Melnā Piektdiena

The venue grew out of the legendary series of Black Friday concerts, which have been held in Riga since the early 1990s, whenever the 13th day of a month falls on a Friday. A series of Latvian metal music compilation CDs were released under the club's name. Since the same promoters staged the metal shows and produced the compilation records, they decided to use an already established name for the CDs. The club is located in an industrial area, between the railway and RVR factory, at 193c Brīvības Street, close to central Riga.

The club opened on Friday, May 13, 2006, with a show by the leading Latvian, technical, death metal band Neglected Fields, whose front man, Sergejs "Destruction" Kustovs, became a co-owner of the venue. Since its first event, Melnā Piektdiena has become the linchpin of the Latvian metal music scene.

Despite its official capacity of only 666 guests (which can be updated to 1000 concertgoers if the bar and smoking area capacities are counted in), the cult reputation of the club attracts world-famous foreign metal bands, as well as local and Baltic musicians. The club also embraces other genres of music, including gothic, progressive rock, electronic, and industrial music among others.

The following list might be incomplete. Some of the bands mentioned below have played Melnā Piektdiena more than once.

The venue also hosts the annual Latvian Metal Music Awards ceremony. The club, while primarily devoted to extreme music, is open to all kinds of shows and promoters of all types of bands, projects, and genres, including: electronic music, house, hip hop, dubstep etc.

There is a tradition, after playing Melnā Piektdiena for the first time, foreign band members are asked to autograph an A4 photo of themselves, which is then framed and permanently hung at the wall near the bar.

In the early hours of the parliamentary election day, September 17, a local electronic dance music DJ and event promoter Aļiks Kalašņikovs was murdered outside the club while leaving the venue. Following a drunken brawl in a parking lot, the victim was shot seven times in the stomach with an illegally modified gun and died fifteen minutes later.[6] The killer, Alfrēds Guže, who at age 29 already had six previous convictions for armed robberies, aggravated assaults, and burglary, was arrested by the police four days later in part because of testimony by Melnā Piektdiena staff and other eyewitnesses. He was found guilty of manslaughter and is currently serving his 9-year and 3-month sentence that includes an added year for another felony committed earlier.[7]

• Melnā Piektdiena