Downtown Los Angeles has become something different for everybody mostly depending on what era they relate to. For some, it’s the promise of a new downtown, with a strengthened LBGT community, lavish loft living, grand markets, museums, skyscrapers with thrill rides, and the inevitability of a mega metropolis with amenities that only the well to do can afford. For others, it’s the era of Rock N Roll and what lies inside the last remnants of Downtown’s underground rock scene as solidified by the Five Star Bar.
Downtown’s best party atmosphere has always been found in Downtown’s old buildings. Not to be remolded into the forbidden soirees of prohibition but kept as faded as its memory, the Five Star Bar is set in an original casing built in 1905, with what looks like the original paint job on some walls, complete with juke box playing classic tunes from the 1920s to Journey, Zepplin, Hendrix and Creedence. It’s tough, dark and dangerous, especially if you’re afraid of Rock N Roll, beer bellies, Doc Martins and loud burps.
One of Downtown’s oldest surviving dive bars on 3rd and Main…Dive meaning: still gritty, like a dive bar should be…Not a dive bar redone in 1920’s replicas, guarded by numerous cameras with bartenders who lack likeability but still expect big tips.
The building that cases the Five Star was a hotel and used as an American Indian refuge, once, and the bar is centered in what used to be the building’s main lobby, but dimly lit, and decorated to where attentions aren’t always called to its high ceilings and accented pillars, or once immaculately placed porcelain hexagon floor tiles.
The Five Star may speak to an ideal even more than an era. The idea that after a few beers it’s ok to thrash to some hard core punk, bang your head and get sweaty inside of leather armor while throwing up the sign of the beast. The Five Dive speaks to the part of downtown where it’s still ok to get responsibly drunk, flip a bird, curse like a sailor, and go home with raunchy gals in tight clothing. Enjoy some blues, comedy, or an open-mic; the bar has been host to just about every other live entertainment genre you can imagine over its 31-year-old lifespan.
For the young indie artist bringing the noise, or the old jammer, the Five Star could be a rehearsal, a showcase, record release, or an opportunity for earning money, especially when it comes to touring bands.
For every entrepreneur the Five Star has seen make their way up its one-way street with a one tract mind to get away from a hard day’s work, there’s an indie band somewhere in the world trying to find their way to a stage in Downtown. Five Star Bar is not only the oldest Rock N Roll stage but also one of the last indie stages that are known for actually getting artists paid; a virtual Rock N Roll paradise, now facing the threat of becoming a real life interpretation of a Joni Mitchell song.
Paving Paradise to Put Up a Parking Lot
We caught up with the DeeDees, an all female Ramones Tribute band, touring from Seattle, who just finishing up a smaller tour in Belgium. They found the Five Star Bar while searching for places to play punk in Downtown. Before they went to Hollywood they went to the Five Star and were 5x as happy. Talking with Michelle Thurston, and Kirsten Ballweg, lead singer and guitarist, before their set, we sparked up a conversation about the possibility of the Five Star closing, without telling them who or what was responsible for its fate. The ladies quickly shared their input in true punk fashion saying…
“LA better pay attention and keep this bar, you know what’s happening in Seattle? Everything is being destroyed to put in shitty condos and parking structures and all of this other stuff that’s… rich money…it’s basically ruining Seattle…Capital Hill had a few places but now they have turned to none… If there is a punk show the crowd is mostly rich tech workers.”
“Seattle is going through this thing where the clubs are being destroyed with bullshit,” interrupted Ballweg. “The creative people can’t afford to live in the cities. We have to go build new communes.”
Six days out of the week there is live entertainment complete with sound man, stage lights, backstage, and outdoor patio. The corner eatery stayed open late before a recent heart attack took Khosro “Casey” Bagheri, from his Mediterranean restaurant, in business over 25 years.
