Joe Shanahan stored a voicemail from R.E.M. for 20 years. The proprietor of Chicago venue Metro isn’t certain the place it’s now. Erased? Saved on an outdated piece of know-how? By chance discarded? However he does know that the voicemail launched his 1,100-capacity membership almost 45 years in the past.
Shanahan had begun internet hosting DJ occasions at what he named Good Bar on one of many prime flooring of Chicago’s former Swedish group heart turned live performance venue – first because the Northside Auditorium Constructing, which hosted greats like John Prine and Bonnie Koloc, after which as Phases Music Corridor. The Chicago native was spinning data at his personal loft when the crowds of 200-300 individuals grew to become too giant and he transitioned his skills to Good Bar that kicked off within the live performance corridor round midnight and went till 4 a.m. or 5 a.m.
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The primary DJ to carry out at Good Bar was home music pioneer Frankie Knuckles in the summertime of 1982 and, from there, the area grew to become recognized for its fusion of home and punk.
“I used to be at that fulcrum, that pivot culturally in Chicago. All the opposite bars have been simply taking part in Prime 40 music,” Shanahan tells Billboard from Gman Tavern, the watering gap subsequent to Metro that he purchased years after ingesting on the bar with Prine “buying and selling bullshit about baseball and life and politics.”
“Whereas New York was birthing rap and hip-hop,” he provides. “Chicago was birthing home and industrial.”
Previous to Good Bar, he had flown out to see R.E.M. play the Massive Apple’s Danceteria and fell in love with the band’s sound.
“Being the Chicago, South Facet Irish hustler that I’m, I walked backstage. I had a enterprise card that had my identify on it, had a telephone quantity on it, however didn’t say something about Metro, didn’t say something about Phases. As a result of they didn’t exist but,” he says. To R.E.M., “I used to be like, ‘Hey, in the event you ever get caught and don’t have a gig in Chicago and don’t have a promoter or don’t have a venue, name me. I’ll assist. I will probably be there for you.’”
In 1982, R.E.M. left Shanahan the voicemail.
“These guys remembered that,” Shanahan says. “I used to be like, ‘Okay. I’ll do that’ and I did. I did a ticket worth for $7 on the door, $5 upfront [at Stages Music Hall]. I paid the band a little bit bit of cash. We broke even. And I assumed, ‘Gosh, that was enjoyable. What are we going to do subsequent weekend?’”
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Extra calls began coming in, which Shanahan credit to R.E.M. for telling individuals how a lot enjoyable they’d taking part in his venue in Chicago. Shanahan started reserving reveals at Phases, which he modified to Metro when he took over the principle stage. He named the venue after the Paris public transport system as a result of he felt the various staircases of the 1927 constructing resembled the Metro cease the place he bought caught looking for his means out to the Eiffel Tower.
Very like the Swedish group heart earlier than it, Shanahan needed Metro to serve Chicago by supporting native expertise, in addition to bringing non-regional acts for what was as soon as thought-about a flyover state for touring acts.
“First couple of months, we had no concept what we have been doing and it was extra about that we simply appreciated the music. We went after bands we appreciated,” says Shanahan, who booked native bands together with Bare Raygun and Ministry. From there, he flew round to cities that nurtured punk and various music cultures like London and New York, the place he noticed New Order and booked them for Metro.
The day New Order first performed Metro “was one of many hottest days in Chicago. The air-con at Metro – what we had on the time was insufficient for the quantity of those that have been within the venue for so long as they have been within the venue,” Shanahan recollects, including that Wax Data founder Jim Nash, advised him “I sweated off 5 kilos of beer and water” that evening.
New Order and Pleasure Division co-founder Peter Hook stays a pal to this present day and can play two nights at Metro later this 12 months.
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In response to Shanahan, Chicago and Metro gained a popularity for nurturing steel and different burgeoning genres of rock music. In 1983, Metallica performed their first Chicago present at Metro. In 2024, Metallica returned to play Chicago’s 60,000-plus capability Soldier Area and performed a video of their days acting at Metro.
Three years earlier than the Soldier Area efficiency, Metallica performed at Metro for the thirtieth anniversary of the Black Album and offered tickets for $19.83 to replicate the primary 12 months they took the stage in Chicago.
Metro went on to place Chicago on the map bringing in reveals from Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, The Ramones, PJ Harvey, Joe Strummer, Elliott Smith and extra. And within the Nineteen Nineties, Metro was able to welcome the rise of grunge, punk and various rock, reserving gigs from Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sleater-Kinney, Soundgarden, Pink Scorching Chili Peppers, Mudhoney and Chicago’s personal Smashing Pumpkins.
The Pumpkins “performed each month for a 12 months,” Shanahan says, calling Metro the band’s laboratory. “They might open for individuals. They might play within the center slot. They might headline. My workers at one level was saying, ‘God, if we have now to listen to the Pumpkins yet another time, Joe.’”
Together with assist from venues in Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Cleveland and Cincinnati, the Midwest touring circuit started to thrive, circulating native bands like Soul Asylum, Husker Du, The Replacements and The Afghan Whigs. By Metro’s 15 anniversary, the membership had sufficient notoriety to guide two nights with Bob Dylan to have a good time.
“Bob had simply launched a report [1997’s Time Out of Mind] and he’s heard about Metro and he needed to play there,” says Shanahan. “He had very particular concepts on tips on how to do the ticketing, which meant we needed to promote every ticket by hand on the door earlier than the present.”
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When tickets went on sale on the field workplace, there have been greater than 2,000 followers ready in line and Shanahan and Jam Productions’ Nick Miller spent their day making an attempt to weed out faux followers. Scalpers, he explains, used to place youngsters consistent with a sizzling canine and a beeper to get tickets they may simply flip for a fast revenue. So, he and Miller went down the road asking individuals what their favourite Dylan track was and booting those that didn’t go the take a look at.
Metro’s ticketing technique has gotten extra refined through the years. The venue workforce – a lot of whom have been working there for 20 or 30 years – will type via ticket purchases to weed out ticket resellers in search of out of nation requests or bulk ticket consumers. “Artists know that we’re going to do the ticketing proper. We’re not grasping individuals seeking to make $1 or two off of a ticket. It’s about getting actual followers on the membership,” Shanahan says.
Exterior of the ticketing course of, only a few issues have modified at Metro within the final 4 a long time. The flooring are the identical. The fixtures are the identical. The railings and the doorways are the identical. Solely the stage and the sound system (which Metallica’s Lars Ulrich gave his seal of approval) have been upgraded and the ground that beforehand held Good Bar is now workplace area for Shanahan and his workforce that also function beneath the dad or mum firm Phases Music Corridor. However Metro continues to guide large names like Snoop Dogg, Likelihood the Rapper, Fall Out Boy, Luke Combs, Widespread and extra.
The key to Metro’s longevity, Shanahan says, is “music is the message.”
“I’m nonetheless a fan. I nonetheless love new, rising expertise. One factor that’s been constant in my life is, I nonetheless purchase data each Saturday morning. I nonetheless take heed to a variety of radio on-line from KEXP and even FIP in France,” he provides. “Individuals who work at Metro are additionally music followers and that’s what retains the indie spirit alive.”
Subsequent 12 months will mark the one hundredth anniversary of the constructing and 45 years of Metro and Shanahan is able to have a good time. He’s hoping to get some bucket listing expertise with assist from promoters C3 Presents (Lollapalooza) and Jam Productions like Tracy Chapman, The Rolling Stones and U2. Shanahan asks, “Bono, Dylan performed Metro. Why not you?”
