My old dive burned down...

[Killing Floor]

I practically grew up at 688 in Atlanta. The day it closed was heartbreaking and the city still memorializes it with "reunion" events. Saw so many legends including Iggy Pop, REM (nearly every Tuesday I recall), Played there many times. I met my five at Game Theory and a few days later the final headliner was Gone (ironic?). Now there is a walk-in clinic.

 

[Joebone]

Philadelphia - Bacchanal, the best dive bar ever! Owner Joe Tiberino, recently deceased, was an artist who had wild paintings and paper-mache bas-reliefs, beautifully sculpted and painted, depicting either social justice themes, or Dionysian scenes of alcoholic and sexual excess, on the walls. Two long, parallel rooms, on a block that was two decades short of the adjacent gentrification; one room was the bar, the other was for music. I played there with a range of bands, including a latin-brazilian jazz group that I fronted, as a trombonist, from 1979 through 1985. My favorite nights there were sitting in, usually after finishing rich-folks society gigs at some downtown hotel, with a fabulous dance band called Philly Gumbo, that was dedicated to bringing creole and New Orleans dance music (think Dr. John and the Neville Brothers) to the people. I'd be in a tux, the band in Afro/Voodoo/Reggae regalia, and it was all glorious, grooving and good!

Weirdest memory: a three-band bill, and I was in all three bands...my chops and my liver were shot the next morning!

Here are some links:

Bacchanal

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. (See #6, and can also vouch for #2, the Khyber Pass, where my band often played...the manager, a Pakastani-American son of the original owner, turned out to be a full-on Islamist terrorist in the early Oughts...)

Philly Gumbo, pioneers of New Orleans music in Philadelphia, returns to Mt. Airy - The Philadelphia Sunday Sun. (last few paragraphs cover the band's long residency at Bacchanal).

Artist Joseph Tiberino, former owner of the Bacchanal, has died at 77

Bacchanal provided a wonderful scene where artists, musicians and writers regularly hung out and cross-pollinated. It was a big part of my formative years. I'm sorry it no longer exists, but treasure all that I got from those wonderful times - even when I got tossed by a new bouncer who didn't know my history with the place (we later became quite friendly).

RIP, Joe Tiberino and Bacchanal!

 

[JW56789]

No chicken wire for the stage?

Chicken wire ? Chicken Wire ?

Hell, I played a place with floor to ceiling chain-link-fence, floor to ceiling. Chicken wire would have never held up when the fights started, they'd bounce off the fencing like wrestlers bouncing back across the ring off the top rope !

And I wonder why I never got anywhere playing . . . . .

 

[fhm555]

No ‘brewpub’ can replace or recreate 70 years of vibe.

Vibe is for the benefit of patrons and most of my bar experience has been as hired help working for cash to help create that vibe on demand.

Here's one still showing no sign of flagging, but it's in the same city as UAB so until UAB finally buys up the property it's on, or an act of God, it's most likely going to be there. Some of the best live shows I ever saw where in this shithole.

The Nick - Birmingham's Dirty Little Secret - Upcoming Shows

 

[Killed_by_Death]

CBGB of course comes to mind.

I spent some time walking around that part of town & lamenting that I never made it there during their heydays, same of the Chelsea hotel. I stood outside & imagined Dee Dee Ramone's spirit was looking down at me:

He wrote a book about the place:

 

[Admiral Thrawn]

The original location is gone, not sure what became of it, but yeah, spent more time here when I was in high school than I'd like to admit.

Koos Café: Orange County's All-Ages Musical Feast

 

[Hundred proof]

Tiny old dive that had music almost every night (for tips only) what memories we hosted the “Blues Tuesdays” jam there for about 3 years. A combination of bad management and the Wonder Bread bakery on the same block closing (that killed of the lunch and after work happy hour crowds) people still talk about that place.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Not sure why I just thought of it, but there was a club down South of here that was booking bands we loved in the 80s.
They closed in the mid-90's.

I remember seeing Testament there with Vio-Lence & Chuck Billy remarked that he liked the name of the club.
It was The Iroquois!

 

[delta7fred]

It's a bummer when that happens.

The first place I ever played back in 1968 (and many more times during the next few years) is still standing but stopped having bands on about 30 years ago.

We had some great nights there, playing, watching other bands, and chasing girls of course. I drive past it regularly and always felt a bit sad as it brings back the memories.

Then last year they had a one off fund raising dance there and our band got the gig. It took me back to that first gig except I've had 50+ years gigging to get a bit better and we had enough songs to play 3 nights without repeating anything rather than playing songs from the first set as a "requests" in the last set because we had run out of numbers.

 

[Johnny StingRay]

There's a couple of them. In Brighton Michigan we used to play at a place called the Main Event. (This was around 1979, early 1980). A lot of bikers hung out there but they were just there to have a good time with no trouble. Had a lot of good times there. Place burned down maybe 10 or 15 years ago.

Another place was in Waterford Michigan called Jaggers. Great place, played there a lot and lots of memories. Torn down maybe 15 years ago and now there's a strip mall there.

There was another place that burned down. Can't even begin to remember the name.

..........we are almost neighbors.....remember Center Stage in Canton, Michigan???? Not burned down or anything, just torn down and replaced with an Ikea or something!!!!
George Thorogood and the Destroyers played there one time and oh my gosh did the beer flow that night!!!

 

[shadven]

My first regular joint burned down. So many great gigs, epic fights, wild woman, drugs, kind and wonderful people. A complete and awesome dive.

 

[The Owl]

My favorite L.A. clubs from the 80's where I used to gig are gone

Blue Lagune Saloon in Marina Del Rey - demolished and replaced with a surf shop

Madame Wongs West - became a restaurant, I think

 

[iiipopes]

We had a famous bar where I lived that we played regularly. It burned last year (probably kitchen fire). Because it was built and added onto piecemeal, nothing met current code, and nothing supported a partial rebuild. So it was razed. Fortunately, a new bar in another part of town was built and opened in another part of town, and we gig there a few times each year. A new place to play will present itself.

 

[Mike JV]

..........we are almost neighbors.....remember Center Stage in Canton, Michigan???? Not burned down or anything, just torn down and replaced with an Ikea or something!!!!
George Thorogood and the Destroyers played there one time and oh my gosh did the beer flow that night!!!

Hey Johnny! I remember Center Stage very well because I played there on a few occasions! We opened up for John Kay and Steppenwolf and played there for a week at a time at least 3 times. Shared the bill with other bands as well a couple of times. Great place to play!

 

[Mike JV]

Chicken wire ? Chicken Wire ?

Hell, I played a place with floor to ceiling chain-link-fence, floor to ceiling. Chicken wire would have never held up when the fights started, they'd bounce off the fencing like wrestlers bouncing back across the ring off the top rope !

And I wonder why I never got anywhere playing . . . . .

I remember playing one night in a rough part of Detroit wishing there was a chain link fence. Some guy about 15 feet from us was drunk out of his mind, grabbed one of those heavy glass beer mugs and threw it at us. I was looking to the side just as he threw it and when I looked forward I actually saw it go past me. Missed my head by about an inch. I'm not kidding! I actually felt the breeze as it flew by. The guy then passed out in a heap on the floor.

Seen more than my share of brawls in some bars we played. I mean some were beyond brutal.