If you were a daytime patron of downtown’s earliest happy hour, starting at 9am at the Five Star, for lunch, what many call the BEST BURGER can be made to order by Angie Hurtado, a take no prisoners bar keep (and part pirate let some people tell it). Angie still pours with a nurturing hand. Watch out gastro pubs, her burgers are good and you better not say other wise. She seems the opposite of Mark Cordova, the soft spoken bar owner who can easily accommodate a dozen or so favors all at once. Still living the life of a youthful man, Mark sometimes travels by skateboard around town, returning with the necessities to give dozens of unknown artists musical refuge.
Five Star Bar may not be where the most affluent come to party! It’s not about who you know or secret passwords, expensive drinks or overly controlled behavior. You just pay the door fee when there is a band and head towards the stage or the bar. If you’re with the band you can go to one of the only true do-it-yourself backstage lounges left in town. Backstage is upstairs so everyone can see your ascent into the upper unknown.
As daring as it may seem, the Five Star Bar is located directly across from a LAPD parking lot, so it might just be the safest bar in town. They don’t over pour, and who ever comes in is greeted respectfully by security, bar staff, and local bar patrons, mostly veterans, and billiard fans.
The Great Adapt-Reuse Era could see construction workers having their way with the buildings on 3rd and Main that include the Five Star Bar. Although an official date for demolition hasn’t been set, the stress of hearing about it from random sources, can be compared to the stress of having to deal with a mighty dragon who can strike at will, preying down on the corner when you least expect it. Will the dragon’s final fury lead to the end to Rock N Roll in Downtown? Many businesses on the block won’t be waiting around to find out, most are making plans to relocate.
That takes us up to the next level. Great poingts.
Hope you’re also putting those key files on google mail or some remote server so they’re still there even if your computer and hard disk backup get zapped.
Thanks for contributing. It’s helped me understand the issues.
The author is an idiot. The OLPC project started the Netbook market, and showed people would want something small and portable. I don’t think the iPad would have been as successful without all the host of Netbooks that came to market thanks to a business response to the OLPC. I have a Netbook, and I love it. The smaller the better, IMO, as long as I can have a full Linux distro to run on it.
Should the commenters of this blog want to receive backlinks then they should at the very least show the decency to post a thoughtful and thorough comment. All comment spam does is hurt your SEO attempts and generates worthless links. The best way to be a success is to make friends with other bloggers who have blogs of similar subject matter and hopefully generate really targeted traffic by making a related reply. Maybe some of those people will consider that before commenting after me, Many thanks.
doutor me tira umas duvidas?as semi- finais seram disputadas em um jogo so?e tem grande chance do jogo do timao e palmeiras ser no morumbambi, quero ir.sabe se sera meio a meio o estadio?ou o palmeiras fica com 90% da torcida?obrigado, quero logo comprar meu ingresso pra ver o meu timao.
Insights like this liven things up around here.
It’s perfect time to make some plans for the future and it is time to be happy. I have read this post and if I could I want to suggest you few interesting things or advice. Perhaps you could write next articles referring to this article. I wish to read more things about it!
Haha. I woke up down today. You’ve cheered me up!
These women that takes their clothes off and sit on the machines, obviously don’t have community laundry rooms like us. Unless that’s the explaination for the late night laundry room usage, mmm.M
es mejor no piratearla asta que pase la garantia ya que sera muy costoso tanto introducir el tipico chip, comprar los blue rays (20€) y la grabadora que no es barata (600 €) y encima si la pirateas y se rompe pierde la garantia
Deep thinking – adds a new dimension to it all.
There’s a secret about your post. ICTYBTIHTKY
Wait, I cannot fathom it being so straightforward.
Un album pe care oricine ar fi mandru sa il arate. Unele poze sunt haioase, altele elegante, iar mie mi s-a pus pata pe bradul facut din jucarii. Multumesc si drumuri frumoase in continuare!
"On a related note, does anyone know why one is supposed to run to the grocery store and buy French Toast fixins when snow is in the forecast?"Because you don't know how to make grits, country ham, and biscuits and gravy?
