Music
Playing Friday, 1st: The Basement 3-Year Anniversary w/The Selmanaires. Altered Statesman, Old Ceremony, The Clutters, Hotpipes, & more—free entry for first 100
If there is a one-stop-shop for music in this town, it’s probably that small brick building on Eighth Avenue. Housing Grimey’s New and Preloved Music and The Basement in, yup, the basement, this structure is something of a mini music empire. Drawing an ever-changing parade of Nashvillians—from confused Vandy kids to local scenesters to veteran strummers and even the occasional tax-evading Belle Meade piano man—The Basement celebrates three years under Mike Grimes and partner Geoff Donovan’s control this weekend with a stacked lineup.
Grimes took over booking and managing The Basement after the death of his venue The Slow Bar (located in what is now 3 Crow Bar). “Basically, I had somebody call and ask me if I could help set up a show—just some random person,” says Grimes. “So I called around and I couldn’t find anything. And the last thing I thought of was The Basement. So, I called Steve West, who owns the building and started The Basement and does a bunch of other stuff. Then it dawned on me to come over and look at the open upstairs space—we were looking for a new home for Grimey’s. So, we came over, took a look and it was perfect. We moved into there 4-and-a-half years ago this May.”
At that point, The Basement was only doing two or three nights a week of live music. Grimes started booking the occasional show, and eventually, he decided to get a business partner and just lease the whole thing.
From the beginning, Grimes had no particular niche in mind for this small club. “It was just a continuation of the Slow Bar,” he says. “I really love doing music and wanted to keep doing what I had done over there. And here we are, three years later.”
The Basement has hosted some noteworthy shows over those short years: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, a triple bill of Tapes ’N Tapes, Figurines and Cold War Kids, secret midnight shows with local Americana heroes David Rawlings and Gillian Welch (with surprise guest Norah Jones). There have also been some strange evenings: Leslie & The LY’s with their gem sweater revolution, rock megaman Thor, L.A. space punk innovators and overall weirdos Zolar X.
“I try to be niche-free,” says Grimes. “And I am definitely open to booking things that are interesting—but as I’m saying that, I’m thinking about all these crazy indie rock bands that merit booking, but I know they just wouldn’t draw anybody. I check MySpace pages—I get over 1,000 requests a month now—and I’ll go to these pages and think, ‘this is really cool but, if I book that act, there is no way anybody is going to come out.’ I can only beat the bushes on so many shows or people will just think I’m full of shit. “
Grimes won’t need to beat the bushes for Friday’s lineup. Local favorites Hotpipes, The Clutters, Altered Statesman and more team up with out-of-towners—including ever-entertaining Atlanta nerd rockers The Selmanaires—for a thick bill of awesome. Let’s hope Geoff goes easy on the Tuaca.
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