No Fun Allowed: It's Damn Hard to Legally Host Live Music in L.A.

I can't believe the red tape. They should be supporting the arts and clubs/venues. Vote for change, get rid of the old school.

"welcom to California. Everything here is either illegal, or mandatory."

It's pretty hard to host *any* event when you're a sloppy business person who doesn't understand permits. The CITY didn't close these venues-- ignorance and carelessness did.

Eastside? Echo Park? Silver lake? Lame

Life is just a pointless rat-race, if we don't have lots of fun somewhere in between hardships.

As a former Angeleno and Hollywood musician from 1997-2010. I must say this news doesn't surprise me at all. Once some of my favorite places to play off of the strip started closing down, The 14 Below, The Gig etc I decided I had enough and moved back to Boston. The bars that didn't close were so annoying to work which in reality really wasn't their fault, it was the city's. Hollywood is severely broken when it comes to the music industry and I honestly do not miss it at all. Well maybe the weather a little but I'd rather play anywhere else but there.

Lame lame lame. LA doesn't have enough drugs to chase down they have to go for easy money.

Yes. So incredible that the "Entertainment Capital" would allow the Gibson to be torn down for Harry Potter aka Cash Cow. Pathetic.

We can't have people gathering to exchange, and engage in (non) sanctioned potentially honest expressions of creativity. Just keep watching our manufactured, dumbed down, fear based propaganda, wile you enjoy your genetically modified corporate death sandwich. YUM !

For one thing, this reeks of corruption and extortion. For another, if this pattern continues, L.A.'s trendiest spots will turn as conservative and sterile as Orange County. The same thing happened in part of O.C. where rich people moved in, complained and chased the lively spirit out. They complained about noise and now the place is like a giant preschool.

When are you guys going to realize; being "liberal" is to repress! The tax man cometh- and when the government, can pick and choose targets in the effort of raising taxes...- well my friends, I hate to break the truth to you all. But you live in a police state. Let them take your guns too, so when they're fully done controlling you, you won't be able to fight back. But it might not matter, 'cause by time Mansanto poisons you (thank you POTUS) you wouldn't be able to lift a weapon anyway.

this article shows that Los Angeles (and in fact California itself) is/are the most liberal and at the same time most repressive place(s) in the u.s.a. - California has the most extensive prison/industrial complex in the u.s.a. (and a lot of military bases) and we all know how brutal the L.A.P.D. is - yet L.A. AND California have this weird reputation of being liberal and open-minded and even radical - PECULIAR ain't it? - like the PECULIARITY of the u.s.a. itself: "freedom and justice for all" based on 400+ years of CONTINUING unpunished and unreparated white supremacy/black inferiority (in a word SLAVERY!) and NOW TODAY homeless slavery amen?

The bottom line is, some promoters/proprietors want to create a fun creative environment, and some want to make $$$. We  all know which one is which. LA can keep shutting down harmless venues like Echo Curio and Sancho, and they'll keep popping up always. It's called culture. Yeah, even in LA we have it, and it's irrepressible. Garcetti et al, please make LA a viable place for the former to thrive, even as the latter crosses their t's and dots their i's and makes a night out on the town a profitable industry.

Interesting that The Echo's (not to be confused w/ the Echo Curio) owner is involved in shutting down other venues, even non-profits.

I never heard of police officers chasing down businesses for code violations even arresting someone. That seems a little bit crazy maybe that is why the crime rate is so bad.  I would also guess it is all about money and they want more of it.

It saddens me that there are so few small live rock clubs in LA. I hope the new Mayor streamlines this process.  Also, club owners need to locate to buildings without residential neighbors. Very simple way to avoid problems. I miss Al's Bar and Raji's.  

Also: I'm not sure whether to be amused or appalled by the revelation that the Echo Park Chamber of Commerce and the City were discussing among themselves an appropriate new location for Echo Curio. Put aside the fact that this group of elected and unelected VIPs seems to think it's entitled to decide the specific spot in their fiefdom where a businesses can locate. No, what really strikes me is that some six months after they had killed off Echo Curio, they wanted that non-profit donation-funded labor of love to spring back into being so they could rent it a vacant space?  And they expected a gallery run on a shoestring to come up with the money to buy a liquor license, when it never sold alcohol and operated as an all-ages space?  And they wanted it to move away from the community it served, away from its easily accessible home in the heart of Echo Park on Sunset, off to some other spot on the edge of nowhere by the 2 freeway? Even if this was a genuine well-meaning effort, and not just some after-the-fact exercise in spin, it just goes to demonstrate the utter cluelessness of officialdom.  These sorts of local arts venues are emphatically NOT the type of "clubs" that exist to turn a profit and sell booze -- they exist to provide a place for developing artists to exhibit and perform, for people to gather for workshops and classes, for local residents and youths to participate in creative culture, all *outside* the expensive, exclusionary, adults-only, substance-abuse encouraging atmosphere of bar "clubs." 

Diego de la Garza is being disingenuous when he says that the Echo Curio "continually refused to follow the rules that were set in place for their business." The only way to comply with the City's seemingly ad-hoc "rules" was to close, and that's exactly what Echo Curio did when it was cited. The reality is that the gallery was closed by the City for not having the live music permit required by cafes, bars and restaurants, then -- shades of Catch 22 -- was denied a permit becuase it did not serve food and drink. City bureaucrats scheduled, then refused to attend an appointment requested by the Curio's owners to discuss ways to comply with the City's permitting laws. The apparent reason was a complaint from a nearby for-profit competitor with inside connections.  The idea that the Curio's owners were troublemakers who "continually refused" to comply with directives is nonsense designed to cover up the Citiy's shameful role in destroying a one-of-a-kind, public-spirited arts venue that was run for the community's benefit.  

Having witnessed this object lesson, other small art gallery/peformance spaces have closed or dramatically scaled back operations, while those who planned to open similar spaces have abandoned the effort or sought locations outside  LA's boundaries in more welcoming and less corrupt jurisdictions.  This whole fiasco has been a major blow to our experimental musicians, poets and artists, and one from which the creative community has not yet recovered.

@ronit5  Most Liberals in L.A. have so little understanding of the founding principals of this country and how individual freedom was paramount along with a limited federal government. It's hard to have a conversation with them because their political association with the Democratic party is by weak emotional ties to mostly social issues and they don't have much depth of understanding in political philosophy.  Unfortunately L.A. liberals are some of the most politically intolerant and hypocritical bunch I've encountered. 

@Tapper138

"I hope the new Mayor streamlines this process." - if you read the article, you'd have noticed that the person who's responsible for much of this "DIY Venue Harassment" - is none other than Eric Garcetti... :-/

@Tapper138 @ronit5 Really guys? Both sides are intolerant of freedom of expression. It doesn't matter what you identify with, if you are a free thinker of any form, both sides will squash you for doing so. You have to conform or die. Don't fall into the trap fellas, you are better than that. Public sex and things like that aren't cool, but what's the harm in supporting art and music? None. And you know it. Quit acting like you're above it, you're part of the problem otherwise.

@andorkappen @Tapper138 Two separate issues: being attentive to constituent complaints and enforcing the law as a councilperson has no relation to the mayor proposing revisions to the permit process for club openings.