The Other Door and Sheena Metal Launch ‘Carnyville’

Since opened their doors a few months back, this Burbank Boulevard venue formerly known as Moonshadow has been offering a wide array of entertainment, from pool tournaments to vaudeville to rock and beyond.

Now comes Carnyville, a weekly club that is the brainchild of L.A. radio legend Sheena Metal, long a mainstay on KSLX and now manning the afternoon drive-time slot on L.A. Talk Radio.

“I was doing a night at the Derby,” she said on Carnyville’s opening night with the club quickly filling to capacity. “The people from The Other Door approached me about booking a night of music acts combined with circus acts. The club I’d been booking was called Club Carnivale, and they wanted to do Carnyville, so it was synergistic that we hooked up together.”

Sheena has been booking shows all over town at venues past and present for many years. In 2004. she created Festival of the Egg, an extraordinary all-woman music fest, and also created a “night of songstresses” called Sultry Sirens. Currently she’s working with the owners of the Knitting Factory at their new NoHo venue, .

For her first Carnyville, she assembled the kind of diverse panoply of music for which she’s well known, starting with a solo acoustic set by virtuoso guitarist Robert Longley, followed by pop-rock artist Harley Jay and his band. Next came a chain of amazing bands: Candygram For Mongo, Minus Ned, 27 Miles and L.A. River Swim Team.

“I like to mix it up,” she said with a  smile. “I start acoustic, and build slowly; there is such an amazing wealth of talent in this city, and I love bringing it together.”

Between sets and after, DJ Scott mixed music, so that the tunes went on all night. And when folks got hungry, they could wander outside to enjoy the offerings of the food trucks scheduled to be here each week. On this night there was a bacon truck and a cheese truck.

On this, her 20th year of booking shows in Los Angeles, Sheena loves this opportunity to meet people she’s only previously known online. “I’ve already met two Twitter friends,” she said, “and a Facebook friend.”

A native of New Haven, Connecticut, Sheena has lived in Sherman Oaks for a long time, and revels in bringing good music over the hill.

“It’s nice to see things happening in the Valley,” she said. “I’ve lived here for 20 years and I work for L.A. Talk Radio, which is in Sherman Oaks, so it’s nice to have stuff happening in my neighborhood.”

, 10437 Burbank Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91601 (Just East of Cahuenga Blvd. in the NoHo Arts District.)