After sitting empty for a year and a half, The Paramount in Boyle Heights is open to live music once more, and KCRW DJ José Galván has been tapped to curate its upcoming shows.
The Paramount is one of LA’s longest-running performing arts spaces, and remains the city’s last surviving ballroom venue.
“It's been everything from a dance studio, a radio station, a punk club in the 70s and 80s, and a quinceanera hall, as you would expect in the city of Boyle Heights,” Says Galván.
“Acts that typically would just fly over Boyle Heights, they'd go to Hollywood or play bigger venues, we're trying to bring them here,” says Galván. Photo credit: Farah Sosa.
The venue has hosted Stevie Wonder, Sonny and Cher (who used to live above the venue, says Galván), Black Flag, Celia Cruz, and Don Tosti over the years. With his music bookings, Galván wants to bring accessible and all-encompassing shows catered to the neighborhood.
“You've heard the Latinx term used. Then there's Latin, there's various ways. But then from Boyle Heights, you also get the leftover Chicano Power Movement, people who still identify like that,” he says. “So there's a lot of differences and a lot of diversity within the community. And we're trying to bridge that.”
Upcoming shows include Mexican punk artist Silverio on December 10, LA-based Buyepongo on December 18, and Mexican indie songstress Silvana Estrada on February 11.