NO!!! Perhaps The Best Concert Venue In Los Angeles To Close After 41 Years

[Initech]

Treasured “acoustically sensational” Los Angeles venue, the Gibson Amphitheatre, will be turning off the house lights and shutting its doors for good come September 2013. Originally opened as an outdoor venue called Universal Amphitheatere in 1972, the first show at the venue was the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

Since then, a diverse array of legendary artists have sauntered through the hallowed halls underneath the venue such as Radiohead, David Bowie, Madonna, Nine Inch Nails, and Fleetwood Mac. Out of the 23 years that KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas has been around, 21 of those years have been in the Gibson Amphitheatre space.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the reason the Gibson Amphitheatere is being removed is to make room for a Harry Potter themed ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. It has been confirmed that Universal Studios will start building the attraction this summer and that part of the Gibson Amphitheatre land will be used.

In a press release, the President of North American Concerts in Southern California/Las Vegas said that the Gibson Amphitheatre will be missed by music lovers throughout Los Angeles.

http://kroq.cbslocal.com/2013/04/24/gibson-ampitheatre-closing-after-41-years/

Man I've been to tons of good shows there - I've seen Iron Maiden, Tenacious D, Pearl Jam, The Smashing Pumpkins, Dream Theater, Queensryche, Pearl Jam, The Roots, among tons of others. It will be sad to see this place go.

[olddots]

1. music becomes another ride ........

the city of broken dreams .

[Chan790]

2. I now feel justified in reading all of the HP books...

rooting for Voldemort. I'm thoroughly convinced that Harry, Ron and Hermione were reprobate junior-league terrorists...and now they're trying to destroy music!

How evil!

[KamaAina]

3. Rockmusicus Savicus!

[denbot]

4. Bummer!

I've been to some pretty good shows there, some of them I even remember.

[Mopar151]

5. 6 Flags ripped out an iconic racetrack to add another coaster to Riverside Park

And, in the end, lost money doing it. The previous owners of the Park, the Carrol family, were enthusiastic supporters of the track, and some raced there themselves. The mistake 6 Flags made was failing to consider the (considerable) concession revenue from the track.

[Initech]

7. I'm sure that will come back to bite Universal in the ass.

Really, how much longer can the Harry Potter franchise be milked? They've made 8 movies, a hundred books, and so on and so forth... but is it really necessary to have an entire theme park devoted to it?

[Mopar151]

8. The Potter franchise will last a long, long time.

The real question is : Why does it have to be RIGHT THERE? Why can't the ampitheatre be incorporated in the design? There is more than enough depth of legend within the story to cover an ampitheatre - Iron Maiden would'nt need to bring a stage set!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

9. sad.

I remember when our local venue shut down. One last blowout with all the local musicians performing.
It was where I saw Richie Havens and a lot of other great blues/rock performers.
It was a good run and the town will never be the same.
of course, LA is not dependent on One Venue as my little town ... still ...


sad.