'A family-friendly rock club': New live music venue opening in midtown Gainesville

Apr. 4—Bands will soon have a new place to rock in midtown Gainesville.

Blackstrap Rock Hall, a collaboration between Let There Be Rock Schools and Downtown Drafts, is a new live music venue tailored to all things rock.

Blackstrap Rock Hall

Slated to open: May 13

Where: 852 Main St., Gainesville

More info: blackstraprockhall.com

In addition to hosting live shows, the venue will provide a space for student musicians to perform in front of a live crowd in a real rock hall — an experience they'd otherwise have to travel to Atlanta and beyond to find, according to Let There Be Rock's owner and director Kyle Sanders.

For Sanders, establishing a music venue and rehearsal space has been in the pipeline from the moment the schools' doors opened two doors down in 2019.

"I know the stories of how it used to be here — there was kind of a (live music) scene and then it totally died out," he said. "I knew that this area was lacking that and needed it. All my instructors (at Let There Be Rock) are in bands, they go to Atlanta to play or out of town. They just don't play around here because there's nowhere to play."

Sanders' business partners, Downtown Drafts proprietors Nick and Aimee Hoecker, saw a similar need when they began hosting open mic events in their taproom on the square — performances for which many of Sanders' students laboriously practiced.

"Kyle came to me and told me some of his students were practicing to come and do open mic at Downtown Drafts and I'm like, 'Oh, man, I'm in," Nick Hoecker said.

"There's so much talent in Gainesville and nowhere else for kids to play (their music), no scene," Aimee Hoecker said. "We're really looking forward to being able to house more people for live music. The few times that we have had an actual band play at Downtown Drafts, you can't even move in there. Here, we'll have a lot more space and the acoustics will be better."

As a rock-oriented venue, Blackstrap won't stray down the dance or DJ route, Sanders said, but remain under the umbrella of rock, whether it be heavy metal, punk, goth, alternative or grunge. Or, more likely, a variation of all of the above.

"There isn't anything like that (in Gainesville)," Sanders said. "A lot of rock bands around here don't play around here because they're like, 'That's more of a DJ kind of club,' or, I think some places started out this way and then veered in a different direction for whatever reason. Our hearts are in this kind of music, so we're going to keep it that way."

According to Nick Hoecker, Blackstrap is "the real deal."

"There's a difference between playing in a room where someone's eating chicken wings (than when) you're looking out from the stage and you just see heads looking at you," he said.

Sanders echoed: "People come here to watch the bands. You're not playing to an empty room with people shooting pool in the back and looking up every now and then. If there's 10 people here, there's 10 people here to see you. If there's 200, there's 200 people here to see you. They don't just happen to be here shooting pool while there's a band playing."

Both musicians themselves, Sanders and Nick Hoecker said they're "in this for all the right reasons."

Growing up in Atlanta, the two said most of the live music venues were restricted to patrons 18 or 21 and older. To experience the scene as kids, they'd have to listen from outside the doors or find a "DIY" club, usually in a converted warehouse, or a record store hosting a band.

Unlike those venues, Blackstrap will be open to all ages.

"Everywhere, the bars are 21 and up, so a lot of my students have nowhere to go to see a band," Sanders said. "We're catering for a safe environment for young kids and all ages. A family-friendly rock club."

For emerging rock artists, Blackstrap is designed to show them the ropes. Using wisdom gleaned from lessons learned the hard way, Sanders and Nick Hoecker intend to teach artists how to promote themselves and sell their own tickets and merchandise.

"(We're going to) teach them all the mistakes we had to learn the hard way, (like) trusting the wrong people and letting someone else handle your business for you who's just looking out for themselves and money and just to take advantage of you," Sanders said. "It's easy to take advantage of new musicians because everyone's dying to get a deal and dying to play clubs. You'll sign anything, you'll do anything."

Once open for events, the owners plan to serve coffee, beer and wine as well as non-alcoholic slushies, kombucha, paninis and other simple snacks, offering a spot for Let There Be Rock students to duck into for a bite to eat when they come for lessons.

In the back, Blackstrap also features rehearsal suites for bands to rent monthly or hourly.

A grand opening is slated for noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 13 with a punk rock flea market purveying handmade art, music and horror memorabilia, taxidermy, oddities, clothing and records hard to come by at "your typical flea market," Sanders said, followed by band performances in the evening.

Vendor applications can be submitted to blackstrap333@gmail.com. For booking, bands can email blackstrapbands@gmail.com.

For more information, visit blackstraprockhall.com or facebook.com/BlackstrapGVL, or follow @blackstrapgvl on Instagram.