Saturday, January 20, 2007

MUSIC: Farewell Mississippi Nights

Stalwart St. Louis rock club institution Mississippi Nights closed its doors last night. A wrecking ball will hit it and a shiny new casino will soon be in its place. The club may open in another location, and maybe it won’t. I’ve been seeing rock shows there for thirty years. Many rock shows! So many great shows in fact, it’s next to impossible for me to shake the cobwebs of my memory and assemble a complete listing. So I’ll put it this way instead: The very first show I ever saw at Mississippi Nights was AC/DC with Bon Scott in 1977 and the very last show I ever saw at Mississippi Nights were the New York Dolls in 2006. To say I saw everything in between would be a major understatement, my all-time favorites being the Dwight Twilley Band on the Twilley Don’t Mind tour in 1978 and Roxy Music on the Manifesto tour in 1979.

I also had the pleasure of performing at Mississippi Nights several times over the years with several different bands. Each and every time I performed there I was treated by the club with the highest degree of respect and professionalism—something extremely rare in this nutty business. I could easily fill a book recounting the personal good times I had and great shows I saw and got to play myself at Mississippi Nights. Deepest of thanks to owner Rich Frame and the lifetime of incredible memories his club has provided.

1 comment:

V'ron said...

I'm sad to hear this. I actually had the opportunity to play there with my band when we somehow got into the Mississippi River Music Festival many years back (before my 8 year old was born...). We were one of something like 8 bands on the bill, each got a 30 minute set, bam bam bam... but you're right. We were treated warmly and respectually.

It's always sad to hear when a good music club closes its doors. Especially to make way for a freakin' casino.