u2019s a feeling I simply never got tired of, and that\u2019s why I kept revisiting the club whenever it hosted a hard rock\/metal show.<\/p>\n

Through these 68 shows, I\u2019ve seen some of the most legendary rock and metal musicians from all over the world grace that stage. The number of great shows I\u2019ve seen here are just too many to allow me to single out anything without doing severe injustice to the others, but I\u2019ll 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\u2019s 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\u2019re this worldwide phenomenon headlining theatres. I\u2019m glad I caught them early, when they were a rarity and a novelty. There are several other shows coming to mind, and it\u2019s 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\u2019ve ever been a part of. It was pure insanity!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>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\u2019t 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\u2019t really particular on sticking to one kind, which is why I\u2019ve 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\u2019s a story for another day.<\/p>\n

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<\/sup> 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\u2019ll remember the Key Club for being its starting point.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Talking of the venue itself, I\u2019ve always written honestly about the good and the bad in my past reviews, and I\u2019ve 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\u2019t exactly find approval amongst photographers, I think it created a good vibe for the audience, and that\u2019s what matters most. The place was adequately spacious and even in sold-out shows it always felt comfortable.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t lose money due to the fact that the under-age people won\u2019t buy drinks at the bar. As for the security, while I\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

Aside from that, I\u2019ll always remember the Key Club more for the good reasons, and knowing now that I\u2019ll 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\u2019ll bring this piece to an end by listing down all the shows I\u2019ve attended at this historic venue. Key Club, you mill be dearly missed.<\/p>\n

2008<\/strong>
\n1.\u00a0\u00a0 10\/26 \u2013 Kamelot w\/ Edguy
\n2. \u00a0 12\/07 – Exodus<\/p>\n

2009<\/strong>
\n3.\u00a0\u00a0 03\/06 – Armored Saint w\/ Death Angel
\n4.\u00a0\u00a0 03\/24 – Destruction
\n5.\u00a0\u00a0 03\/26 – Forbidden
\n6.\u00a0\u00a0 05\/24 – Gojira
\n7.\u00a0\u00a0 06\/09 – Michael Schenker Group
\n8.\u00a0\u00a0 09\/09 – Obituary
\n9.\u00a0\u00a0 09\/20 – Doro
\n10. 09\/29 – Edguy
\n11. 09\/30 – Soulfly
\n12. 10\/08 – Satyricon
\n13. 10\/27 – UFO
\n14. 11\/18 – Ensiferum
\n15. 11\/19 – Municipal Waste
\n16. 11\/29 – Vader<\/p>\n

2010<\/strong>
\n17. 06\/01 – Dark Tranquillity
\n18. 06\/11 – Exodus
\n19. 06\/17 – Murderdolls
\n20. 08\/17 – Otep
\n21. 08\/26 – Y&T
\n22. 08\/28 – Volbeat
\n23. 09\/03 – After The Burial
\n24. 09\/16 – DevilDriver
\n25. 09\/28 – Nevermore
\n26. 10\/14 – The Devin Townsend Project
\n27. 10\/19 – Accept
\n28. 10\/29 – DimeBash – Dimebag Darrell Memorial Event
\n29. 11\/15 – Beatallica
\n30. 11\/16 – Nile
\n31. 12\/07 – Epica<\/p>\n

2011<\/strong>
\n32. 01\/05 – Paul DiAnno
\n33. 02\/01 – Gamma Ray
\n34. 02\/04 – Led Zeppelin 2
\n35. 02\/08 – Ensiferum w\/ Finntroll
\n36. 02\/22 – Death Angel
\n37. 03\/08 – Deicide
\n38. 03\/29 – Rotting Christ
\n39. 04\/29 – Kill Devil Hill
\n40. 05\/11 – Loudness
\n41. 05\/22 – Destruction
\n42. 06\/06 – Aura Noir
\n43. 06\/13 – Possessed
\n44. 06\/15 – Joey Belladonna
\n45. 06\/20 – Hate Eternal
\n46. 07\/06 – Blackguard
\n47. 07\/09 – Armored Saint
\n48. 07\/10 – Animals As Leaders
\n49. 07\/16 – Adler’s Appetite
\n50. 07\/21 – Slaughter Survivors Tour
\n51. 08\/07 – Exhumed
\n52. 09\/16 – Viza
\n53. 09\/18 – Periphery
\n54. 09\/19 – Grave
\n55. 09\/21 – The Yardbirds
\n56. 09\/24 – UFO
\n57. 09\/28 – Saxon
\n58. 10\/02 – Weedeater
\n59. 10\/03 – Warbringer
\n60. 10\/06 – Evergrey
\n61. 10\/16 – After The Burial
\n62. 11\/02 – Cavalera Conspiracy
\n63. 11\/05 – Led Zeppelin 2
\n64. 11\/10 – Blaze Bayley
\n65. 11\/21 – Obscura
\n66. 11\/23 – Cynic
\n67. 12\/07 – Korpiklaani
\n68. 12\/14 – DimeBash 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Bansal A few days ago, news started circulating that one of Hollywood\u2019s premier rock and metal venues, the Key Club, previously known as Billboard Live and Gazzarri\u2019s 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 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Trip Down The Key Club Memory Lane”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}