Save the Smell benefit aims to give the downtown L.A. venue a new lease on life
For now, the Smell is safe. That doesn’t mean the local music institution won’t need saving later.
The beloved all-ages, punk-focused venue had a recent scare when club owner Jim Smith received a demolition permit notice from his landlord. The Smell had moved before – it was originally in North Hollywood, but it has occupied its current grimy downtown alley space since 1999.
Downtown is of course a dramatically different neighborhood today. The building will remain standing for now ( a rep for the L&R Group of Companies that owns the property has said the permit was a formality and the company has no upcoming demolition plans).
Still, the venue’s future is clearly more fragile than fans thought.
That’s why many of them are pulling together for a Saturday benefit concert meant to complement a long-term fundraising campaign for the future of the Smell, be it in downtown or somewhere else. The end goal is to raise $1.4 million to buy a new building and set the club on long-term footing.
They probably won’t get all the way there at this benefit — tickets are just $25 — but any venue that fostered acts like Health, No Age and Bleached (not to mention countless friendships and first teenage run-ins with edgy music) deserves a fair shot to stick around.
No Age headlines the benefit show, fittingly. No band has had a more symbiotic relationship with the Smell’s late-2000s ascent onto the global music map. While the noisy duo hasn’t released an LP since 2013’s “An Object,” its distortion experiments and punky energy still exert a big influence across L.A.’s art and music scenes.
Other like-minded acts atop the bill include Kim & the Created, Audacity, Feels and over a dozen more. Two big surprises are in the works – one, a DJ set from Smith himself (who usually prefers to stay behind the scenes, often literally behind the ticket counter giving handstamps), and another from a “Huge Secret Headliner Announced Day Of.”
The list of big acts influenced by the Smell’s ethic is too long to even speculate about who that might be. But it’s hard to imagine a better cause in local music than paying a bit to find out.
As of press time, the venue for the benefit remains a mystery. Those who purchase tickets will be sent the address on Saturday morning, according to the official Facebook page for the event.
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