Starlite Lounge was a two-story live-music venue at 1517 21st Street in downtown/Midtown Sacramento that operated through June 2017, occupying a building that for many years prior had been known as The Townhouse.[1][2][3] Though it hosted a wide range of acts, it became best known as a hub for Sacramento's heavy-music scene, largely through booker and sound engineer Chris Lemos.[3]
At a glance
- Located at 1517 21st Street, downtown/Midtown Sacramento.[4][5][2]
- Two-story room with bands upstairs and DJs downstairs, plus a pool table and a kitchen.[6][7]
- The building was previously The Townhouse before becoming Starlite Lounge.[3][7]
- Predominantly 21-and-over shows, though it also hosted some all-ages programming.[8][9][10]
- Announced its full closure via Facebook on June 20, 2017.[2][3]
- The building was slated to reopen as the all-ages venue Holy Diver under a new management team.[7]
History and role in the scene
The building at 1517 21st Street dates to at least 1938, as health department documentation from that year was discovered during renovations, according to the Sacramento Press.[11][12] It operated for many years as The Townhouse before a change of ownership. Shannon Cannon, a veteran server of numerous Midtown bars and nightclubs, purchased the former Townhouse Lounge earlier in 2013 and opened the Starlite in August of that year.[11][12] Cannon's original name for the bar was "Shannon's Starlite"; she was unable to use the Townhouse name because she did not own the rights to it — explaining that, as she put it, "You can't just buy a building that used to be a Safeway and open up a Safeway."[12][13]
The name change was not without controversy. When the venue's iconic Townhouse neon sign was removed, a Facebook boycott campaign emerged under the title "keep the Town House and boycott Shannon's Starlite," and residents called the removal "the end of an era," with Cannon receiving angry messages about the decision.[13] Cannon's vision for the space was nonetheless unpretentious: "This isn't going to be a high-end place. It's going to be a little Midtown bar," she said at the time, with DJs and live music planned for the upstairs room.[11]
The venue's interior design blended rockabilly, midcentury-modern jet-set, and 1950s sci-fi styling, featuring chrome barstools, a blue pool table, and a giant metal starburst sculpture dominating one wall.[12][11] At opening, food service was operated by Keith Breedlove and Janine Bills of Papa Dale's Drivin' Diner, a permanent pop-up whose cuisine was described as "Old school comfort food with love, care and a modernist touch."[12]
Over its run, Starlite became a haven for Sacramento's heaviest music — doom, sludge, metal and psych — built largely on the work of Chris Lemos, who booked the shows and ran sound while also playing in the local doom/psych band CHRCH.[3] His name recurred throughout the public tributes that followed the venue's closure, with multiple local musicians crediting him with giving heavy music a home in the city.[3]
Starlite's offerings reached well beyond metal, however. It hosted goth and post-punk acts, indie and electronic bands, singer-songwriters, comedy, art exhibits and even burlesque, and local goth stalwarts cited it alongside Old Ironsides and The Colony as venues that sustained a supportive environment for musical expression.[14][15] In its final week the venue's last three events ran the gamut: a Wednesday burlesque show ("Second Annual Booty Worship"), a Saturday metal performance by Corky Laing with Mountain Droids Attack, and a Sunday closing-night show pairing Flub with Apotheon.[3][16]
On June 20, 2017, Starlite Lounge announced via Facebook that it would shut down entirely, stating management "was out of options" and calling Sacramento "a tough market" and "a constant uphill battle to run a venue of our size that focuses almost exclusively on live music and touring bands."[3][16] The closure came in the same week that Naked Lounge announced it would stop hosting live music, prompting wide discussion about the health of the city's scene — a conversation echoing earlier losses of venues such as Luigi's Fun Garden, Assembly Music Hall, Marilyn's on K and Witch Room.[3]
The building did not stay quiet for long. Within weeks of the closure announcement, Bret Bair — one of the people behind Ace of Spades and Goldfield Trading Post — told Submerge that his team planned to take over the old Starlite building and book shows there under the new name Holy Diver, hoping to begin shows by around November 1, 2017.[7] Bair said they intended to continue the upstairs-bands/downstairs-DJs format, pursue all-ages permitting similar to Ace of Spades, and treat the space as "a cultural epicenter."[7]
Recurring nights and events
- Hippie Hour Fridays — Singer/songwriter William Mylar's long-running weekly, unrehearsed free-form jam moved from Old Ironsides to Starlite Lounge in 2014; the free, all-ages sessions ran every Friday starting at 5:30 p.m. with rotating guest musicians.[10]
- US Air Guitar Championships — On June 6, 2015, Starlite hosted Sacramento's first-ever official US Air Guitar qualifier, sending the region's top two air guitarists to the regional finals in San Francisco with a $100 cash prize on the line.[9]
- New Year's Eve celebrations — Starlite's NYE programming included a 2014 party with DJ Rigatony spinning mashups, guest hosts Lori Love and Miss Lisa, both floors and the pool table in use, the kitchen open until 10 p.m., and a midnight champagne toast.[6]
Notable shows and acts
The venue was a frequent home for record-release shows by Sacramento and regional acts. Local rock duo Blue Oaks released their debut 7-inch single there on December 7, 2013, in a seven-band bill themed around the number seven.[17] Goth/post-punk veterans Razorblade Monalisa held the release party for their album Ignition/Fade on November 14, 2014.[15] Indie/electronic duo Eli and the Sound Cult launched their EP So Much Yes with a March 7, 2015 "Spring Fling."[18] Queercore duo Butch Vs Femme marked their reunion with a March 28, 2015 release party for Eat Yr Heart Out.[4] Indie/shoegaze band Desario celebrated their EP Haunted on November 1, 2016,[19] and Sacramento alt-rock band Sunday School released their EP there on April 14, 2017.[20] Supergiant Productions' Gina Azzarello threw a Second Saturday art-and-music birthday party at the venue in July 2014.[21]
Starlite hosted significant touring and local heavy acts. Eugene, Oregon doom-metal band YOB played July 25, 2014, with Oakland's Giant Squid and Sacramento's Horseneck.[22] A May 13, 2015 doom bill featured Seattle's Samothrace, Portland's Atriarch, (Waning) and local openers Church.[23] Local doom band Church — soon forced to rename themselves CHRCH after a cease-and-desist from the Australian band The Church — celebrated the vinyl release of Unanswered Hymns on October 3, 2015, with Acid King and Cura Cochino.[8] North Carolina's Valient Thorr played June 18, 2016, with PEARS, Solanum and Cromson Eye.[24] Roseville sludge/pop trio Chrome Ghost played Earth Tone Studio's one-year anniversary party there on July 15, 2016, alongside Swamp Witch.[25] Portland/Oakland sludge band Graves at Sea headlined June 9, 2017, with CHRCH and Amarok.[26] A May 12, 2017 post-punk/goth show — booked as an opening slot for Los Angeles dance-punk band Moving Units, who abruptly canceled their West Coast tour — turned into a headlining set for local synthwave/post-punk act Creux Lies (formerly NMBRSTTN), with Tremor Low and Killer Couture.[27]