Knitting Factory   

When it first opened on East Houston Street in 1987, the Knitting Factory could hardly have been a more modest arrival: The former Avon office was so run-down that it was nearly christened 'The Dump.' Before long, though, the Knit had become the gravitational center for a then-burgeoning downtown music community best exemplified by iconoclastic saxophonist John Zorn. Much has changed since those early days: Zorn has decamped, founder Michael Dorf no longer calls the shots, and the club itself now occupies a multilevel building on Leonard Street in Tribeca. But a can-do ethos and independent spirit still reign at the Knit, which opens its doors to a nightly parade of indie-rockers, local bands on the rise, and avant-garde jazz groups. On busy nights, the club can seem like a circus fun house, with fans clogging the stairwell and music blaring from four separate stages. Chaotic but hardly unkempt, the Knit still serves as an anchor downtown. -- Nate Chinen