Old venues that the Velvets played in Chicago

[sars]

being bored and having nothing to do yesterday, I decided to look up and visit the addresses of some of the former clubs and venues that the Velvets played at in Chicago. According to Olandem's page, there were five:
Poor Richard's
Aardvark Cinematheque
Pal Joey's
Kinetic Playground
The Quiet Knight

I managed to pull up the addresses of all except for Pal Joey's (which I couldn't find any information about at all.) I took pictures at the other four, which aren't very interesting, but I'll post them soon. First stop was...

Poor Richard's (1363 N. Sedgwick)

From what I could find online, Poor Richard's began as a church and then became a concert venue. I really couldn't find much about it online. Somewhere along the line it became a Baptist church called Pillars Rock, which is now long gone. There was an empty lot where (I presume) the building once stood. The area smells like shit because it's next door to a horse theater/stable thing. I was sad to find nothing there. I was hoping to see the inside of the building because of the footage that had been shot there.

next stop...

Aardvark Cinematheque (1608 N. Wells)

The original building is gone and has been replaced with Piper's Alley, which houses a movie theater, some shops, and a Starbucks, among other things. Right next door is the Second City comedy troupe, which is housed in a fairly old building and had a cool facade. I think the current Second City may have been part of the old Aardvark, but the employees I talked to think it may have been an apartment building before they moved in.
a little more info: http://cinematreasures.org/theater/8584/


more interesting and informative was...

The Kinetic Playground (4800 N Clark)

I first went to the current Kinetic Playground (down the street at 1113 W. Lawrence) and spoke to two Dans and one Steve, who were really cool. Steve was a bona fide old timer who knew a lot of the history. According to him, the Kinetic Playground was originally the Electric Theater and was owned by Aaron Russo (famous producer who made a lot of 80's movies: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0751567/.) It inhabitaed or was next door to another famous venue, The Rainbo. According to Steve, the Electric Theatre opened in the late 60's and changed its name to the Kinetic Playground after an Electric Theater in New York threatened them with a lawsuit. During its existence, they had shows with many of the typical big 60's names (Hendrix, the Doors, etc...) In 1971, the Kinetic staff took a trip together to Las Vegas. They came back to find the enitre building burned down. The building's remains were torn down, and a roller /ice rink was put in its place. During the reconstuction, human remains dating back to the construction of the original building (1920's-ish.) Very misterious. The original Kinetic was only open for about three years.
The current Kinetic opened three years ago, and Aaron Russo allowed them to take on the name that had been dorment for thirty+ years. If you're at all familiar with Chicago music, it's across the street from the Aragon, and a short distance from the Green Mill, the Riviera and the former Uptown.
more articles: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_did_Rainb ... Playground
here are the condos being built over the former Kinteic/Rainbo: http://www.metropolitan-us.com/rainbo/history.html

last stop...

The Quiet Knight (953 W Belmont)

The only original building of the four I visited. The Quiet Knight was open from the 60's through the 80's, and was called Tut's and possibly Medusa's at one point or another. The Quiet Knight was located on the building's 2nd floor, which now is divided between a hair salon called Milio's and a tanning salon called Ultimate Exposure. The building was fairly damaged after a restaurant fire a few years ago (the man working at Ultimate Exposure demonstarted this for me by jumping up and down on the floor a few times and rattling everything in the room.) The album "953 West" by the Siegel-Schwall Band was recorded there.

If you have a free afternoon and live in a bigger US city, I highly recommend looking up some of the old venues online and poking around. Even though so much of that era is gone, you never know what you'll come across. (I also got two free passes to the Kinetic Playground!)

[tarbaby2]

Very Cool!!! Thanks for the info.

[radiofreesimulacrum]

Quoted From The Velvet Underground Companion book. Specifically the section" Feedback: The Legend of the Velvet Underground" by Ignacio Julia

(Streling speaking)" We were playing in a big place in Chicago, The Kinetic Circus, a beautiful place, fantastic. It had a big sound room that came down from the celing and they made multitrack tapes of every note played there. So we had good tapes of that place, but then it burned down in one of those Mafia fires..."

He goes on to talk about an incident when he was playing the solo to "Pale Blue Eyes" and Cale accidently stepedon his Vox distorter and sets off "this blast of sound"

[Doctor Bob]

Haha Sars that's amazing. I'm so glad there's people like you in the world

[tarbaby2]

So... now we have even more "missing tapes", huh? Where have they all gone?

[Jez]

Thanks for a really interesting post. It's sad that so much has gone. You get a lot of fires in Chicago!

I would love to see more updates like this, on some of the other clubs that The Velvets played. What a great way to spend your day! Looking forward to seeing some pics.

[Jerome]

Very cool, sars.

[radiofreesimulacrum]

[quote="tarbaby2"]So... now we have even more "missing tapes", huh? Where have they all gone?[/quote]

What's even worse about this particular missing tape is it would appear to be a late Cale era soundboard recording

[discoscrudos]

Amazing.... thanks a lot sars!!!

[sars]

I'll put the pictures up soon. I should have just used my digital camera, but a couple of the places were in slightly sketchy areas and I didn't want to risk losing it. Once I find the disposable and develope it, I will post (not that the pictures are particularily interesting.)