It’s the final weekend for Mojave Gold
Eleven months after Z107.7fm announced their opening, Mojave Gold announced that they will be closing, with final dinner service this Sunday, May 3. Their Instagram post said, “Some goodbyes are harder than others. This is one of them,” featuring photos of many employees who are no longer with the establishment, including Cooper Gilespie and Greg Gordon who opened the fine dining and music venue with an ambitious spirit last May.
“It was never about the money for us,” said Gordon. “It was more about ‘what can we do for our community,’ and this was it, and I thought it was doing really well.”
“With the announcement that it was closing, no one was more surprised than us,” added Gilespie with a laugh.
Local musician and promoter Palo Xanto held his monthly Homestead Sessions at the venue. He said Mojave Gold’s closing is a good lesson of perception: how a business might appear successful but what happens with numbers and investors behind the scenes is a different story.
“It’s a bit discouraging and disappointing. I don’t blame the owners at all. I know it was a huge venture and they had huge overhead and they were pretty transparent about that from the beginning, that it was a lot to take on, which I could only imagine. The place is beautiful: to the sound, the stage is nice, the whole restaurant as well. So I think it’s a huge loss for the community, as far as being one of that caliber,” said Palo.
Z107.7’s own Pat Kearns of the Local Music Showcase also frequented the club’s “respectable stage” with his folk-duo The Kearns Family. Because Kearns interacts with many musicians and business owners, he said the word on the street was daunting, if not confusing, given the venue’s popularity.
“I just heard rumors along the way. You know, when the people in charge and management start changing around you start to wonder. And that’s never good for anything in the business world… The best thing about Mojave Gold was that the community actually came out to support local bands. It almost seemed like they did better with local acts than the national acts,” said Kearns.
Jesika Von Rabbit, who played the club just last weekend when the closing was announced, said she had a feeling it was closing, but it wasn’t for lack of local enthusiasm:
“It was packed. The restaurant was packed, the venue side was packed, drinks were flowing and people were having a great time. It was thriving. So it’s a real head scratcher to see that and then know that it’s closing. It’s definitely disheartening to see this prominent and popular music venue close its doors. The desert is alive and abundant with talent and creativity and there’s just not enough spaces out here to hold court… Music is community. Music waters our soul and we need extra watering out here in the desert, cause this could be a lonely place without the camaraderie that the music scene brings. I hope somebody figures something out. We don’t need some fancy super L.A.-style venue, we just need something comfortable and affordable where people can get together and hear music,” said Rabbit.
Jesika, Pat and Palo all agreed musicians don’t need anything lavish but that trust and respect is key. Kearns says bands want a respectful stage, good sound, and management that treats musicians fairly. Palo added that a venue’s trusted reputation adds an anchor to a musician’s often existential navigation. While Mojave Gold may have delivered on these essentials, the hi-desert’s often isolating vastness and fluctuating economics may continue to be a challenge for whatever business fills its void as a community music headquarters.
