Zanzabar
Zanzabar (also known simply as ZBar) is a venue and barcade. Originally known as a dive bar named Zanzibar from 1938 to the 1980s, Zanzabar would open in 2008 as a space for pinball tournaments, dining and performing acts both local and touring. With a distinctive "Z" marked on the front of the building and it's 70s style decor, Zanzabar would go on to build a reputation as one of Louisville's most popular venues. While largely hosting indie and local acts, Zanzabar has on occasion hosted bands eliciting heavy, punky, psychedelic or experimental sounds.
Zanzibar would be founded in 1938 on 2100 S. Preston St. in Louisville, just north of Eastern Parkway. The original space was largely a bar and diner for the local residents, noted by it's distinctive "Z" on the building. In the 1980s the original Zanzibar would close and the space would largely be used for other purposes. The bar remained, but the business focused on catering and restaurant operations as Nord’s Brown Bag.
In 2008 the space would be leased by Anthony “Antz” Wettig, who co-owns the venture with brother Jon Wettig and longtime friend Mike Wilson. Along with re-establishing an identity for the venue, the trio would work to restore the face of the structure. They removed awnings and stripped away wood to discover tiles that were installed in the 1950s and were damaged in places, fixing the tiled facade and keeping the original Z that that remained.
Working with Production Simple and Vectortone among other promoters, Zanzabar would host their earliest known shows in 2009 once officially opening that July. In 2017, Zanzabar would remodel and expand their concert space, doubling the capacity to roughly 400.
On 28 June 2023 Zanzabar would celebrate their fifteenth anniversary.
Selected List of Performers at ZBar
Louisville Bands
- Anagnorisis
- Anwar Sadat
- Asm A Tik
- Baby Bones
- Black Birds of Paradise
- Black God
- Black Kaspar
- Blind Tigers
- Bungalow Betty
- By The Grace Of God
- Catherine Irwin
- Creeps Inc.
- Deady
- Freakwater
- GRLwood
- HIRT
- Humongous
- Indignant Few
- Insect Policy
- Jaye Jayle
- Jonathan Glen Wood
- King Kong
- New Bravado
- The Mighty Auroch
- Old Baby
- (ohlm)
- Opposable Thumbs
- Parlour
- the Photographic
- Prayer Line
- Quiet Hollers
- Raw Thug
- R. Keenan Lawler
- Sapat
- Savage Master
- Satellite Twin
- Shitfire
- Shutaro Noguchi
- Sick City Four
- State Champion
- Straight A's
- Sunshine
- Ten Wet Dollars
- Twin Limb
- Vibrolas
- Vice Tricks
- Volcandra
- Watter
- White Reaper
- White Woolly
- Young Widows
Regional / Touring Bands
- Adrian Belew
- Agent Orange
- Animal City
- Bell Witch
- Bernie Worrell
- Dale Crover
- Daisy Chain
- Dax Riggs
- Detroit Cobras
- Diahrrea Planet
- Earth
- Goatwhore
- Grails
- JEFF The Brotherhood
- Jesse Malin & the St. Marks Social
- J Mascis
- Jon Spencer & The HITMakers
- King Buzzo
- Kylesa
- La Luz
- Le Butcherettes
- Lee Ranaldo
- Lightning Bolt
- Mac Sabbath
- Maserati
- Mike Watt & The Missingmen
- Pallbearer
- Redd Kross
- Shellac
- TOBACCO
- Voivod
- Wooden Wand
- Xiu Xiu
Notes
- Zanzabar has also been host to festivals such as Louisville Experimental Festival and Seven Sense Festival.
- One Parlour show was notable for the last known live performance of Jon Cook and also involved a confrontation between him and Ron Whitehead.
- Various local bands have hosted reunion shows at Zbar, such as By The Grace Of God (2015, 2018), Indignant Few (2022) and The Photographic (2023) among others.