Nobody’s talking about it yet, but something is up with Vaudeville Cabaret at 110 E. Congress St. The bar, largely known for holding a slew of punk-rock, hip-hop and other events during the past decade or so, is apparently closed. The phone has also been disconnected.
But if you check out the bar’s Facebook page you can see it’s been populated by information from Congress Street Clubs, the outfit that runs the downtown nightclubs Zen Rock and Sapphire Lounge. We called down to Congress St. Clubs this afternoon to see what’s up with all this. Their response for the time being is “no comment,” but they assured me they’d call when details about whatever they plan to open in the Vaudeville spot are finalized.
There’s also a note on the Congress Street Clubs Facebook page insinuating that they’re opening a new bar and lounge downtown. But, to confuse things further, we’ve heard rumors that Congress Street Clubs is also behind a new bar going in at 63 E. Congress St., where Knucklehead Alley used to be.
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2012.
the map Congress Street Clubs has up showing their potentially new bar is on the south side of Congress right across from Zen Rock. Not where Knucklehead Alley was
The last time I remember being downtown for drinks was when Liberty School was playing at Seven Black Cats. Although, I guess I was technically downtown when the Suicide Girls did a burlesque revue at Club Congress 6 years ago…so maybe it wasn’t ten years ago like I originally thought.
I hope whoever puts a new Club in the Vaudeville spot has the sense to keep it punk and underground. There has always been a scene of about 200-300 people in Tucson who prefer the true underground music and culture for over 30 years! I oughta know, i’m one of them!! local Punk, Hip-Hop, Rap, Techno, New-Wave & Industrial & Goth bands need a club to play and have a place to call their own!! Venues have come and gone, but these types of bands have been in town for decades! Ask most other musicians in town if they can easily find a gig in town if you are not Blues, Folk, Country or Americana music! It’s like this town frowns on being original and different, they want us to sound “normal” Tucson has too many normal yuppie dress-code kind of upscale bars, and those never last very long! DV8 back when it was the Cage had the best size dance floor. And Club Asylum (where Zen Rock is now) had the absolute best dance music in town, only the underground was played there! If some club would open that could combine the size of The Cage with the playlist of Club Asylum, that would be awesome for this town! i hope those days can come back! Now there is just a couple nights a month at The Surly Wench Pub to hold over the underground scene, but the damn 4th ave construction makes parking a bitch!