Report: Live music ends for now at Elvis Underground

Elvis Guesthouse, which has hosted some pretty good shows since opening back in February, is temporarily suspending its live music program, The Village Voice reports.

The bar, located in a subterranean space at 85 Avenue A between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street, has reportedly been drawing complaints from residents who live in the building.

Elvis Guesthouse co-owners Zachary Mexico and Billy Jones, who operate Baby's All Right in Williamsburg, were also behind the previous occupant here, Arrow Bar, which closed in January.

Per Mexico in the Voice:

"There was a bar there that wasn’t very busy, but then it became a bar that was pretty busy, and people were not used to having people out there and they got upset – that’s it. Anywhere where the real estate value – both of commercial rent and apartment rent – is this high, it’s always going to be difficult. Neighbors complain. And when neighbors complain all kind of other stuff starts happening."

He hopes to come to some resolution with neighbors and the live music by the end of the year.

Back to the Voice:

"Our landlords are not bad people. They’re just trying to protect their tenants. And the tenants aren’t bad people, they just live in a building on a crowded street and don’t like people hanging around smoking and being loud. Everything can be worked out. Everything can always be worked out."

Tonight's concert featuring Wild Moth and Perfect Pussy is still on… and it will be the last for now.

This is a busy stretch of Avenue A, with people waiting for tables at Thai hotspot Somtum Der above Elvis Guesthouse as well as next door at sushi restaurant Takahachi and the live music venue Drom below that.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Comeback special: Arrow Bar owners opening Elvis Guesthouse on Avenue A

Elvis Guesthouse officially ready for occupancy tonight

Comeback special: Arrow Bar owners opening Elvis Guesthouse on Avenue A

[85 Avenue A]

Arrow Bar, the subterranean space with a good happy hour at 85 Avenue A between East Fifth Street and East Sixth Street, closed last month.

The same owners (who also run Baby's All Right in Williamsburg) have now turned the space into a venue called Elvis Guesthouse. There was a soft opening this past Friday night featuring DJs and the Los Angeles-based punk duo Girlpool. Brooklyn Vegan has a rundown on the show with a lot of photos.

And this arrived in our inbox last week...

On August 16, 1977, the morning after Elvis Presley theoretically met his end on the toilet in Graceland, a chubby man in a white linen suit and an ill-fitting blonde wig bought a one way ticket from Memphis to Istanbul. He paid in cash and used the name John Burrows.

Once he arrived in Turkey, he bounced around the hippie trail, hitchhiking from Tehran to Peshawar, Kabul to Lahore, Delhi to Goa, Kathmandu to Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Instead of staying in the finest hotels, where he would have certainly been noticed, he bunked in guesthouses, small lodgings run by local families and foreign Heads.

In 1979, political changes in the Middle East put an end to the hippie trail. John had grown tired of his nomadic lifestyle and settled on the outskirts of Kathmandu, where he opened a small bar inspired by his years spent in guesthouses. He named it ELVIS GUESTHOUSE.

After the place had been open for a year, John disappeared one day. A gin soaked journalist claimed to have spotted him on the beach in Occupied Cambodia, and others said that he had made his way into the ethnic minority areas of Southwest China. Eventually, the building was demolished to make way for a shopping mall. But a few photos of the bar survived, and we have created its exact replica here.

We haven't heard anything just yet about an official opening date for the bar.