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On Feb. 14, The Smell hosted its first fashion show, featuring the work of a handful of local ind

Photo

On Feb. 14, The Smell hosted its first fashion show, featuring the work of a handful of local ind

Photo

On Feb. 14, The Smell hosted its first fashion show, featuring the work of a handful of local ind

Hidden between an abandoned Japanese movie theater and a Latin bar just off of Main Street in downtown Los Angeles, adventurous music fans can only access The Smell through a nondescript back alley entrance. If one doesn’t know where to look, it would be difficult to tell this is a music venue, rather than another of the many abandoned buildings in the disheveled downtown area.

But The Smell’s hidden exterior is more or less its only exclusive characteristic. The Smell is one of the only venues in Los Angeles accessible to all ages, opening its doors to high school music aficionados, aging political activists and struggling artists alike. The cover charge is $5 for a whole night of entertainment that has featured some of the most notable musicians to come through Los Angeles, ranging from the new wave beats of The Faint to the spastic rock of Deerhoof to the indie punk of Citizen Fish. If the music’s not working for you, there’s always the art gallery, the political brochures, and a snack bar.

Jim Smith, one of The Smell’s three founders and its only current manager, works full-time as a union organizer during the day. He sees The Smell as more of a hobby than a business.

“I’ve never thought of this as an enterprise or anything that would be making me money,” said Smith.

He’s never paid for advertising, and if the club manages to make a couple hundred dollars after rent has been paid, he considers it a good month. This lax attitude is a big reason regulars find The Smell such an attractive place.

But it’s not just the fans who have benefited from The Smell’s tiny cover charge and Smith’s non-profit spirit. The acts themselves have found more freedom at The Smell than at other venues in the city.

“(Smith) just extended his club to anything we wanted. If he was confident that we’d draw enough people, he’d let us bring in any other bands we wanted for the night,” said Todd Congliere of Toys That Kill. “This is Hollywood; that’s really rare.”

But Smith’s laid back ways haven’t always jived with the Los Angeles Fire Department’s building codes. On February 28, 2003, fire safety inspectors showed up at The Smell, cited the club for fire code violations, and told Smith he would have to close up until a number of modifications were made.

The club was closed for over six months as volunteers worked to bring The Smell up to code. The entrance doors were made to swing out into the alley and were pulled farther in to accommodate the change. Electrical work was done to prevent fires or electrical malfunction. The Smell officially reopened on September 19th with a show by the Sharp Ease.

Renovating The Smell came with a hefty price tag of about $10,000. Since the club’s low profit margin hadn’t left a financial cushion to fall back on, almost all of the permit costs came out of Smith’s own pocket, and there was speculation that without more funding, The Smell would not be able to survive.

It wouldn’t be the first all-ages hangout to suffer from a combination of city interference and money problems. The famous Jabberjaw coffee house, which featured such notable acts as Beck and Nirvana in the 1990s, had to shut its doors in 1997 after financial woes made it impossible to keep going. The Impala suffered a similar fate the same year. The end of these two local music staples was in fact a key influence in The Smell’s founding.

“When both the Impala and Jabberjaw closed, we really felt obligated to do something to fill that void,” said Jim Silberman, a co-founder of the Smell and former UCLA ethnomusicology student.

The challenge of keeping an all-ages club extends beyond the Los Angeles city limits. Just last month, Long Beach’s all-ages venue, Koo’s faced the city’s board in a bid to keep its license in light of accusations of underage drinking and drug use occurring on the premises. Koo’s – which offers live as well as workshops for aspiring photographers and artists – faced similar problems two years before at a smaller, Santa Ana location.

Despite the efforts of local authorities, the board handed down its decision in favor of Koo’s on Jan. 6, and the venue has been allowed to stay open for the under-21ers and its other regulars.

Good news has also accompanied The Smell since it reopened in September. Though Smith has had to swallow the $10,000 debt, The Smell community rallied to make sure their hangout doesn’t get closed.

Several bands that play regularly at The Smell, including the Sharp Ease and Toys That Kill, put on various benefit performances, adding several hundred dollars to help alleviate Smith’s costs.

Leftist political elements that have found a community at The Smell are doing their bit too. Los Angeles’ Bands Against Bush – a group of musicians that voices its opposition to the Bush administration through concerts and demonstrations – along with the anti-war group, Not In Our Name, held a concert at The Smell on October 11th, the International Day of Action, and plan to give the proceeds back to the club.

“We could donate the money to one of the candidates running against Bush, but that’d be just peanuts for them,” said Jed Schipper, one of the organizers of Bands Against Bush and a former member of the punk band FYP. “But it’s in the spirit of Bands Against Bush to support The Smell. (The Smell) has always been more about politics than making a profit.”

The Smell is also hoping to release compilation CDs featuring bands that have played there. Smith is already making plans for three volumes.

Since it reopened, the club has continued its battle while keeping its doors open to all kinds of music and art fans. On Saturday, Feb. 14, The Smell hosted its first fashion show, and in March it will display the animation work of several local artists.