[3] Club 88 — named after a popular Tokyo nightclub from the early 1960s[3] — was founded in July 1977 by Wayne Mayotte in a rundown former strip club located on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles's Westside.

[4][5] Mayotte, a 57-year-old recently retired engineer at the time, intended to curate jazz lineups, but he quickly found a following hosting acts from the burgeoning New Wave and punk scenes.

Notable acts that took the stage during the club's run include The Blasters,[6] The Motels,[7] Black Flag,[8] the Go-Go's, Social Distortion, Minutemen, the Gun Club, Firehose, Saint Vitus, Jawbreaker, Red Kross, Berlin, and X.

[3] The venue closed its doors in March 1990 after the building that housed it was sold.

[9] It was one of many L.A. punk venues that closed its doors around this time, including Club Lingerie (1991) and Madame Wong's West (1991).