Venue: Knitting Factory
Town: Manhattan, US

The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment and is co-owned and co-operated by Knitting Factory Entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States. The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, performance art, standup comedy, and musicians who transcended the usual boundaries of rock and jazz, often experimental music. The Knitting Factory owners distributed some performances to radio stations, and around 1990 starting a radio show and the record label Knitting Factory Works. Later the founders started Knitting Factory Records in 1998. The Knitting Factory was founded by Michael Dorf and Louis Spitzer in 1987. It was named by Dorf's and Spitzer's childhood friend Bob Appel and songwriter Jonathan Zarov, who derived the name through joking about Appel's experience working in an actual knitting factory. Appel, a lifelong musician, joined as a co-owner and co-manager soon after its founding. John Zorn was heavily associated with the creative direction of the club in its earliest years. The original location was in Manhattan at 47 East Houston Street, near to CBGB and within walking distance of The Bottom Line. The venue was founded as an art gallery, with a performance space and cafe, as well as a home for experimental music. Within a few years, the venue relocated to a new Manhattan location at 74 Leonard St, which featured a much larger main hall that generally showcased independent rock and pop music, and two smaller subterranean stages that were initially dedicated to avant garde music. Since 1990, the Knitting Factory has sponsored the What is Jazz? Festival, a two-week long event in several locations in New York City. The event became so successful that its name was changed to the New York Jazz Festival. Knitting Factory Records was later founded in 1998. Dorf opened a new club location in Los Angeles in 2000 under the former parent company of Knitting F