On Bar Rescue, Jon Taffer travels to Long Beach, California to meet Dave Franich, the owner of Blacklight District Lounge. Franich bought the dive bar in 2012, and has since turned it into a venue for live punk music. Franich says he’s always been in loud punk bands but “all our venues shut down.” Franich admits, “We get a lot of people who are crybabies,” referring to those who complain about the music. If that’s you, Franich says, “We don’t want you here.” But here’s the problem: Franich is facing $160k in debt and is two months shy of closing because the bar doesn’t have enough paying customers to pay the bills. Some of those crybabies have cash.
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There’s no doubt about it: the music is turning away a large demographic slice of Long Beach. But can Taffer convince Franich to stop playing loud punk music? According to the Blacklight District Lounge website, Taffer wasn’t successful. On Thursday, July 28, two bands from Seattle will perform at Blacklight (KLAW and Greenriver Thrillers) with two local bands LA Air Raid and Robot Show. Bar Rescue airs Sundays at 9pm on SPIKE.
