A ‘like letter’ to the Cabooze, as Minneapolis’ old workhorse venue reopens at 50

After playing second fiddle to Minneapolis’ better-known rock club for all of its 50 years, the Cabooze now has First Avenue beat on at least one front: how little it has changed since the last time you were in it.

“Is that dump still open?!” people over the age of 45 usually ask when you mention the utterly unglamorous cinderblock West Bank music venue.

(A typical response from younger folks: “Seriously? With a ‘z’ in the name?!”)

As of a couple months ago, the Cabooze is indeed still open. It stayed closed well after COVID-19 lockdown subsided. Then it entered a sketchy state for several months as a sort of rental facility alongside its adjoining biker-y bar, the Joint, when off-duty firefighter Joseph C. Johns was fatally shot on the street outside in May.

Some young entrepreneurs, Nabil Ghebre and David Grady, bought the Cabooze and the Joint in the interim along with the (still closed) neighboring bar Whiskey Junction. They started hosting Cabooze concerts again over the summer after hiring a new security team and a couple of music-biz go-getters to amp up the music calendar, including veteran promoter and manager Jeff Taube of MidAmerica Talent.

After a slow initial start, the place will be rocking again over the next week when two legendary local bands from the venue’s past return to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Pat Hayes and the Lamont Cranston Band make their Cabooze comeback Friday with ace alum Bruce McCabe in tow. Then Chan Poling and his reborn lineup of the Suburbs — which has now outlasted the old lineup’s original run — are on tap for Halloween night.

With these old favorites and the promise of lots of new music offerings to come, it begs the question: Is the Cabooze’s return really worth celebrating?

I had that query in mind when I returned to the club last week to catch a backpack-rap show headlined by Tech N9ne associate Krizz Kaliko. I couldn’t help but guffaw over how little the venue has changed since the last time I was in it five or six years ago.

Almost too symbolically, the familiar, circular neon marquee over the front door of the club has grown faint and spotty. Inside, though, the blood-orange-y neon lights that line the perimeter still shine bright — adding to the dated vibe but also serving the purpose of preventing you from running into the black walls amid the club’s otherwise dim lighting. What’s the deal with Minnesota rock clubs and black paint?

In the corner by the bathrooms — yep, no improvements there, either — there’s still a wall full of photos of past Cabooze headliners, including many that won’t be recognized by most of today’s younger music fans; nothing against Gary “U.S.” Bonds, Alvin Lee or Wishbone Ash.

The Cabooze’s room has always felt oddly shaped. The main rectangular bar still greets you upon entry, but it’s also large enough for bartenders to routinely ignore you. The stage is rather inexplicably set three-quarters of the way through the room on a sidewall, almost creating two different viewing rooms.

Somehow, though, it still works.

Being inside there again last week felt so much like being in a time warp, I almost forgot about the Lyft on my cellphone there and started looking for a pay phone to call a taxi to go home, just out of habit. There were even some folks at the show last week who seemed to forget a smoking ordinance had been passed since the club’s heyday.

The smoke further brought me back to when I still frequented the club in the 2000s. Back then, the Cabooze was a good place to catch the nonhipster bands not getting any love from City Pages critics or the just-launched public radio station 89.3 the Current, including Trampled by Turtles, the White Iron Band, psychedelic art rockers WookieFoot and weedy hip-hop acts such as Kanser.

Even in the ‘70s and ’80s, it wasn’t among the coolest venues in town, but it did host some very cool acts. Among them: James Brown, Albert King, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy and Peter Tosh, the latter of whom was paid a visit onstage there in 1978 by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (in town for their own show). It was still fairly rocking in later years, too, seeing the likes of the Dave Matthews Band, Snoop Dogg and Phish.

The Cabooze also hosted many of Minnesota’s best-known rock bands in its heyday, including Willie & the Bees, the Replacements, Soul Asylum and, yep, the Suburbs.

“The Cabooze was always the scruffier, more beer-soaked college party place,” Suburbs frontman Poling recalled. “It had a different vibe, but was always tons of fun; not as slick as First Ave, but it had a certain roadhouse charm to it that we and our audience truly loved.”

At last week’s show, another local music vet from a different corner of the scene was on hand to sing the Cabooze’s praises.

“It’s great to have a truly independent place like this to bring the shows that aren’t getting serviced anywhere else, things outside the Live Nation circuit,” said DJ D-Mil (David Miller), who remembered the Cabooze welcoming local hip-hop in the 2000s when some other venues shunned it.

It has always been a workhorse of a venue. Its stage and sound are viable and reliable, if not top-tier. It books a lot of bands that wouldn’t be booked anywhere else in town. Its size, right around a 1,000-person capacity, can suit a wide range of acts not big enough for First Ave or the Fillmore but too big for punk bars.

Especially after several mostly dark years — and about a decade before that when it fell off many music fans’ radar — it’s easy to think the Cabooze is no longer needed.

All those aforementioned attributes, however, are reasons I say the Cabooze definitely could play a more pivotal role in the Twin Cities music scene if this comeback actually sticks.

Its relatively low-frills features and new, younger staff means it also has relatively low overhead as music venues go; so at least in theory it can afford to host less-than-packed shows and offer less-than-exorbitant ticket prices. If you’re not a very picky concertgoer, it’s the kind of place you can probably learn to like again; “love” might be too strong a word to use.

More 50th anniversary concerts are on tap at the Cabooze in the coming months, including the local Talking Heads tribute band Slippery People on Nov. 16 and the Flamin’ Oh’s on Dec. 6. Word is the new owners do plan to make upgrades to the space and refurbish it.

There’s room for improvement, that’s for sure. But the Cabooze is still as it always was: good enough.

Lamont Cranston Band: 8 p.m. Fri. with the Butanes, $15.

The Suburbs: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 31 with the Scarlet Goodbye, $25.

Where: 913 Cedar Av. S., Mpls.

Online: cabooze.com.