The Fire began in 1999 when Karen Lauria Saillant, opera singer, director and voice coach, took the pool table out of the room of The Philadelphia Bar & Grille—her husband’s shot and beer bar—and replaced it with a tiny stage where her original music singing students could perform. Over the years, Saillant worked with Quest Love, Mutlu, G Love and his Special Sauce band, Amen Dunes, David Cope and other artists there. The Fire quickly became a pioneering rock club and today is the oldest family-owned original music venue in Philly, and a part of one of the most thriving music scenes on the East Coast.

Our stage has hosted John Legend, My Chemical Romance, Maroon 5, Jason Mraz, OK GO, Iron and Wine, Amos Lee, Cold War Kids, Rilo Kiley, Tegan and Sara, Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead, Santigold, Damien Rice, Dr. Dog, Schooly D, Sun Ra and The Archestra, and more.

The Fire is also one of Philly’s only female owned venues with a reputation as an artist-friendly establishment with a passion for developing new talent—local, touring and international. The Fire will soon be organizing “exchange” tours, where Philly’s top talent performs in Italy and Italy’s best musicians perform in the USA. The historic venue also hosts professional development and networking events, and is Philly’s first virtual reality broadcasting venue.

We are proud to host one of the longest running and most passionately supported open mics in Philly on Mondays. In fact, it was at our open mic in 2003 where John Legend started his career.

With regular shows and Woman Crush Wednesday #wcw once a month, we feature glam rock, shoe gaze, EDM, rock, folk, country, indie rock, punk, goth, heavy metal and everything in between. Most shows we host are 21+.