Live Nation's Crown Jewel: Hollywood Palladium Reopens This Week

From Blue Eyes to Jay-Z, venue has played host to the history of American music

Comments (0) By Steve Appleford Wednesday, Oct 15 2008

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Before there was moshing, there was waltzing: The Palladium, back in the day

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Gurewitz has watched all this with interest as he passes by every morning on his way to Epitaph Records, which he owns. In the early ’90s, Bad Religion became a kind of de facto Palladium house band, the local support act of choice for visiting punk, indie, alternative headliners. As their own popularity soared, Bad Religion hosted their own shows, recording a live DVD during a three-night stand there in late 2004. “The Palladium was like the Holy Grail, at least to me,” Gurewitz says. “It felt like you’d really made it if you played there.”

Flogging Molly singer Dave King was an occasional visitor by the early ’90s, after arriving from Dublin, and saw some of his earliest L.A. shows there: the Damned, Rancid, PJ Harvey, taking in the scene, the big dance floor and the lingering glamour of the ancient building. “It’s so Hollywood, isn’t it?” King says with a laugh. “You can’t imagine something like that being torn down and turned into a car park. It’s really cool, you know?”