In the fall, Nashville Film Festival patrons got a first look at The Day the Music Stopped, a documentary directed by Patrick Sheehan and produced by journalist and broadcaster Demetria Kalodimos. The film focuses on the conflict between independent music venues and massive corporate interests like Live Nation through the lens of historic Nashville club Exit/In. You’ve got a chance to catch it yourself on Monday, April 21, when the film screens as part of the Belcourt’s Music City Mondays series.
To make a long story extremely short: In 2022, the longtime Exit/In management team headed by Music Venue Alliance Nashville president Chris Cobb exhausted their efforts to purchase the venue property. They had a farewell run of shows for their tenure in the days before Thanksgiving that year, featuring JEFF the Brotherhood, Diarrhea Planet and many others — footage of which you’ll see in the documentary, courtesy of longtime local music-scene documentarian Stephen “TompDogg” Thompson.
In anticipation of Monday’s screening, Thompson is publishing a slew of full-song performance videos from that show series on his YouTube channel. So far that includes, among others, the aforementioned Bogus Bros playing “Stay Up Late,” thrashers Waxed playing “Sports Center” and post-punkers Snooper playing “Unable" and "Running” (Snooper songs are super short so we get a second one, sweet bonus). Give those videos a spin, see more on Thompson’s channel and make plans to be at the Belcourt on Monday.
