Let us repeat that.
Holy shit.
Please excuse our language and the lateness of reporting that Big Snow has officially closed its doors, but our staff had been divided between San Diego Comic Con and Pitchfork Fest when we first heard the news that the venue was shut down. A few days prior we'd seen tweets about flooding and the usual array of problems that come with running your own venue and (wrongly) assumed it was a logistical issue that led to the closing. Never in a million years would we expect it to be for reasons that are much, much worse.
As reported by Dale Eisinger in the Village Voice, co-owner Yoni David was shot last Wednesday, July 17 after checking on an “un-related” argument outside the venue. Inside, Courtship Ritual and FASANO were scheduled to play, but soon the venue was filled with police and detectives. The EMT arrived within 10 minutes and Yoni was carted away. Though he has a shattered left arm, Yoni is very lucky to be alive; doctors have informed him that had the bullet gone another inch into his abdomen, he would certainly be dead from internal bleeding.
“I don't think anybody can have the same affinity for that place now,” Yoni says from his Bellevue bed. Venue co-founder Daniel Arnes put it much more bluntly.
“The instant I cleaned up my best friend's blood off the floor I made the decision to close,” Arnes says. “Nothing is worth that.”
