Las Vegas Weekly

The Farm has closed, but Vegas’ all-ages music scene rocks on

Area 702 Skatepark is one of several all-ages music venues still on the scene.

Photo: Corlene Byrd

At 18 months old, the Farm would have been a spring chicken by typical business standards. In the context of Las Vegas’ all-ages music scene, the venue on Rainbow Boulevard in the Southwest Valley was ancient. Was—not is—because as of late September, the venue went the way of so many of its all-ages predecessors. It closed.

Owner Tracy Rader did not return phone calls seeking an official statement, but Farm employee Justin Littlefield says crowd size whittled down until the venue was no longer self-sustaining. Also worth noting: booker Steven “Jewish King” Goldberg’s departure in early August, after what he calls financial and personal disputes with Rader. Littlefield says the Farm was left scrambling to confirm its calendar. For his part, Goldberg credits himself for saving the venue, which he says nearly shut down in June 2009, by taking it from 15-20 bands to twice that per month.

When Rader turned out the lights without announcement after a September 22 show, more than a few folks were apparently left in the dark. Employees of neighboring Living Dead Tattoo report seeing kids and bands turn up for shows they didn’t realize had been canceled. Goldberg and Patrick “Pulsar” Trout, another prolific promoter who books all-ages shows on occasion, picked up the pieces and moved a few, including Cattle Decapitation over Halloween weekend, to different venues in the 11th hour.

“It just disappeared,” Trout says, adding that he’s still receiving calls from young bands trying to salvage scheduled Farm shows or figure out where to book shows now. Goldberg now books for former Farm all-ages rival Area 702 Skatepark in North Las Vegas and helps set up benefit shows at Sanctuary on West Spring Mountain. The Box Office and Yayo Taco still offer all-ages live music, too. And the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip hosted its first all-ages show, featuring metal band Suffocation, in late October—relocated from the Farm by Pulsar.

“The all-ages scene is always going to be there,” says Littlefield, whose Farm-frequenting When Gods Fall, is focused on writing and recording at the moment. They band will figure out where it can play next year.