On November 16, 2019, Karman Bar staged its final live music program in its location of Cape Drive before its temporary closure. Back then, it was seeking a new business location. After opening in 2014, the owners of the business Lisa Alley and Erinn Karman encouraged the development of a real-time music scene at the dive bar. Before that, the property was home to a bar named ‘Rocks’, which appeared on the TV program ‘Bar Rescue’ around then.
For your information, Bar Rescue is a television series that ran for 7 seasons on Paramount Network. It is about a nightclub/bar consultant named Jon Taffer, plus his team helping real-life bar owners with their failing businesses.
At the time of its opening, the bar brought culture, a psychological sense of community, and music to southern Orange County. It hosted numerous punk rock shows in the next five years. Agent Orange, Shattered Faith, and Narcoleptic Youth are just three of the Southern California bands that performed live in the bar. Other emerging local bands, like Velvet Merlin, The Sbins, and Vagrant also performed in front of sweaty and energetic audiences in this venue.
As a consistent live venue in the southern part of Orange County, it had been important in offering musicians from the area a platform to perform as well as bringing touring music bands to the area. Anyhow, it had long been beyond just a punk rock music bar. Speakeasy Sundays, Service Industry night and Karaoke night events were regularly held in the property. Lisa Black of OC Weekly also performed once here as part of its Open Mic Night event.
It was unfortunate that the five-year-long lease agreement of the bar ended in November 2019, as its owner Erinn Karman announced through a post on Instagram. Consequently, Karman and Alley were seeking a new business location for the bar. One of their community’s main concerns was whether it would keep hosting live music events in that new location or not. A spokesperson of the business confirmed that it would prioritize live music down the line.
As per the spokesperson, the bar decided not to move to a long distance from its first location. It was seeking a location having good vibes, and one that would react with approval to live music. The spokesperson also said that they would continue to update their faithful customers through their website and social media.
Members of the community took comfort in knowing that the US bar would keep supporting live music, but they wondered whether it could create the one-of-a-kind atmosphere of the first location. Irrespective of which drink specials or music event guests it featured at night, the bar always appeared unpretentious and welcoming.
In an article from 2017 about the establishment, Lisa Black of OC Weekly said that it seemed that it was devoid of douchebags, mainly due to its ownership and administration. It had been among the few bars with female owners who have a lot of experience in the hospitality industry. The owners and their workers have demeanors that implied they would not let people disrespect them. At the same time, they kept the establishment lively and fun. Those had long been central features of the bar.