Goodnight, Irenic

The Irenic, the 70-year-old North Park church building that for the past six years doubled as a 450-capacity music venue, seemed to be the perfect place for headliners who wanted an all-ages venue but were too big for UCSD’s Che Café and who didn’t want to play Soma.

Heavy-hitting locals such as Little Hurricane, the Hot Snakes, Mrs. Magician, and Drive Like Jehu would play for kids who couldn’t get into bars. And Irenic shows sold out with touring headliners such as Youth Lagoon, Ed Ghost Tucker, Tune-Yards, the Faint, the Sonics, and Motor City Devils.

But the curtain is coming down on the Irenic as a rock venue.

“They aren’t taking bookings after December,” says an insider who declined to be identified. “They don’t want live music anymore. I guess they want to rent it out for weddings.”

The insider reckons (but does not know for sure) that the Mission Gathering Church, which owns the building and uses it for church purposes on Sundays, found that it was making a lot less money on its rock-show rentals after it stopped serving alcohol.

“The city put a kibosh on that about a year ago,” says the insider. The outside promoters who rented the Irenic (Tim Mays/Casbah, Cory Stier/Soda Bar) did not share in the profits from alcohol but benefited from increased ticket sales.

A receptionist for the Mission Gathering Church said all questions about the Irenic needed to be answered by facility manager Kyle McMillan, who did not return a request for comment.