L'Amour was a

music venue A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from a small coffeehouse for folk music shows, an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Ty ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, run by Mike and George Parente. L'Amour opened as a disco club in 1978, transformed into a rock club in 1981 and closed in February 2004. It was promoted as the "Rock Capital of Brooklyn". Commonly pronounced "La-Morz" by patrons, the venue hosted many of

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

and heavy metal's biggest artists, including

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

Type O Negative Type O Negative was an American gothic/doom metal band formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1989 by Peter Steele (bass, lead vocals), Kenny Hickey (guitar, co-lead vocals), Josh Silver (keyboards, backing vocals), and Sal Abruscato (drums ...

Kiss A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...

Megadeth Megadeth is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by vocalist and guitarist Dave Mustaine. Known for their technically complex guitar work and musicianship, Megadeth is one of the "big four" of American thrash metal—alo ...

and

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

, as well as frequently featuring underground bands from across the country and across the globe. The original L'Amour in Brooklyn remained a relevant part of the rock-metal scene for almost 25 years.

Spinoff clubs

L'Amour spawned two spinoff rock clubs in the mid-1980s: L'Amour East in Queens and L'Amour Far East on Long Island. L'Amour East (also known as “The Edge” for some years) (DNZ Korean supermarket, currently), located on

Queens Boulevard Queens Boulevard is a major thoroughfare connecting Midtown Manhattan, via the Queensboro Bridge, to Jamaica in Queens, New York City, United States. It is long and forms part of New York State Route 25. Queens Boulevard runs northwest to ...

(77-00, specifically) in

Elmhurst, Queens Elmhurst (formerly Newtown) is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. It is bounded by Roosevelt Avenue on the north; the Long Island Expressway on the south; Junction Boulevard on the east; and the New York Connecting Rail ...

(Newtown, formerly), south

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, NY 11373, existed for several years (circa 1983–1988), riding the coattails of the

club's fame. The Queens club not only showcased rock performers and some of the top

glam metal Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal music, heavy metal that features pop music, pop-influenced Hook (music), hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat arena rock, rock anthems, and slow Sentimental ballad#Powe ...

bands of the era, but as a dance club, also hosted many

freestyle music Freestyle, or Latin freestyleKlanten, Robert (1995). ''Die Gestalten Verlag: Localizer 1.0''. Die-Gestalten-Verlag. . Quote: "The other unavoidable influence n NYC hard housewas latin freestyle. A blend of hip hop, synth pop and salsa, latin fr ...

acts. L'Amour Far East, situated in Commack on Long Island, folded soon after its 1987 opening. A new L'Amour existed in

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

from April 2006 to December 2009, dubbing itself the "Rock Capitol of Staten Island".

Paramount Theatre

The historic Paramount Theatre in Staten Island, which opened as a cinema in 1930, was converted to a rock venue in 1980, operated by the owners of L'Amour. The club enjoyed success for several years, hosting bands like Venom, Metallica, the Rods and Vandenberg during 1982 and 1983. When the Paramount closed after several years, the owners opened L'Amour East. A 2017 article about the property states that it was used as a location for concerts for a short time but closed in 1980. Some restoration was started after 2008 but was halted; it restarted again in 2016. Some scenes for movies were filmed here. The plan was to "turn it into a restaurant, catering hall, and events venue". A 2018 report added that the restoration was still far from being completed at that time.

Prominent DJs

* Alex Kayne is considered L'Amour's most popular and influential DJ. The Brooklyn native came to L'Amour in 1979 as a regular, began as resident DJ there from 1980 to 1985, and subsequently deejayed there on and off until the venue closed. He was the venue's original metal DJ, its first VJ, and its longest resident DJ. Kayne also worked at L'Amour East, and was the only resident DJ at the Staten Island L'Amour. Noting his influence, ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

'' said that Kayne "played a big part in breaking American and European metal bands". Kayne continues working the U.S. club and concert venue scene. * Chuck Kaye, a local metal DJ from Staten Island, was known as the "Roar of L'Amour". Kaye was the house DJ at L'Amour from 1985 to 1988. As Jagger Kaye, he is now an acting coach. * Jo Roxstaar (billed as DJ JoRoxstaar!), was asked to DJ for L'Amour East in Queens (by the promoter for the club at the time, ????) after resigning the VJ position from L'Amour in Brooklyn. Jo had worked alongside Alex Kayne at L'Amour in Brooklyn from 19xx through 19xx and later went on to DJ at the Cat Club in Manhattan, (handing the DJing gig at L'Amour East to Alex Rude, who spun for about one year) followed by DJ Taso. * Michel Gutman was L'Amour Far East's only DJ (after the opening night, when

WBAB WBAB (102.3 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Babylon, New York. It is owned by Cox Radio with studios and offices on Sunrise Highway (New York State Route 27) in West Babylon. Morning duo "Roger & JP" (Roger Luce and John Parise ...

's Fingers hosted the show), spinning a mixture of all types of metal and hard rock.

Impact on NYHC

In its later years, L'Amour gave rise to many acts in the hardcore scene, including

Agnostic Front Agnostic Front is an American hardcore punk band from New York City. Founded in 1980, the band is considered an important influence on the New York hardcore scene, as well as a pioneer of the crossover thrash genre. History First era (1980– ...

Carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...

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Life Of Agony Life of Agony is an American alternative metal band from Brooklyn, New York City, formed in 1989 by singer Keith Caputo, bassist Alan Robert and guitarist Joey Z. The band has released six studio albums to date, most notably their 1993 debut '' ...

Candiria Candiria is an American band from Brooklyn, New York, mixing progressive metal, metalcore, jazz fusion and hip hop. They are part of the precursors of the mathcore genre with bands like Deadguy or Lethargy.Kevin Stewart-Panko, "The Decade in N ...

Full Blown Chaos Full Blown Chaos is a metalcore band from Floral Park, Queens, New York. According to the band, their whole direction "is to keep a wide range of music, not to necessarily pigeonhole ourselves into metal or hardcore". They are well respected i ...

Madball Madball is an American New York hardcore band. Originated in the late 1980s as a side project of Agnostic Front, the band developed after Agnostic Front's vocalist Roger Miret would let his younger half-brother Freddy Cricien take the micro ...

, Most Precious Blood, Pro-Pain, Pyro Myth,

Sick of it All Sick of It All is an American hardcore punk band formed in 1986 in Queens, New York City. The band's lineup consists of brothers Lou and Pete Koller on lead vocals and guitars respectively, Armand Majidi on drums, and Craig Setari on bass. Sic ...

and

Sworn Enemy Sworn Enemy is an American metalcore band from New York City, formed in 1997. History The band formed as "Downfall" and later on as "Mindset", a product of the extremely expansive and influential New York hardcore scene. At its original incep ...

L'Amour in print: ''L'Amour: Rock Capital of Brooklyn''

Longtime L'Amour DJ Alex Kayne recalled the tales of his time at L'Amour and documented the history of the club in an as-yet unpublished book, ''L'Amour: Rock Capital of Brooklyn'', including interviews, photos and fan materials.

References

{{Coord, 40.62422, -73.99414, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title Former music venues in New York City 1978 establishments in New York City 2004 disestablishments in New York (state) Entertainment companies established in 1978 Entertainment companies disestablished in 2004 Music venues completed in 1978