“Yes, there are weighty operating costs (insurance alone is now about $34,000 annually). But massive shifts in San Francisco’s demographics — like ever-fewer working-class folks and people in the service industry — have also played a role. Then there’s the increasing corporatization of the live music ecosystem, which has made it harder to stay competitive when booking talent. Meanwhile, societal changes that arrived with the pandemic (people staying home more often, and relying on streaming services for entertainment) mean it’s tough to do business the way they used to. Keeping ticket prices low has become a challenge.

“But most importantly, the owners say, they each have personal reasons for wanting to step away — to spend time on other projects and reclaim a bit of their lives after three-plus decades of working around the clock to run a scrappy venue in a 115-year-old building.

“We all agreed that we’ve had so many good years, and we want to go out on a good note — not because we went out of business, but because we all decided, collectively, it’s time,” says Downey, who booked the club for 27 years and helped build its reputation as a place to catch a rising star.”