, a longtime seller of live and studio-recorded go-go CDs, has confirmed to Arts Desk that its Iverson Mall location in Temple Hills, Md., has closed.
The go-go purveyor will continue to sell new and old recordings via download and mail order “for years to come,” a representative wrote in an email. The business used to have stores in the Forestville Mall and Prince George’s Plaza, but after more than two decades in business, its last physical outpost is gone. “We may reopen somewhere in the future, but there are no immediate plans as of yet,” the store’s representative wrote.
P.A. Palace sold many of the CDs in its store at reduced rates to customers and to others in bulk. Go-go fans have long loved getting live go-go concerts recorded off bands’ power audio (P.A.) soundboard on record, tape, and CD, and P.A. Palace has catered to that need. Its list of recordings includes the likes of the Junkyard Bard‘s Nov. 7, 1988 show at Hillside Firehouse and Northeast Groovers on May 31, 2014 at Icon.
But now, many fans just want digital downloads, and others are satisfied with YouTube videos of shows. In addition to the recordings it sells, P.A. Palace has its own free app and maintains a digital go-go radio station and a go-go news blog.
For those who still want to buy go-go in person on CD, the nearby Kemp Mill Music in Temple Hills sells live and studio go-go releases. Kemp Mill’s Armando Cruz hopes his store gets some of P.A. Palace’s old customers,but he acknowledges that the patrons of each business tend to stay loyal to their respective outlet.