A Beacon For Local Music

Wade Ogle wants to talk about the future. Especially at an event designed to remember the past.

The co-owner of The Lightbulb Club in Fayetteville doesn't recall many of the specifics of the great shows the longtime venue has hosted. Sure, he remembers watching just a few seconds of Jack White's performance on Sept. 11, 2001 -- yes, that Jack White, and, yes, that Sept. 11 -- and knowing he would be a star. And White, then of The White Stripes but now a festival-headlining draw as a solo act, certainly has become one. He played to a crowd of just a few hundred that day, and Ogle paid him about $500 or so for the trouble. There have been dozens of other notable acts, too -- The Postal Service, The Mountain Goats, TV on the Radio, The Dismemberment Plan and Lucero, to name a few.

A few hundred people was all that JR's could ever hold. The split-level venue opened in 1989, and music shows took place downstairs. Consumption of food such as coney dogs, or, later, much beloved house-made pizza, took place upstairs alongside the consumption of various alcoholic beverages.

The crowds ebbed and flowed, and the demographics were always a wild mix. Chris Selby booked shows at The Lightbulb Club for several years after he closed his own Clunk Music Hall. He went to the club most nights, either to see his bands playing or to meet friends. The wide range of demographics represented there helped make JR's special, he recalls.

"There were frat kids downstairs, and English lit kids upstairs," he says.

Ogle agrees. The only common denominator was the music.

"This crowd is pretty smart. They aren't easily impressed," he says.

JR's Lightbulb Club closed in 2005. Many of the elements from inside moved to a vacant space next door. What was JR's became Tangerine, a gay-friendly dance club.

The new incarnation of The Lightbulb Club formally dropped the JR's appellation, even as half the crowd still uses it to talk about the venue. The Lightbulb Club did not feature live music. But then a few local acts called Ogle, who has co-owned the venue since 2000 with Benton Bandy, begging for a spot to play. The power had gone out at the intended venue. There was no stage, so the band's amplifiers went on the floor. People entering the doors high-fived the band's drummer on the way to their barstools.

The show was a smash success, and it reinvigorated both Ogle and the venue's history of hosting live music.

"It (music) is what brought me to JR's, and what kept me here," Ogle says.

More shows were booked. A stage was built in the new space, and the building got a PA system, too.

Touring bands fill the marquee, and make for great "were you there when?!?" memories. But Ogle would just as soon talk about the crop of local acts that make the Lightbulb Club a home base. The venue offers a live show about three or four times a week. The evening may be highlighted by a national talent, and several indie acts of growing fame, such as Angel Olsen and Water Liars, have played there in the past year or so. But it's local bands that populate the stage most of the time, either headlining or as support for the touring talent.

"It's for everybody, but it's anchored by locals," Ogle says.

Eight acts that perform regularly at The Lightbulb Club or have in the recent past have been recruited for a two-day silver anniversary celebration. The takes place tonight and Saturday and features performers such as The Good Fear, The Airplanes and Doctor Nod.

New is the way of the venue, even on an significant anniversary.

"We don't have cover bands. There's nothing that's too weird," Ogle says. "We've kind of had our pulse on new music that's more adventurous. That's what we've championed and sided with all these years."

That won't change, but the venue will, if only be expansion. That's the new thing at The Lightbulb Club. Ogle and Bandy have just signed a lease for the space next door. The former Sound Warehouse store is now set to become Block Street Records and adjoin the current bar and music space.

The combined location will debut after obtaining all of the necessary permits, Ogle says.

NAN What's Up on 09/26/2014