Things You Didn't Know About Metro

Iconic Chicago rock clubMetrois turning 35 next year , and in that time , proprietor / club founder Joe Shanahan has amass more than enough stories to fill a Holy Scripture . That tend to happen when your locus ’s next - door neighbour is Eddie Vedder . Rather than waiting for the legendary local plugger to pen his memoir , we sat down with him in his Wrigleyville dig out to uncover some of the most interesting bits of local rock history you ’ve probably never get word .

Wrigleyville used to be a shithole… well, more of a shithole

" It was this corking neighborhood , " recalls Shanahan , reminisce about the area skirt the club when Metro open up in 1982 . " It ’s not what it is today . It was full of really funky cheap apartment . Quite honestly , that ’s how some of the bands terminate up play Metro because they hold out in the area . The Cubs were n’t play very well then and the area was dicey . I remember most nights we did n’t permit any of the John Cash take the air out without at least four guy rope taking it to the local bank for a nighttime depository . There was a lot of heroin and a lot of gangs , so we generate to love our alderman and the air force officer CPD guys real flying . They were happy we were bringing medicine and a form of cultural shimmy into Wrigleyville at that time . "

Smart Bar was once a reggae club called Cool Runnings

Metro ’s downstairs clubSmart legal profession , now known as one of the preeminent dance clubs in the nation , once elicited a very different vibration . " It was bid Cool Runnings , " explains Shanahan , who adds that it only became Smart Bar after the possessor of Cool Runnings left to open up up former Clark St reggae guild Wild Hare down the street . " It was great , because we ’d have these punk kids and punk shows at Metro , and then this pretty great reggae lodge beneath the Metro . " Also , at that prison term , Metro was n’t Metro , it was called Stages Music Hall . " The original Smart Bar was on the fourth floor of this building , " Shanahan adds . " It ’s where our current offices are . "

The crowd once ripped apart Dave Grohl’s drum set

And , harmonise to Shanahan , the act was entirely premeditate . " [ Dave Grohl ] require a newfangled drum kit , and he basically set it up when Nirvana play here on the week thatNevermindwas unblock . He played on this rickety old tympan kit and he needed a newfangled one . " Apparently Grohl had been talking to his manager and was unable to pimp one .

" That was the night he kind of pushed the membranophone kit into the interview and they get to take it apart . He had to get a new one after that because it was gone . Whatever else came back on stage , they could barely finish the set . Kurt was trashing [ the stage ] … doodly-squat was just being put down on stage , and Grohl in his correct mind was think , ' I need a unexampled barrel kit , I ’m gon na push this off stage . ' "

Eddie Vedder used to live above a bar next door

" When Vedder and Pearl Jam were just start out , they had some of the good shows here , " says Shanahan . " Eddie used to be next door above a little bar call the Wrigleyville Tap … He ’d come back from turn and do his wash right on here on the street . I intend he was crashing with a local production guy who used to work at the Vic and the Riviera and Metro . " Shanahan recalls the singer coming back to town often when " he ’d break from the road , break away from hitch " around the former ' ninety .

James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins would ride motocross through the hallways

There may not have been Hell ’s Angels terrorise the club on motorcycle , but Metro did get some two - roll fervor when Smashing Pumpkins played a year - recollective residency at Metro in the late ' 80s , which helped put the lot on the national map . " You ca n’t talk about Metro without blab about the Pumpkins , " Shanahan aver . " So many nights , so much fun . James riding in on his motocross bike pop wheelies on the first floor and then proceed up on leg and plug in … He would ride his bike to practice , he would ride his cycle to soundcheck . Billy walked from where he lived on Southport . D’arcy would leave her waitress job down the street at the deep brown workshop and take the air to workplace . "

Guns N' Roses sought refuge at Metro after fleeing LA

" They rented a modest theatre of operations on the fourth level called the Top Note Theater , " Shanahan says . " It was a quad I lease to the lot while they woodshedded [ during the ] theUse Your IllusionIandIIera . I call back the narration is they were getting in a lot of fuss in LA and their manager at the meter was looking to give them a dissimilar sort of environment that was n’t as corrupt … They were like , ' Look , we get ta get off from all this frill because we ’ll never write another record probably . ' "

But despite what you may think , fit in to Shanahan , the band was remarkably well - behaved . " I met regular guy , I never saw any frill , " he call up . " They want to hang out , they want to drink , they ’d get out Metro and take the air to Leona ’s and have pizza . That ’s about as normal as you could get . " The best story he call back about Slash ? The one time he asked Shanahan if he could use his fax auto so he could facsimile a declaration back to his attorney for a house he had just bought for his mamma . " I looked at him and I was like , ' You bought your mom a house ? ' and he ’s like , ' Yeah , ' and I go , ' You ’re a good fucking guy rope , man . ' "

The first show at Metro was R.E.M.

Shanahan was ( and still is ) a Brobdingnagian fan of R.E.M. , and he recalls seeing them open a club in New York in 1982 . " I somehow finagled my elbow room backstage and introduced myself to the striation and said , ' If you ever come to Chicago , you should come play my golf club , ' " he enounce . " There was a little fudge in there because I did n’t quite have a society . I was kind of just renting rooms in the club [ then still owned by Stages Music Hall ] . But I did get that phone call because they had a booster drop out and they were like , ' Can you put on our show tonight ? ' It was the first show I advertise and maybe 500 people showed up . I was able-bodied to give all the bands , I was able to pay all the staff , and then I had money left over for pizza and beer . And I thought , ' That was it . We ’re a success . ' "

Moby once brought a wheatgrass press backstage

While Shanahan was hesitant to unwrap too many backstage history – enjoin , " I do n’t buss and tell , what goes on wing halt wing " – he did discover this fairly hilarious nugget . " I remember when Moby land in a wheat-grass pressure , that was a first , " Shanahan says . " It smell really in force , he had like aromatherapy going … I was like , ' Hey , this is really just , this spot commonly smells like really stale beer . ' " He also return when Depeche Mode played the club and David Gahan was backstage doing a yoga airs on his headway against the rampart in a double-dyed lotus . " I thought it was really impressive . "

Iggy Pop once lifted the massive stage monitors so he could backflip into the audience

" It can not be underestimated how important it was in my liveliness when Iggy Pop played Metro , " say Shanahan , a huge womb-to-tomb fan . " When Iggy picked Metro to play in 1988 … I follow something that I ’d never insure before . He was capable to revoke the microscope stage monitor . It would usually take four men to do this . He was able-bodied to move them , then backflip himself into the audience … It made my heart stop , made my jaw drop . "

Josh Young from Flosstradamus was a member of the Metro street team

Flosstradamus is now fuck as one of the run electronic routine on the dancing medicine / festival aspect today . But back in the day , Josh Young ( aka J2 K ) was just another lowly intern at Metro . " He was an intern here at Metro , " Shanahan recalls . " I think him walk around the office and it ’d be like , ' Josh is doing a DJ gig tonight at … Town Hall Pub . ' We ’d all go over and they ’d be ready up on placard table and the room was full of a couple hundred kids lead bonkers to the medicine . "

Metro convinced James Brown to play the club… by promising him a dance party

" We work really hard to convince his manager to play a non - Park West , or a non sit - down venue , " say Shanahan , return that at the time ( in the former ' 80s / former ' 90s ) , Brown was pull an older crew that wanted to sit down during the show . " We discombobulate the thought of a dance party on him , and he go for it . We had a blast … [ It was ] one of the greatest night of my life story . "

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