“It’s harder now to be an independently run venue”: The Troc’s owner confirms its closure
It’s official: The Trocadero‘s owner Joanna Pang has spoken to Variety magazine and confirmed that the iconic Chinatown venue is, indeed, closing this May, following the word-of-mouth news that began circulating late last week.
“This was home to me,” said Pang, whose father Stephen Pang first purchased the venue in 1979 and ran it as a movie theater through the early 80s before it became an iconic alternative rock and punk venue. “But the landscape of the business has changed in the last five years. It’s harder now to be an independently run venue — it’s a different world. There are bigger rooms run by bigger concert corporations.”
Pang says she plans to sell the venue after a run of final shows in May; as Variety reports “she promises a series of big-name closing concerts and an finale with Philly’s avant-garde Big Mess Orchestra, the first act to play the Troc under Joanna Pang’s ownership.”
“We’re going to go out with a bang, in grand Troc style,” Pang says. Nevertheless, she calls working with the venue “an amazing experience,” and says that she’s proud of the work she’s done in her two decades running the show.
“We were an independent room that could embrace and pursue every aspect of multiculturalism, from drag performers to zombie proms to LGBTQ events,” she says. “We were dedicated to welcoming all artistic scenes, and I’m proud of that. But it’s time.”