Philly's L&I, or Licensing and Inspections department, is notorious for shutting down indie venues. It happened to a performance space a friend was running a few years ago out of his machine-shop-turned-apartment, it happened more recently to The Ox (whose ads wouldn't give an address but stated "Ask a cool friend"), and it has happened to countless others. Yet these bright and doomed flashes of light keep popping up. At first it really is a secret venue, and only those most "in the know" go (I am most definitely not part of that crowd). Then word spreads beyond the cliques the space was designed for, and it starts gaining mention on blogs and Facebook. Sometimes the unlicensed venue gets bold enough to actually advertise. And before you know it: bam! L&I. No more shows. I'm neither for nor against these places. It's admirable that people keep setting up these unofficial venues, and it's inevitable that they'll get shut down.
The most recent such case appears to be Book Space, in Fishtown. They will continue operating as a book store (which is what they're officially sanctioned to do), but will stop hosting indie rock shows. At least "for the time being" - and by the way, they ALL say "for the time being" when they're shut down, and none of them ever manage to follow through on that.
WXPN's blog has the story: http://thekey.xpn.org/2011/09/li-cracks-down-on-diy-venue-bookspace/
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