Michele StuevenLA’s live music scene is about to welcome a new one-of-a-kind state-of-the-art destination in Chinatown that combines music, food, and culture. The Pacific Electric venue opens this month in a growing 25,000-square-foot space in the historic Naud Warehouse at Chinatown/Mission Junction.
The Pacific Electric is the latest project from tvg hospitality, the global entertainment group founded by entrepreneur and Grammy Award-winning musician Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons, who refers to it as a village. Led on the operations side by veteran venue manager Stacey Levine, Pacific Electric is designed to be more than a venue, a launchpad for artists, a hub for community, and a celebration of LA’s cultural history.
Lovett’s obsession with music venues dates back to his London music roots, which blossomed at the tender age of 18 and through years of performing and co-founding a record label and live music promotion team, Communion, which he brought to the United States.
“In 2015, I started to study music venues, the business model around them and how they actually get built and what makes them work,” Lovett tells LA Weekly during a recent exclusive hard hat tour. “A lot of it is actually around ticketing and console promotion, and it’s very vertical. I didn’t want to start a ticketing company, and I knew as a promoter that there were challenges to that because the competition is so fierce. So I started to look at other ways to approach the same goal, which was to build more great venues in the world. And I started to look at the hospitality industry and how every time you go to a show, you’re buying a drink, you’re having a bite to eat. There’s a whole derived ecosystem around these cultures.”
Pacific Electric stage (Patrick Huy)
The venue’s name pays homage to the Pacific Electric Railway Company, known for the Red Cars, which connected Los Angeles with surrounding cities for decades and became an enduring symbol of the city’s history. Inspired by that legacy of connectivity, Pacific Electric brings fans and artists together in a variety of ways, like underplays, club nights, music, comedy, poetry, and magic performances with state-of-the-art sound, dramatic lighting, and hospitality-focused backstage spaces with both separate and connecting entrances.
Tucked between Majordoma and Apotheke across from the Los Angeles State Historic Park, the multilevel cavernous space is meticulously designed for musicians, artists, and audiences. The auditorium has a capacity of 750, and the stage artfully reflects both LA’s religious and indigenous pasts, combining the area’s historic industrial warehouse feel with the Mission District.
Pacific Electric main bar rendering courtesy of TVG Hospitality
The stage’s arch is decorated with custom-built little wooden coves with individually light-controlled pockets, giving a glowing sense of occasion, like hallowed grounds. There are more than 50 different tile and terrazzo finishes throughout the building, including the newly built backstage showers.
Pacific Electric has two principal bars, as well as a warehouse bar and another attached to the garden, which will be an Indian street food concept helmed by local favorite Badmaash. With five bars spread over four concepts, there will also be a social cocktail lounge called Mitsi with a supplemental sushi menu.
Starting on Friday, March 20, the lineup of shows includes acts like Norah Jones, Rose Gray, Alexander Stewart, and Marlon Magnée (of La Femme).
“We refer to the ‘third space’ a lot at tvg,” says Lovett, who is coming to the fruition of the six-year project. “Where do you spend your time if you’re not at home or at work? That third space is critical, and it can’t be TikTok. It has to be physical. Historically, it’s been the synagogue, the church, the mosque, the village hall, and the pub. We want to contribute to spaces where people can gather with others they don’t know and share experiences, maybe realizing how much we all have in common. It’s nice to talk.”
Pacific Electric rendering courtesy of tvg hospitality