Spring Break
Local concert hall closing
Brian Washburn
Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: Life & Style
A piece of Fayetteville music history will soon to be gone. At the end of this month, the warehouse behind Foghorn's and Pho Saigon, which is usually crowded with teens lined up around the building and the parking lot filled with white vans and trailers, will shut down. The Fayetteville Music Hall will close its doors and turn off the speakers after more than a decade of shows and thousands of bands gracing its stage.
A decade ago, what is now known as the Music Hall was called Klunk Records, but it still produced the same rock shows.
"I came here for college and started going to shows at Klunk," said Jeremy Brown, owner of the Music Hall for the past six years. "Then Chris [the original owner of Klunk] shut down in July of 2000, and then in December of 2000 Expressions, a church, wanted to take it over, but didn't know how to run it.
"At that time, I was a senior [at the UA] and they asked me to run The Music Hall because I had been writing a business plan for a music venue," Brown said. "'I ran it for nine months and they funded it, but then they backed out so [for the past six years] I've used my own money to fund it and I ran it."
Over the past decade, the venue has hosted bands the likes of Modest Mouse, The All-American Rejects, Underoath, Blindside, Norma Jean, Anberlin, and Bowling For Soup among many others. The hall has also seen the rise of several local musicians to the national ranks, including The Wedding, Spoken, School Boy Humor and Take It Back!.
"The Music Hall was definitely a launching pad for us. It's where we were discovered," said Trevor Sarver, lead guitarist for Fayetteville pop-punk band The Wedding. "We got signed because the record label flew down to Arkansas and saw us play at the Music Hall and signed us."
However, while the bulk of the bands who have performed on the Music Hall stage have come and gone, the music industry is just not what is used to be.
And that is the number one reason this long-time Fayetteville venue is shutting down, Brown said.
A decade ago, what is now known as the Music Hall was called Klunk Records, but it still produced the same rock shows.
"I came here for college and started going to shows at Klunk," said Jeremy Brown, owner of the Music Hall for the past six years. "Then Chris [the original owner of Klunk] shut down in July of 2000, and then in December of 2000 Expressions, a church, wanted to take it over, but didn't know how to run it.
"At that time, I was a senior [at the UA] and they asked me to run The Music Hall because I had been writing a business plan for a music venue," Brown said. "'I ran it for nine months and they funded it, but then they backed out so [for the past six years] I've used my own money to fund it and I ran it."
Over the past decade, the venue has hosted bands the likes of Modest Mouse, The All-American Rejects, Underoath, Blindside, Norma Jean, Anberlin, and Bowling For Soup among many others. The hall has also seen the rise of several local musicians to the national ranks, including The Wedding, Spoken, School Boy Humor and Take It Back!.
"The Music Hall was definitely a launching pad for us. It's where we were discovered," said Trevor Sarver, lead guitarist for Fayetteville pop-punk band The Wedding. "We got signed because the record label flew down to Arkansas and saw us play at the Music Hall and signed us."
However, while the bulk of the bands who have performed on the Music Hall stage have come and gone, the music industry is just not what is used to be.
And that is the number one reason this long-time Fayetteville venue is shutting down, Brown said.
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