Music Review: Success at Complex isn’t all that simple

The scene in Glendale on Jan. 29 was the stuff that nightclub owners dream about: a headlining set by electronic supergroup the Black Queen had been sold out for weeks, even as fans still hoped to get into the intimate, darkly lit club called Complex.

The band was a new trio with Greg Puciato (the Dillinger Escape Plan), Joshua Eustis (Nine Inch Nails) and Steven Alexander, a highly respected guitar tech for several major touring acts. A debut album, “Fever Daydream,” was being released the same day, and critics were already taking notice.

The gig at Complex would be the Black Queen’s first show ever, and anyone without a ticket would have to miss out.

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Complex co-owner John Giovanazzi gave his clientele the bad news on Facebook: “Attention everyone. There are no more tickets for tonight. None for sale, none for guest list, none for just sneaking in, none for walk up if a ticket buyer no show ... We even got rid of the DJ because that means one more space for a customer. Which is long gone. So there are zero tickets available. None.”

It was the sort of bad news that any club promoter would love to share, and for Giovanazzi it marked a reassuring peak in the recent history of Complex, which celebrates its third anniversary in Glendale at its regular “Alternative Karaoke” night this Monday. Admission is free.

“We’re excited about where we’re at, but we still have goals and still have plans to do more things,” says Giovanazzi. “We want to economically grow and branch out into more styles and things that we do. Three years feels like a million years, and it feels like three months at the same time.”

The club on Colorado Avenue was once known as the Scene and regularly booked new rock bands. Likewise, Complex is a rare venue in Glendale to host forward-looking rock, electronic and dance music that is normally booked in the nightclubs of Silver Lake, Echo Park and the Sunset Strip.

One of the first hurdles Complex faced was drawing the audience away from established music venues like Echoplex out to Glendale, which some patrons seemed to believe was more distant than the reality.

“That’s finally going away,” Giovanazzi says. “You go out and people recognize you from the bar at other places, or you hear people talking about it. I still meet people who I’m surprised have heard of it or have been there. That really started to pick up in the last six to nine months. It’s frustrating it took that long. As fast as the Internet gets information out instantly, that crucial word of mouth reputation still takes a while.”

Giovanazzi first built his music reputation as the promoter behind the Los Angeles industrial/synth/goth club Das Bunker, and that abrasive style of music plays a big part of the Complex calendar, including Marie Davidson, coming to the venue March 18. Other acts coming up include Leaether Strip on April 8 and Combichrist on April 9.

He describes the weekly karaoke night as the club’s version of the “our neighborhood ‘Cheers.’ People from the neighborhood wander over to hang out and have a beer and socialize with each other.”

The specialized list of songs is not the usual karaoke playlist, he points out. “We’re not going to have a lot of current Top 40 or pages and pages and pages of country that you see at most of these karaoke places. There will be a lot of new wave and a lot of ‘80s and ‘90s alternative and stuff like that. Our karaoke guys makes his own tunes — so there’s a lot of weird show tunes, a couple of pages of Morrissey.”

Meanwhile, the Complex name is slowly spreading beyond the confines of Glendale, earning a growing reputation in music circles around the world.

Recently, a music fan based in Belgium happened to pass through and recognized the atmosphere as a place designed for listeners like himself. “He was like ‘Oh, I’ve heard so much about this place because of all the acts that come though here,’ and he was looking at the gig posters we have up front for upcoming stuff. He said, ‘I wish this bar was in my hometown. I would come to 10 or 15 events up here right now!’”

For Giovanazzi, that kind of reaction is a payoff for the three years of effort (which followed another nearly two years of preparation and negotiation with the city).

“It’s a really nice perspective on things when people from halfway around the world are looking at what you’re doing with a bit of an envious angle — for us, it’s just doing the things that we do.”

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What: Complex third anniversary, “Alternative Karaoke”

When: Monday, March 7

Where: Complex 806 E. Colorado St., Glendale

Tickets: Free

More info: (323) 642.7519, complexla.com

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Steve Appleford, steve.appleford@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveAppleford

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