Partnership Dispute Threatens Club’s Future : Rock: The surprise lockout of Wednesday night’s show at Manhattan’s doesn’t bode well for the Stanton venue.

The always-fragile Orange County club scene for original rock music is in danger of losing another venue with the onset of financial difficulties at Manhattan’s, 7910 Katella Ave. in Stanton.

The promoters of “Club Tangent,” a weekly concert series featuring alternative rock bands, found themselves shut out of Manhattan’s Wednesday night along with fans who had come to Manhattan’s expecting see a show by National People’s Gang, Mind Over 4 and Lost Dog.

Club Tangent’s promoters, who go by the nicknames Octavius and Kitty Bash, said Thursday that they will try to find a new location for their shows, which have featured some of the most creative bands on the local alternative rock scene since the series began at Manhattan’s in August.

Octavius said that he and Bash had received no warning or explanation for the surprise lockout Wednesday night. Manhattan’s, with a capacity of 300 people, has hosted heavy metal shows on other nights of the week. Dorian May, promoter of the weekend metal shows at Manhattan’s, said he was assured Thursday that the club would open this weekend and that shows he had booked would be able to go on as scheduled.

Kenneth Scheiler, the operating partner at Manhattan’s, could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, Douglas Alani, said Thursday that the club is “tied up in a partnership dispute” between Scheiler and his two partners, Ezra Joseph and Mark Larsen.

Scheiler has “been working very hard” since taking over the club about a year ago, Alani said. “It’s his life savings involved there. We’re trying our best to keep it going.

“We’re trying to resolve the dispute with (Joseph and Larsen) and get new partners, get some people in who want to see the place kept going.”

Joseph, who owns Foul Play (formerly Night Moves), an original-rock club in Huntington Beach, said that he and Larsen want to open a new club at Manhattan’s location--without Scheiler. Joseph said that he and Larsen invested $70,000 in Manhattan’s last year, taking over the interest of a previous partner. “We haven’t gotten a penny back,” Joseph said.

Several recent business blows preceded Wednesday night’s Club Tangent lockout. On Jan. 4, Manhattan’s license to sell beer and wine was voluntarily surrendered by Scheiler’s ex-partner, Bruce Davis, according to Joseph Cruz, an official for the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Davis and Scheiler had held the beer and wine permit jointly, Cruz said.

That left Manhattan’s without bar income, the crucial source of revenue for most nightclubs.

Soon after that setback, Manhattan’s landlord, W.H. Jewett Co., served notice demanding overdue rent, according to Dixie Stephens, property manager for the Jewett Co. Rent had not been paid in about five months, according to James Stearman, attorney for the landlord.

Manhattan’s also has lost furnishings and equipment, which were removed earlier this month by Joseph and Larsen, Joseph said. May said that Scheiler now has to rent stage lights for concerts, because his partners took away the ones that had belonged to the club.