ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
In Nashville, extra individuals work within the music business per capita than some other metropolis on the planet. And member station WNXP has began a podcast referred to as Music Residents about these individuals and the roles that they do. The primary episode, referred to as The Lifer, is about an 80-year-old man who owns and operates a small music venue referred to as The Finish.
JUSTIN BARNEY, BYLINE: For somebody who has by no means been to The Finish, how would you describe the top?
DANIEL PUJOL: Tiny little rectangle stage.
BRENNAN WEDL: It is like a milk-carton-on-the-floor vibe.
AMY DEE: Identical to an old-school music venue.
MICHELLE EGNASKO: Elegant dive bar.
BARNEY: What’s stylish about it?
EGNASKO: Simply… (laughter).
BARNEY: The loos are dangerous. The stage is small and shut.
ERIC: We do not have personal loos for the artists. We do not have parking. Proper? That is the most important factor. Everybody needs to know the place they park their freaking trailers and vehicles and we do not have it.
BARNEY: Are you able to give me a primary identify, final identify?
JASON MOON WILKINS, BYLINE: First identify, final identify. I may give you all three names. Jason Moon Wilkins. I am the host of Music Residents. It is a new collection from Nashville Public Radio about music’s working class.
BARNEY: I am Justin Barney, producer, reporter.
WILKINS: We’re doing this collection at a time when venues like The Finish are in bother. You’ve got acquired gentrification, rising rents, corporatization impacting reserving, all of it. It is a lot in order that within the U.Ok., there is a wave of assist for saving a few of these venues. And in Tennessee, a invoice simply this yr that may pave the best way for serving to these venues with leases simply handed. And I believe we’re seeing this as a result of even on the highest ranges of presidency, individuals perceive even the most important artists want a spot to start out, and The Finish is a spot like that.
BARNEY: Might you learn a number of the names on the wall?
BRUCE FITZPATRICK: Learn a number of the names…
BARNEY: Yeah.
FITZPATRICK: …On the wall again right here?
BARNEY: Yeah.
FITZPATRICK: Oh, what can we acquired right here? White Stripes.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE WHITE STRIPES’ “ICKY THUMP”)
FITZPATRICK: I had by no means heard of the White Stripes after they performed right here, inform you the reality. It was on a Monday night time, and we took an opportunity on it and wound up promoting out.
ALYSON ESTES: Paramore performed their first present First present in Nashville at The Finish. Bruce and Hayley have plenty of photos collectively.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MISERY BUSINESS”)
PARAMORE: (Singing) Whoa, I by no means meant to brag, however I acquired him the place I would like him now.
BARNEY: The Flaming Lips?
FITZPATRICK: Yeah, see, that is in all probability 20 years in the past.
BARNEY: They performed right here?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DO YOU REALIZE??”)
FLAMING LIPS: (Singing) Do you notice?
FITZPATRICK: A number of bands play right here after they first get began, you understand, so.
WILKINS: It is a launching pad. And as we found, the one fixed was Bruce.
FITZPATRICK: Get that proper there.
BARNEY: I spent a pair days at The Finish. A factor that simply blew me away was that this entire place, The Finish, the names on the partitions and all of its lore is precariously held collectively by one 80-year-old man who does the job of 10 individuals.
What does Bruce do day-after-day?
ANGELA: Come right here. With out fail, he exhibits up day-after-day.
FITZPATRICK: What I do?
BARNEY: Yeah.
FITZPATRICK: Bartend, ebook the bands, clear the place up.
EGNASKO: Restocks the entire bar, orders all of the beer orders, adjustments all the rubbish baggage, places the rubbish within the dumpster. He does all the pieces.
BARNEY: What are you doing now?
FITZPATRICK: Sweeping the toilet flooring.
BARNEY: Like, at one level, there may be – there is a marquee. And he pulls this rickety ladder out of the yard, and he units it up on the marquee. And this 80-year-old man will get up on this tiny ladder, and he places up the brand new band on the marquee.
FITZPATRICK: You get all these empty beer bottles, beer cans and the craft beer and…
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS BREAKING)
ESTES: It is a lengthy day. You are there from 10:00, 9:00 a.m. till 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 a.m.
BARNEY: That’s Alyson Estes. She is the expertise purchaser at Exit/In throughout the road. She additionally sort of has a job at The Finish.
ESTES: Not a salaried worker or something like that. It is understood that I’ll assist him do X, Y, Z and extra if wanted.
BARNEY: Why do you do it?
ESTES: As a result of I like him, and I like The Finish.
BARNEY: What are you doing now?
