A hub of Downtown’s live music scene will close on January 1 when the Las Vegas Country Saloon and Brass Lounge—owned and operated by Hennessey’s Tavern, Inc.—finishes its 10-year lease.
“We’ve been negotiating for the past couple of months [with the landlord], and we couldn’t come to terms,” says Hennessey’s regional manager Andrew Northam. “We’re all kind of broken up about it.”
Northam says he’s unaware of specific prospective tenants for the space, and that his main concern is absorbing the employees from both bars into Hennessey’s other two existing establishments, Hennessey’s Tavern and Mickey Finnz.
LVCS—which dropped the “Country Saloon,” along with its Western theme several years back—staged such acts as Jello Biafra, Deafheaven and the Melvins and partnered with festivals like Punk Rock Bowling and Neon Reverb.
“LVCS was one of the few venues Downtown willing to book metal and heavy music consistently over the past four years,” says local promoter and musician Patrick “Pulsar” Trout. “A lot of local metal bands got their first chances to open for national acts there. It’s a real bummer to see it close.”
For LVCS booker Tim Thurtle, “the memories are watching bands like NE Last Words and performers like Ekoh and Donnie Menace grow as human beings and grow as professionals. It’s going to create such a huge hole in the local development music scene.”
The Kottonmouth Kings will play one final show at LVCS on December 17.
