"One of the City's Most Legendary Clubs"

"'It was in the great European tradition of funky music halls,' says Rosanne Cash, who played the Bataclan in 1990. Tucked away in the city's 11th arrondissement, north and east of the major tourist thoroughfares, the venue opened in 1864. It was originally called the Grand Café Chinois in honor of architect Charles Duval's design–a multi-colored imitation pagoda that topped off the building. Eventually renamed after the French operetta Ba-ta-clan, the space presented the famous singer Piaf in some of her earliest performances.

"The venue started booking rock acts in the early 1970s. In 1972, what was intended to be a Cale solo gig turned into a Velvet Underground reunion when Cale invited Reed and Nico to join him for unplugged but thrilling versions of 'Heroin,' 'The Black Angel's Death Song' and 'Femme Fatale,' along with solo Cale and Reed songs."

David Browne at Rolling Stone discusses the history of Paris' La Bataclan, "the site of the worst massacre in rock history."