Irving Plaza (known through sponsorship as Irving Plaza, powered by Klipsch and formerly known as the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza) is a ballroom-style music venue located within the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It has been featured on the Complex City Guide list of "50 Best Concert Venues of America" in 2013. Polish Army veterans The building was purchased by the Polish Army Veterans of America District 2 in 1948, and turned into a Polish-American community center. Generals and other distinguished Poles graced its stage including, in 1976, the future Pope John Paul II. Rock venue In 1978, the hall was converted to a rock music venue by future Peppermint Lounge promoters Tom Goodkind and Frank Roccio, who after a year began to share promotional efforts with a "Club 57" crew headed by Jane Friedman and Louis Tropia. Goodkind and Roccio brought in acts such as the B-52s, Talking Heads, the Ramones and, with Friedman and Tropia, a wealth of British bands, establishing the venue as a premier American location for punk and new wave. The venue was reopened by Chuck Terzella in October 1983, with management by Frank Gallagher and the English DJ Andy Dunkley, presenting reggae and other ethnic music, plus college rock, proclaiming in their ads "We don't have video". Terzella's club filed for bankruptcy in December 1985, and closed in June 1986. Chris Williamson, who already promoted the punk and hard rock oriented "Rock Hotel" nights at the Ritz, then took over in November 1986. He began programming alternative rock occasionally using the designation "Rock Motel". A New Year's Eve Rock Hotel show with The Dictators turned nasty after the band initiated a food fight and a bouncer became upset and began beating up some of the patrons. Plans by the Polish Veterans to convert the building to condos fell through. They had to spend $25,000 on bringing the venue up to firecode before, in April 1987, Chris Williamson re-opened the club, featuring improved sound and lights, with an inaugural multi-night stand of Big Audio Dynamite. Williamson continued putting on shows into 1988—including hosting the popular "Milky Way" hip hop nights—but, as Irving Place gentrified, there was increasing local opposition to the hall. A plan by Williamson to present a play in the winter of 1988 fell through and, in December 1988, it was announced that the club would close