Ben Lovett opens 750-capacity Pacific Electric in L.A.
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- Ben Lovett, Mumford and Sons keyboardist and founder of Tvg Hospitality, opened Pacific Electric, a 750-capacity venue near downtown L.A. that took six years to build
- The venue is Lovett's seventh U.S. venue and his first in L.A., and operates as promoter-independent — any promoter can book shows there, a model Lovett built after finding that U.S. rooms were 'exclusively tied to working with certain promoters'
- Lovett converted an abandoned warehouse into a space featuring a proscenium arch, rear brick wall, wood-framed stage, and a wrap-around balcony that practically hovers over the stage, with Lovett citing the 'staggering' infrastructure work — fiber optics, structural shoring — required
- Pacific Electric sits in one of the last relatively ungentrified pockets of downtown L.A., up against the L.A. River and a rail line on the northern edge of Chinatown, near Los Angeles State Historic Park
- Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith performed at the grand opening, telling the crowd he looked forward to sharing the space with loyalists before the band played their signature sing-along 'When My Time Comes'
- Lovett is independently opening three adjacent food or bar stops in tandem with the club, betting the venue can jump-start the neighborhood the way past L.A. rock rooms like the Troubadour and Whisky a-Go-Go did generations ago
- The opening came on the eve of Mumford and Sons' sixth album 'Prizefighter' release, and the initial lineup features emerging artists, star-level underplays (Norah Jones sold out May 10), and Netflix Is a Joke's annual May comedy programming
Why it matters: Lovett is staking his own capital — the club plus three adjacent food and bar spots — on turning a sliver of ungentrified downtown L.A. into a generational cultural hub on the model of the Troubadour and Whisky a-Go-Go, and by making the room promoter-independent he's giving emerging artists a booking path that, he argues, the U.S. club circuit has largely closed off over the past 20 years.
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