For the past decade, Altar Bar, the de-sanctified church turned bar and music venue has been the flagship venue for Drusky Entertainment. This morning, the concert-promotion company announced the end of an era, saying that they will no longer occupy the building.

According to the press release,

"Altar Bar Inc., the current management team of Altar Bar with its exclusive promoter, Drusky Entertainment as well as our wonderful staff regret to inform our loyal patrons, artists, and friends that the facility at 1620 Penn Ave in Pittsburgh is being sold. Due to this unfortunate situation, our lease is expiring. The new buyer has another purpose for the building."

Drusky vice president Josh Bakaitus, who has been personally booking shows at Altar Bar for eight years, tells City Paper in an email that the sale came as a surprise. But the company is taking it in stride: "We have had a very successful year so far and we're looking forward to continuing the momentum."

All Altar Bar events scheduled through July 31 will continued as planned, and a farewell concert series is in the works. Bakaitus notes that while the absence of Altar Bar may open up some opportunities for competing promotion companies,"we are remaining very aggressive with our bookings. Rex Theater has welcomed us with open and loving arms. We're thankful for them as well as Spirit, Cattivo, Smiling Moose and Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall for their support. Any shows you see coming up on our calendar for Altar will be spread among those locations."

In the meantime, Drusky Entertainment welcomes any suggestions for new homes. Again, from the press release:

"So far in 2016, we have averaged twenty-three events per month. We would like to continue our momentum and invite property owners who embrace live music to contact us at [email protected] with any possible concert venue opportunities."

You can read the full press release after the jump.


Bidding Farewell & Celebrating Ten Years of Successful Business at Altar Bar.

Altar Bar Inc., the current management team of Altar Bar with its exclusive promoter, Drusky Entertainment as well as our wonderful staff regret to inform our loyal patrons, artists, and friends that the facility at 1620 Penn Ave in Pittsburgh is being sold. Due to this unfortunate situation, our lease is expiring. The new buyer has another purpose for the building.

First and foremost, we would like to sincerely thank everyone for ten great years of business. Our team feels honored and grateful to have been a part of such growth in Pittsburgh's live music scene.

While preparing for our farewell concert series (details to follow), we are also on a search for a new home. This will give us a chance to improve upon some of the struggles that we have had at our current location due to physical building limitations. In the meantime, we plan on continuing our current schedule of events until July 31. Starting August 1 we will be hosting our events at Rex Theater, Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall, Spirit, Cattivo, Smiling Moose and various other venues throughout Pittsburgh.

So far in 2016, we have averaged twenty-three events per month. We would like to continue our momentum and invite property owners who embrace live music to contact us at [email protected] with any possible concert venue opportunities.

We want to again express our appreciation for all of the amazing memories we've shared. We will cherish them and we hope you will remember them, too.

See you around; we’ll be back.