Kaiju
1004 E Oak Street Louisville, KY 40204 USA
Replaced Lisa's Oak St. Lounge on December 4, 2014. The opening night showcase would feature Lolo & The Dirty Pillows, The Thumps and Tropical Trash to a crowd of 400+. Harbors a Kaiju/monster aesthetic with a selection of sake and Asian snacks along with the usual beer and mixed drinks. The space also has video games and arcades on site at the time.
In terms of live music Kaiju leaned heavily into indie and experimental with the occasional punk or metal act. The space also hosted pre-fest and afterparty events for Cropped Out, along with the inaugural Fuck That Guy Fest. The space also hosted karaoke, stand-up comedy, spoken word and more. Goofy Dan Alten hosts the "Good Comedy Showcase" one Sunday a month at Kaiju.
In 2020 Kaiju would temporarily rebrand as a grocery store during the pandemic and once things cleared up, would remodel and further embrace the Japan/Kaiju aesthetic. The pool table in the side room would be replaced with sitting booths. The bathrooms would be re-modeled and televisions showing Japanese TV would be in place. For a time Kaiju stopped doing live shows entirely (focusing only on karaoke and comedy) but has since come around to occasional live events.
Notable Performers at Kaiju
Louisville Bands/Musicians
- '97 Flood
- Adventure
- American Lesions
- Andy Matter (With Ten Wet Dollars and solo acoustic)
- Anwar Sadat
- Asm A Tik
- The Archaeas
- Baby Bones (release show)
- Bad Wires
- Batwizard
- Belushi Speed Ball
- Black Birds of Paradise
- Black Kaspar (release show)
- Blind Scryer
- Blind Tigers
- Bungalow Betty
- Comforter
- Color Crush
- The Cut Family Foundation
- The Delighters
- Dry Summers (debut show)
- GRLwood
- Hanoi Jane
- IamIs
- Insect Policy (several times including a cassette release party)
- Isolation Tank Ensemble
- Jaye Jayle
- Kark
- Kids Born Wrong
- Lux
- Mister Goblin
- New Bravado
- Nowhere Fast
- (ohlm)
- Opposable Thumbs
- Overchoice
- Rude Weirdo
- Satellite Twin
- Shitfire
- Shutaro Noguchi
- Slum City
- State Champion
- Sunshine
- Taken Lives
- Tender Mercy
- Total Void
- Tropical Trash
- Tsunami Samurai
- Tycoons of Teen (debut show)
- Ut Gret
- White Woolly
Non-Louisville Bands
- AXIS:Sova
- Come Holy Spirit
- Conan Neutron & The Secret Friends
- Daikaiju
- droneroom
- Guerilla Toss
- Invisible Things
- Lung (Cincinnati)
- Neil Michael Hagerty
- Obnox
- Oozing Wound
- Spray Paint
- Toke