“Deep End Live”: Work underway to re-open former Brixton’s space at Redondo Pier

by Garth Meyer

The subterranean dance club at the Redondo Beach Pier is about to have a new tenant, after more than 12 years of vacancy.

A project by Joe P. Smith and Daryl Swensson – Smith a co-owner of Project Barley Redondo Beach on the International Boardwalk – “Deep End Live” is the subject of a 10-year lease, expected to open in December as a live music venue in the evenings and a dance club later at night.

Ozonators now fan dust out of the air vents.

The space consists of two rooms, one 4,000 square feet and the other 6,000. “Deep End Live” will open in the smaller room, with a plan to add the larger room within a year.

“It’s a big space. We decided to move in slow. It’s a way for us to get in and get started quicker,” Smith said.

Work to come at the former Brixton’s includes putting in “digital backdrops and a potentially digital dance floor,” Smith said, describing wall screens showing a crashing wave which flows across the screens of the floor.

In decades past, the underground Pier space has been Concerts By the Sea, a jazz iteration in the ‘70s and ‘80s, then Fashions dance club in the late ‘80s to the early ‘90s, Humphrey’s Underground in the ‘90s – 2000s then Brixtons (2008-13).

Swensson first danced at Fashions in 1985 as a 16-year-old.

“I’ve said a number of times, I’m going to own this place,” he said. “So this is a dream come true.”

Capacity is 234 people for the smaller room and 400 for the larger.

“It’ll be the venue and how we rig it that will attract the national acts,” Smith said. “(Booking them) for shows between cities, perhaps a stripped down duo or solo show.”

Smith and Swensson signed the lease July 25.

“I just filed for a liquor license last week,” Smith said. “It could take three months, six months or two weeks. We’re in there now, cleaning it up, so hopefully when they say ‘go’ we’re ready to go. The space was in pretty good shape.” 

Swensson described a deep-sea theme to come, “Jules Verne meets ‘Blade Runner.’ 

“An 11-foot disco mirrored shark,” he said. “They cost more than you would think.”

Smith had been looking at the space since before the pandemic, at the outset of which he put it on the back burner. In the meantime, it was leased, then came on the market again last year.

“It felt like the community was underserved for a music club; we’ve got a lot of bars that play music,” Smith said. “But a pure music venue; it’s not per se a bar; you’re going there to watch a band play or hear a D.J.”

Smith now runs the music at Project Barley Redondo. Originally from Orange County, he worked as a corporate executive in food services such as U.S. Foods for 35 years until he bought “South Bay Pizza” in Redondo Beach in 2021 and sold it a year later. 

With Lomita Project Barley owner Brent Reger – now a co-owner of the Redondo location with Smith – he signed a business deal to provide pizza during the pandemic to the Lomita location, and subsequently opened “Pizza Kraft” next door.

Swensson will handle Deep End Live’s dance-music element. He has put on silent discos and New Year’s Eve events at the former Samba’s on the Redondo Beach waterfront, through his events company Presence Productions, based in Torrance.

For Deep End – “We’re going to put something together; live band, performance artists, hire dancers, then into a D.J. to close the evening. Beautiful music, immersive sound and a performance aspect,” he said.

“We’re excited. It offers something St. Rocke doesn’t; ample parking, they don’t typically have a nightclub D.J.-type set,” Smith said. “We’re going to be offering programming that they aren’t currently. In my opinion, it’s not a competition, we’re just adding something to the South Bay.”

Acts who have played down the stairs at the Redondo Pier include B.B. King, Skid Row, Warrant, Wang Chung, Fishbone, Dick Dale, When In Rome, Lisa Loeb and the Gin Blossoms.

“It has been an iconic music venue with so much rich history,” Swensson said.

He just got back from Burning Man on Monday.

Originally from Torrance, Swensson graduated from South High in 1987, attended Cal State-Long Beach and got a master’s in information technology at Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, N.J.

Today, he works as a cybersecurity executive for his regular job.

He and Smith just brought in an audio engineer to Deep End Live for a sound-mapping exercise.

“We are looking for the highest quality sound and lighting; a cryogenic fog system. I don’t get involved in anything unless I’m going to put my life into it fully, personally and fiscally,” Swensson said. “We’re here to make this thing special.” ER