FITZPATRICK: Checking the beer coolers, see how a lot beer I must put in there in some unspecified time in the future. Just about all the cash comes from beer gross sales.
BARNEY: There have been so many small, unbiased venues like The Finish which have opened and closed within the span that Bruce has been grinding away at The Finish.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DEE: I am Amy Dee from Dee’s Nation Cocktail Lounge.
BARNEY: Why do it?
DEE: As a result of I am a lifer. I have been on this enterprise since ’97. I did not go to school. I haven’t got a belief fund to sit up for.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DEE: What else am I going to do? (Laughter) And you then see others fade, and you are still right here.
BARNEY: And Bruce, fellow lifer, is simply holding it collectively each night time.
Bruce, we’re between – simply earlier than bands are beginning now. What are you doing on this time?
FITZPATRICK: Ready for individuals to indicate up.
UNIDENTIFIED PROMOTER: Thanks. Hello. How are you? Can I simply see your ID? Thanks. Excellent. I will stamp the highest of your hand.
WEDL: I like that he is the bartender, too.
BARNEY: Proper?
WEDL: It is superior. It is superior.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Hey. Might I get a Michelob Extremely, please?
FITZPATRICK: Yeah. We do have a $10 minimal…
WILKINS: So Justin has been taking you thru Bruce’s day behind the scenes, all of the nitty gritty, however a giant a part of day-after-day at The Finish is the present.
REMO DRIVE: Hey, all people. We’re a band referred to as Remo Drive.
WILKINS: So right here we’re on stage. Daniel Pujol is aware of what it is like to face on this stage.
PUJOL: Tiny little inexperienced room. The ceilings are simply excessive sufficient to the place all people can crowd surf.
FITZPATRICK: A number of damaged noses. We preserve lots of ice packs within the again on hardcore nights. We normally give out half a dozen ice packs.
PUJOL: It is simply large enough is that when it’s very full, it’s proper earlier than an viewers turns into a crowd.
RICK WHETSEL: Bruce is ready to do issues economically at, you understand, a smaller venue like The Finish you could’t do in a bigger venue.
ESTES: You’ll be able to play to 50 individuals at The Finish, you understand. You’ll be able to promote out The Finish after which transfer to Exit/In on the Rock Block, proper? After which you possibly can play Marathon. After which you possibly can play Ryman. And, like, there’s lots of nice stepping stones on this city.
BARNEY: And The Finish is…
ESTES: This primary step.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, CHEERING)
REMO DRIVE: Thanks.
BARNEY: That occurs each night time, you understand. And that is not one thing that is assured in each metropolis.
WILKINS: Completely not. I imply, a few of these issues are going to go away, they usually don’t have anything to do with the powers that be not standing up for it. We reside and work in an financial system the place in the event you personal this house, and impulsively it is price 5 million, and it was once price 500,000, you are in all probability going to promote it.
There’s something that Bruce and The Finish symbolize inside Nashville that we have now seen change at an accelerating tempo within the final 10 years particularly, which is beloved establishments going by the wayside. When your metropolis is called Music Metropolis, and when these establishments begin altering, it does change the material of who you’re. And what’s being at the moment constructed proper now, the overwhelming majority of cash that’s being invested in Nashville on the music aspect is to lure vacationers, not locals. And that’s the worry of what you may lose in the event you lose a spot like this.
BARNEY: Bruce, how did we do tonight?
FITZPATRICK: Do not know. I do not know what number of ended up paying. Do you could have that determine?
ERIC: Thirty-eight on the door. After which I believe presale is 170-something.
FITZPATRICK: Plus 38. What’s that, 211?
ERIC: Yeah.
FITZPATRICK: Yeah, 211.
BARNEY: Is {that a} good night time?
ERIC: Yeah. It is greater than ought to be in right here.
(LAUGHTER)
FITZPATRICK: Yeah, ought to be.
ESTES: You recognize, he is simply right here to run his venue, have a great time and to go dwelling.
BARNEY: So, like, why do you suppose he does it?
ESTES: I believe he likes being part of the story, you understand, having a small function in somebody’s success.
BARNEY: It is now 12:16 a.m.
FITZPATRICK: All proper. That is it. The whole lot locked up. Time to go dwelling. We’re good to go.
BARNEY: You wish to be an proprietor? That is what it’s. That is the job.
WILKINS: That is the job.
BARNEY: Final phrases?
FITZPATRICK: Do it once more tomorrow.
BARNEY: All proper. See you, Bruce.
FITZPATRICK: All proper. I will so long.
FLORIDO: Jason Moon Wilkins and Justin Barney host Music Residents, a brand new podcast from WNXP in Nashville. You’ll be able to hear at wnxp.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
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