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Skull Alley, one local music lover's attempt to operate a performance space for the all-ages crowd, is shutting its doors.
First opened in 2008 as a venue for music, art and poetry, it will stage its last show Dec. 31, said owner Jamie Prott.
Prott opened Skull Alley in a vacant building on East Broadway in 2008 as a tribute to his late brother, Dylan, an 18-year-old former Louisville punk-rock musician who was killed when he fell from a building at Western Kentucky University. With the blessing of Jamie and Dylan's mother, money from the insurance settlement helped open the nightclub.
But Prott said the venue has been struggling since a screen-printing business housed in the building's basement was closed in May because of a fire-code violation. The business accounted for 40 percent of Skull Alley's revenue.
The screen-printing operation was intended as a hedge against the fact that nightclubs tend to make little if any money, Prott said. Although Skull Alley at one time had a license to sell beer, its status prevented it from serving hard liquor and reaping the revenues that would have generated.
“We based our entire business around the screen-printing shop financially subsidizing the venue because we knew going in how little money there is to be made off all-ages shows, and how fickle turnouts can be in Louisville,” Prott said.
“Turns out when the building was renovated and the coding changed over for assembly use, it included a condition that the basements not be used for anything, including storage, unless a sprinkler system or firewall was installed.”
Then, in October, the venue lost its beer license for failure to pay back sales taxes.
Prott acknowledged that opening an all-ages venue is an uphill climb.
“One of the problems I encountered running Skull Alley is the notion that an ‘all-ages venue' means it's some kind of lame teen center,” he said.
But he said a vital music scene is fueled by teens who are too young to go to nightclubs that cater to the over-21 crowd.
“Seeing that one band you will always remember live shouldn't be an experience that you can only have after the age of 21,” Prott said. “All-ages venues are incredibly important to give young artists a space to not only get their kinks out and grow musically, but to meet peers, to form new projects and to feel a part of a community. A city that has a space that fosters young musicians is a city that has an edge on keeping its music culture vibrant.”
The final show will feature the band Lemuria, which performed on Skull Alley's opening night.
Joseph Lord contributed to this story.
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