(original photo via Telstar Logistics)
In the comment section of the Cinema Latino / Crown Theater article, reader “like a fox” brings us this interesting tidbit in my response to my plaintive wail, “Could you imagine something like Oakland’s The Fox in the Mission?”
Your wish is granted. The *other* theater across the street – New Mission – is slated to become a music venue – with the Fox being the model. Unfortunately, the New Mission doesn’t have the architectural splendor of the Fox. Don’t know how the funding or permitting is going, sorry.
Gus Murad’s club and height limits are well known, but the idea of a Fox-like entity in the Mission is a new one to me. Any readers with more information?
(More Mission Street theater history porn here, and more pictures inside of New Mission here.)
 In the comment section of the Cinema Latino / Crown Theater article, reader “like a fox” brings us this interesting tidbit in my response to my plaintive wail, “Could you imagine something like Oakland’s The Fox in the Mission?” Your wish is granted. The *other* theater across the street – […]</p>
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Wow, that would be AMAZING. I have been wishing for exactly that for some time. However, I think it is very unlikely. The New Mission is privately owned right now (by the same people who own/run Medjool). And the cost to restore/retrofit/refurbish the Theatre as a live music venue in the same vein as the Fox is likely to be well out of the price range of a private entity intending it as a profit-making venture. The reason that the Fox was done so well (and it really was done brilliantly, it is actually the example used in Archaeology of Standing Buildings courses to illustrate Historical Building restoration and re-use), is that it was done by a non-profit org and bankrolled by donations, many of them from big corporations like BofA.
I would venture to guess that this place is probably going to become an upscale nightclub in the model of Medjool/Ruby Sky, with the music acts being international house/trance dj’s. Basically, what I imagine hell to be like.
Yeah, I have a horrible fear that you might be right. And I could not agree more, re: Vision of Hell.
Let’s stop comparing it to the Fox which is much larger and grandiose, instead how about comparing it to The Independent; a smaller venue with amazing sound and cool people running it.
I’d love to see some live bands in The Mission and I think the Independent model shows that you can have a great venue in a residential area.
I’d totally take an Independent / Slim’s / GAMH type venue.
But to be able to walk home from a show… Damn.
Well, the New Mission is way, WAY larger than the Independent. The Fox is about 50% larger than the New Mission, though.
Hope it’s not like the Fox in terms of sound quality. It’s been great for Oakland in terms of visibility and cross-bay pollination but goddamn does that venue have some atrocious sound.
Wow, really? I’ve been to a bunch of shows there and I have never found the acoustics to be anything but excellent.
Hopfully it won’t have the Fox’s shitty acoustics.
errr. hopefully.
I read the article on the page containing the pictures of the New Mission’s current interior, and was curious about the kinda fugly graffiti covering most of the walls. The author referenced a “rave” that was illegally held there as the source of the graffiti.
There’s a Flickr page that further details the cutting edge, supercool “stick-it-to-the-man” party celebrating one Harrison’s b-day. I’d probably be ok with a bunch of kidz breaking into a historic theater in order to stage some bands and have a knees-up if a) they cleaned up after themselves and b) they didn’t act like rebellious twelve year-olds and trash the place, including creating the shitty “graffiti. But that’s exactly what they did, so fuck em. And fuck their irritating sense of privilege. Nitwits & imbeciles, all of em.
I saw the inside of New Mission a couple of times when it was a Chinese knick-knack shop – went through the “back” of the store – a clothesline and sheet strung across the real entrance, at the ticket booth. This place is huge! With huge potential. It was awesome, surreal with the store’s stock scattered around – think mattresses, ugly headboards and cheap dressers – and painted an ugly green. The bathrooms are huge. The staircase – really blocked off – to the balcony is really wide. It’s designed for a LOT of people moving around and in and out.
The scale and seating layout reminded me of the ACT or Herbst Theater. Some of the detailing gave me a hint of what it once was, an art deco masterpiece. The Golden Gate Theater was once a mess like this, but not as bad. I saw that too, before it got fixed up.
Hey Google zillionaires, here’s a brainstorm: a sweet pet project that will make almost everybody love you. Face it, there’s always someone who won’t. GENTRIFICATION! Oh, that was YOU?
But I thought the New Mission belonged to City College SF – not the sketchy Mejoolies.
Sad that the kids had to fuck it up even more. Does this vandalism remind any of you of someone whose work you so (cough…sketchers sign…cough)….admired? I love the smell of irony in the morning! Can’t say it enough.
However, we can all agree to be relieved that at least the chilldrens didn’t burn it down for kicks, can’t we?