Si daca politistul nu are nimic impotriva faptului de a fi testat pe loc cu aparatul etilotest, sustinut de ceilalti colegi? Ce mai poti face.Eu zic ca un politist/set de table, date dreaqu, tot te baga daca se pricep cat de cat si nu sunt incepatori in a arde omul.
That’s a genuinely impressive answer.
Avaaz é uma comunidade de mobilização online que leva a voz da sociedade civil para a polÃtica global. http://www.avaaz.org/poMembros em redor do mundo: cerca de 16 milhões em 197 paÃses.Ações desde 2007: cerca de 97 milhões.
CFCNot sure. I think I meant QB you’d most want on your team for an important game. That’s how I typically measure greatness. For instance, Joe over Brady, Eli over Peyton.
Oh my goodness. That pretty much makes my ENTIRE week. It completely encapsulates EVERY magical feeling I get while reading the book or watching the movie. I’m new to Kazu’s work, and I’m totally ashamed by that..that cover is BREATHTAKING.
I am de lurking (hi i’ve been enjoying your blog for ages!!) as I am very very very very angry on your and your little girls behalf!!I would have complained too (and probably gone to the local press…in fact I would have even gone as far as ringing Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 – I reckon he could get a show out of this!! And then my other half would have come home from work and told me to get a life!!). I hope other parents complain and the teacher in question is strung up..(excessive again – sorry!!!)
won’t lead to greener planes just higher fares and more money changing hands -it is just another tax and a con mans delight- the queen will be happy she will make Bob Sir Brown (nose)
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Birthday giftout of 5 starsI bought this for my 7 year old son for his birthday. He is still working on getting the hang of it but he improves every time he practices. I didn’t want to get him a skateboard so I thought I would try this and I think it’s a challenge. It’s great for developing balance, just be sure to have safety gear.
hola a todas las personas de un buen corazon tengo un hijo de 11 años que tengo que operarlo de adenoides por que no puede respirar y NO TENGO DINERO PARA HACERLO” DONA LO QUE PUEDAS ” a caja de ahorro en pesos n:00414976181211 BANCO GALICIA ARGENTINA desde ya muchas gracias por tu donacion.
I see this as a case of multilevel group selection. Selfless individual evolutionists do objective science and their paradigm wins out eventually, but the individuals responsible for the new paradigm are inexorably eliminated from paying jobs in academia by self-interested bullshit merchants.
Daca PSD-ul nu face urgent o analiza corecta risca sa stea mai mult in opozitie!Dar asta nu-i o problema interesanta!Daca PSD-ul vrea cu adevarat sa faca ceva pentru Romania si nu doar “sforarie”cum a facut pana acum,atunci neaparat partidul trebuie reformat!Aceasta reforma trebuie sa fie facuta de acei membri psd-isti care nu au intrat in partid ca sa “cotizeze”5000Eu si “sa primeasca un loc eligibil”!Daca nu se face acest lucru,din partea mea poate sa si dispara PSD-ul!Deci:domnule Mitrea pune manivela pe ei!Eu am incredere in tine!
I’m impressed. You’ve really raised the bar with that.
Real brain power on display. Thanks for that answer!
सà¤ी à¤à¤• से बढ़कर à¤à¤• हैं यह पंक्तियां बहुत सुन्दर बन पड़ी हैं …..पर क्या करूँ इन यादों का,कि दिल की हार्ड डिस्क परकोई कमांड नहीं चलता… लाजवाब ।रश्मि दी आपको इस बेहतरीन प्रस्तुति के लिये बधाई ।
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Les scrutateurs vont se frotter les mains. Participation exceptionnelle, dépouillement simple, analyses multples…une grande soirée électorale, à laquelle tu n’échapperas pas…
latest article, ““Honeychile†– Are We Marketing Home Care and Senior Living to the Right Type of Senior… is part of a recent theme that he has been discussion on his own blog