The Basement

History

Steve West, who had run 328 Performance Hall downtown, opened The Basement in the summer of 2001 at 1604 8th Avenue South and booked music only a couple of nights a week. Mike Grimes moved his record store Grimey's into the street-level space in 2004, then took the room over with Geoff Donovan in February 2005. Their first show, on February 5, was Charlie Peacock followed by Manchester Orchestra. Dave Brown joined about six months later and the club went to two shows a night. The Basement East opened across the river in 2015, and this room became the one people call the OG Basement.