Spaceland is out at Spaceland: Bookers, venue part ways; club to be re-christened as The Satellite

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Spaceland Productions, the concert promoters who have booked music at the Silver Lake club known as Spaceland for a decade and a half, are parting ways with the venue’s owner. By early next year, the storied room at 1717 Silver Lake Blvd. – which has hosted the Los Angeles debuts of bands such as Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket and the Killers as well as incubated the burgeoning Eastside music scene – will get a new name, the Satellite.

Mitchell Frank, owner of Spaceland Productions and the Spaceland name, and Jeff Wolfram, who owns the building that adopted that moniker around 1995, confirmed that they are ending their longtime handshake agreement. “We’re going our separate ways, and we’re doing so amicably,” Wolfram said. “Basically, we wanted to do our own booking in-house so we could offer better packages to bands and be a little more competitive.”

“It just reached a point where it was time for us to move on,” said Frank, who started Spaceland as a weekly club night in 1993 and whose company books the Echo, Echoplex and several special events around L.A. “We’ve had some incredible musical moments here, people met, fell in love, started life-long friendships, but it’s just time for a change.”

Talent-buying duties for the Satellite, Wolfram said, will be handled by Jennifer Tefft – who worked for Frank as the main booker at Spaceland for almost 10 years before she was fired last November.

“I’m excited – that place feels like home to me,” said Tefft, who has spent the past year working with local talent buyers the Fold, which books shows at the Silverlake Lounge and Bootleg Theater, among other venues. “I think Jeff and Mitchell both knew this day would come. Whenever there’s a club where the promoter and the owner are separate, everybody’s hurt, including the customer. [As an in-house talent buyer] I’ll be able to give better deals to bands and be a little more flexible with things that will make playing the club a better experience for them.”

Wolfram said the Satellite will honor all Spaceland’s booking commitments, including the Melvins’ Friday residency in January. As for the future, he said, “I really don’t expect much to change. We’ll be doing a few new things with specials to try and build a late-night crowd. But there won’t be anything drastically different.”

According to a Spaceland press release, Frank, along with business partner Jeff Ellermeyer, will open a new room for live music oriented to dance nights and DJs.