Tim Kennedy:I hate to see that some nights the Mainroom is closed. We used to never close, so Steve's adapting to the times. Used to be he'd rather take a hit and lose money than close the doors, and I think times have gotten too tight to do that.
Chris Osgood:It used to be that the life cycle of a club was two years. It was the nature of a club in those days. But, amazingly, First Avenue hung on, as did the Metro down in Chicago and some other places. They went on to become, in their own weird sort of way, the preservation halls of pop music.
Daniel Corrigan
Related Content
More About
Billy Batson:Why do I keep coming back to work here? Because I love Steve McClellan. I figure, as long as he'll fight for it, I'll fight for it.
?uestlove, the Roots:My only complaint is that First Avenue needs to clean that goddamn bathroom.
Grant Hart:Byron Frank is as good a person to actually own the physical plant as anybody out there. He was very active in the Fingerhut Gallery.
Byron Frank:I met Allan Fingerhut in Hebrew school. We were eight or nine years old. [Years later] I was an accountant and he had businesses, and he hired me as an accountant for his businesses. I left accounting in '87 and I worked for the Fingerhut family until '99, when I retired. In 2000 Allan asked me to invest in the First Avenue property with him.
I own part of the property, Allan Fingerhut owns part of the property, a couple trusts for Allan's kids own part of the property, and Jack and Steve own part of the property. Allan owns the business.
Danny Stevens: They bought out my license in the early '80s. I had lost interest in doing it.
Allan Fingerhut:Byron Frank is no kind of a partner. I am 100 percent owner of Committee Inc., which owns First Avenue. I don't want to talk about Byron Frank.
Byron Frank:There's a legal dispute between me and Al. I don't want to get into it. Let me tell you this: I don't think there's any question at all that Steve McClellan and Jack Meyers will be there as long as there's a First Avenue. And to the best of my knowledge, First Avenue ain't going nowhere.
Chris Osgood:Steve has always followed his tastes. Steve is much more interested in people that make music than people that make money.
Slug:Steve really believed in what we were doing aside from our numbers. Which was good, because if what we were doing didn't have the draw, they still completely had our back. I really see myself in the years to come finding a position in life that's somewhat similar to his.
Steve McClellan:Working with Rhymesayers now reminds me of working with Jimmy Jam and Prince in the early '80s. They want to mix audiences. Their whole attitude about what music does correlates with what we believe. The Rhymesayers do what Hüsker Dü used to do. They play every little market, bring Chicago people in to play with them. It's the closest thing I've seen to that early-'80s camaraderie and community. They're loyal. They're there for the right reason. They deserve all the success they're getting.
Nate Kranz:Right now the Jayhawks are coming in and doing a benefit show for us on September 20, and I think that's about as cool as it gets. Steve ran into Gary [Louris] one night, told him about how bad financial things have been, and right away they stepped up and said they'd do a benefit show for us. There's no doubt in my mind that if we asked Rhymesayers or Dillinger Four--all these acts have expressed that if we ever needed anything like that, they'd step up.
Curtiss A:I hope I die before First Avenue does.
