House of Independents in Asbury Park will reopen this summer, it has announced.
One of Asbury Park’s leading nightclubs, House of Independents, closed in September because of flooding damage, and announced in November that it would remain closed “for the foreseeable future.” But an early summer reopening is now planned, under new ownership, with show announcements likely to begin next week. (APRIL 15 UPDATE: 14 shows have now been announced. See them HERE.)
“We’re looking to bring everything,” said Claude Elie, who co-owns Concert Crave, the Elizabeth-based company that now owns and operates House of Independents.
“We know how iconic and cultural the area and House of Independents is, and we want to keep that. We’re not looking to come in there and completely change anything. You’re going to see everything from rock shows — metal, indie rock, punk, emo — and some hip hop … you’ll see some country: We want to tap into country a bit more and bring that to the venue. And you’ll also see a lot of private events, and corporate events. We’re going to do rentals for, like, birthday parties, and photo shoots, podcast events, comedy: The place didn’t really do much comedy, so we’re definitely looking to bring a lot of comedy.”
Concert Crave owns Crave Cave in Elizabeth and The Webster in Hartford, and has presented shows at many other venues, including The Wellmont Theater in Montclair, The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, and House of Independents itself.
Elie said he and his partner Julian Gellman “have been in the business for, like, 20 years, but the brand and the company Concert Crave was established in 2017. We’re New Jersey-based, but we basically produce live events and concerts throughout the entire country, from here to Florida to a bit in the Midwest.”
At House of Independents, he said, “We would just lease and rent the building out for events. We probably produced over 50 events at the House of Independents in the past three years, prior to the flooding. So we’re very familiar with the venue. We’re very familiar with the area and the whole state and the scene.”
Work on repairing the flood damage started about a month ago, Elie said. “The place had, like, four feet of water. So we had to tear down all the walls. A lot of the production equipment got damaged. So we are putting up new walls. We’re getting a lot more sound and lighting equipment into the venue and we’re improving on what was already, originally there. You will see most of the difference in the sound, and the lights, and just the decor of the place.”
For updates, visit houseofindependents.com.
CONTRIBUTE TO NJARTS.NET
Since launching in September 2014, NJArts.net, a 501(c)(3) organization, has become one of the most important media outlets for the Garden State arts scene. And it has always offered its content without a subscription fee, or a paywall. Its continued existence depends on support from members of that scene, and the state’s arts lovers. Please consider making a contribution of any amount to NJArts.net via PayPal, or by sending a check made out to NJArts.net to 11 Skytop Terrace, Montclair, NJ 07043.
