[kj] KJ in LA --

[T.B.]

"sade1" wrote:



>  I've seen several shows at the Avalon/Palace and i think it's a good 

> venue, but

>  i'd prefer the Fonda Music Box Theater, or House of Blues - Sunset Strip. 

> The Wiltern

>  would be great but as previously mentioned, may be too big for 2 KJ gigs.

>

>    Still pissed i didn't get back into Killing Joke until just after that 

> '94 Palace gig. 8~/

>  Missed it by like 3 months or so.


I used to love seeing shows at The Palace. Big Country, Jane's Addiction, 
Iggy Pop, Nine Inch Nails, Lords of the New Church, just tons of great shows 
there. It's been around 10+ years since I've caught a show there. The Music 
Box is alright, I caught The Cult and The Darkness there a couple years ago. 
The upstairs "lounge" area with the well-stocked bar and private "tents" 
overlooking Hollywood Blvd is kinda neat.  Another venue that would be kind 
of cool for Killing Joke to play would be the Hollywood Palladium, but that 
place has been sold and is quickly becoming run down and rarely books 
concerts anymore. I suppose they could play The Roxy but that place would 
prove to be a tough ticket to get because of the small size of the venue and 
the "name" value of the place.

However, I cannot understand the love for the Hollywood House of Blues. 
Other than being a decent sized venue, it has to be the most fan-unfriendly 
concert venue in the entire Southern California area.  Terrible (and 
expensive) parking, long lines, retardedly overpriced drinks, awful staff, 
lot of so-called VIP areas near the stage and perhaps worst of all, they 
show "commercials" on the big screen in front of the stage for completely 
irrelevant bands no a half hour loop whenever there's not a band actually 
playing instead of any decent house music.  I'd much rather them play the 
HOB next to Disneyland which is also shitty, but much less "commercial" than 
the Hollywood HOB.

The only thing to watch out for if the somehow book to play The Wiltern is 
now that venue sells the pit tickets as a separate ticket from the regular 
floor general admission tickets. Up 'til about a year ago, it was first 
come, first in the pit and you'd get a wristband so you could come and go in 
the pit. Now, usually bands either save pit tickets for fan clubs, 
promotions and so on or those tickets are just the first ones to go when the 
show goes on sale and you have to make sure you are buying "GA Pit" tickets 
if that's what you'd want.

T.B.