Following the opening of the Boreal last year, Eugene has yet another new music venue. Old Nick’s Pub, a so-called “metal bar” and concert hall geared towards touring rock bands, opened its doors at the beginning of this month. Located at 211 Washington St. in the Whiteaker, Nick’s has already lined up a formidable set of shows over the next few months.
The brainchild of music promoters Emily Nyman, Jevon Peck and Tim Kinney, Old Nick’s Pub provides an option for bands too big for the bars but with too small an audience for major venues like the W.O.W. Hall or McDonald Theatre.
“We’re a step up from other bars with lower capacity and smaller size,” Nyman said. “In that way we’re able to bring acts to Eugene that might not have other places to play.”
Among the bands they’ve brought to town are crossover thrash legends D.R.I. and Canadian hardcore punk pioneers D.O.A. Acts from the golden age of hardcore punk seem to be Old Nick’s specialty. Dr. Know of early hardcore band Bad Brains will play on June 14, and Adolescents and U.K. Subs are also slated to play over the summer. Yet Old Nick’s also plans on hosting comedy and burlesque, and it is doing an Irish music jam night every Monday at 6 p.m.
So far, Old Nick’s has been successful: both D.R.I. and D.O.A. sold out. But it took endless hours of stress and pain for the founders to get the venue off the ground. Originally set to open Halloween of 2014, the unexpected amount of renovation and construction the founders had to perform on the building set them back months.
“We had to bring everything up to code,” Peck said. “The place had previously been a bar, and to change it back, the city had to make us do everything again. This put us months and months behind. We had to do everything from scratch–everything is brand new.”
But now that it’s open, Peck, Nyman and Kinney can focus on bringing some of the world’s best touring rock bands to Eugene. Here are a few of the upcoming shows Nick’s has to offer.
All shows are 21+.
Condemned? with Not A Part Of It, Toxic Witch. Apr. 26, 9:00 p.m. $5.
Product with Ugly Sex God. Apr. 30, 9:00 p.m. $3-$5.
Psyrup with Mammoth Salmon, Old Kingdom. May 2, 9:30 p.m. $5.
Green Jello with Headless Pez, Wade Graham, 30 Pound Test. May 15, 9:00 p.m. $10.
Dr. Know. June 14, 9:00 p.m. $10.
UK Subs. June 18, 9:00 p.m. $15.
Adolescents with Weirdos. July 13, 9:00 p.m. $20.