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Barrie Buck & 20 Years of the 40 Watt Club
Date: Friday 03 August, 2007
It could be reasonably argued that without the 40 Watt Club, Athens wouldn't even have a reputable music scene. While she didn't start the club, current owner Barrie Buck has been involved in owning the Watt longer than anyone else, celebrating her 20th year in 2007 of owning at least part of the legendary venue. Buck originally worked as a bartender during the mid-'80s at the short-lived 40 Watt Club Uptown located at 382 East Broad Street where the office of the University Architects now stands.
When it abruptly closed, the 40 Watt moved back down the street to a former location at 256 W. Clayon Street with her as one of the new owners. Buck later married and divorced R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, but her place in the annals of Athens music history has nothing to do with her spousal moniker and everything to do with being a stalwart supporter and key element of the Athens music scene over the past two decades. Correspondent Kenny Aguar (8 Track Gorilla) sat down recently with Barrie Buck in the current home of the 40 Watt Club on Washington Street to reminisce.
Kenny Aguar: Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the 20th Anniversary of the 40 Watt Club opening up where the Caledonia is now [256 W. Clayton St.]? In 1987?
Barrie Buck: It was me and Jared [Bailey]. We worked for Doug [Hoescht] then he had money issues and landlord issues and he split and left us holding the bag. We didn't buy the club because it became defunct. We got Jeff Gilley ["Lawyer Jeff" – immortalized in the R.E.M. song "Can't Get There From Here"] to be our attorney and retain him and he determined that "Oh, it's not even trademarked! There's nothing to buy!" So he put down the motion, gave us the trademark and David Pierce [a.k.a. Romeo Cologne, ex-OH-OK and Buzz of Delight member] gave us the logo. We didn't have to buy the club, we just rescued it from oblivion.
We kind of felt like we outgrew the previous location [on West Clayton]. Remember we were doing multiple nights with bands? And that was when people used to really go out and see live music all the time. Potter's House got the old grocery store [Bell's on Prince Avenue where it is today] and this [the current 40 Watt space at West Washington Street] was open. So no one got kicked out and it was not the prettiest building in town so it was a relative good buy. It's nice because you know that your lease isn't going to run out, that you don't have to re-negotiate terms or anything like that. From that standpoint it frees you up a lot and you don't have to think about the landlord, you can do whatever you want. Also, with the tenants you can almost always essentially hand-pick them because you have to get somebody who kind of wants to have non-traditional hours, which has turned out well.
KA: I saw a postcard at the Classic Center that was an old hand-colored photograph of this block, and it looked like this building used to be a Big Star grocery a long, long time ago?
BB: I have that postcard and everyone who finds it gives it to me. I used to keep a copy of it in the front window, but I think people wanted it for a souvenir and I gave it to them because I always figured I could make a copy of one. I need to do research on this building because there's an incinerator in the back… and I just thought it was a trash incinerator. I was wondering if it was a crematorium. Pretty creepy... I remember one Halloween we used it. We had a haunted house. We had a skeleton sticking out of it or something. Jim Stacy... We had a pig's head hanging over it, slaughter-house look. That's how Jim was...
KA: You own the 40 Watt building. That's a big deal from a club's stability in my mind. Does that allow you more flexibility? Do you see dangers for clubs that don't?
BB: You mean as far as their little plot of earth? Certainly, look at the Caledonia. How can you have a better landlord than Joey Tatum? But certainly in New York there's been a real problem with several places, not just CBGB's. Now they're saying what's going to happen when there's no more rock clubs in Manhattan? That will be kind of bizarre. Or Jazz clubs? Or any kind of music clubs? If they can't deal with rent...
KA: Do you have any memorable shows?
BB: I'm glad you said "memorable" because there is certainly no favorite. One thing is that we are always a little bit nervous when the "legends" come. So far, they've not disappointed. Everyone's been like Cheap Trick, Run DMC. I think at Run DMC I got chills like fifteen times! I don't know if you were at that show but it was totally packed. It was one of those "put your hands in the air" and everyone totally did it because they were telling you to and it wasn't cheesy or stupid. It felt like "yeah!!" [Screams] That was great. Iggy Pop. Fan-fucking-tastic! So, you always a little bit wary "oh please don't suck" Patti Smith "please don't suck" and they get here and everyone's nice. They're masters. Not just legends, they're masters. That's how they became legends, because they're masters of their art. So it's always nice when that happens.
Bad shows here...You always feel like you're trying to be nice to everybody. When they don't reciprocate, it's like – what? That's so foreign to me! I don't understand that. There's no one that I can think of that's been particularly rude that stands out in my mind. There was a few shows that I just worried about safety and stuff. Like maybe GWAR and they promised me they wouldn't have fire. They set the ceiling on fire, and that was pretty much the maddest I've ever been. Because melting stuff came down and it's like essentially napalm. It's just sheer luck it didn't land on somebody. I was so mad at them, and I said "I don't understand what you're trying to do. Why do you want to destroy? Why don't you want to make something? [Why do you] want to tear everything down? Because no one says anything about your music."
You know, if you want to smash your guitar or whatever, I think it's kind of silly, but it's your guitar. But when you want to burn my place down and endanger people, then that's not to be tolerated…When you're punk rock, you're supposed to say things are bad or say "down with this, I hate this," but when you actually want to physically hurt people, or destroy stuff, I never really got that.
There was a band that we got really on their case because they graffittied a wall. I haven't painted a wall in 17 years. I haven't censored anything – even stuff that says "40 watt sucks" or whatever. I haven't touched anything. Nothing. I think when a mirror broke, I had to put a new mirror up and it might have covered up [some graffiti]. But nothing's changed, and the reason I got mad at the band was because they went into the headliners dressing room and spray-painted toxic fumes in a 12' x 4' room, rendering it uninhabitable. That's what I was mad about. I wasn't mad about what they wrote. I think they just wrote the band name. I thought that was kind of silly. But the band and I have reconciled that and I explained to them why I was mad at them. I don't care, you know, people write a lot of stupid stuff on the walls, most of it's not very good.
KA: The graffiti backstage is outstanding!
BB: There are a couple of bands that have asked to have it covered because it's just too… sensory overload? Bands like punk rock bands and country bands. I mean people that you wouldn't necessarily imagine, they go "I need to center myself, this is my living room. I can't look at 'shit, fuck, bitch' for an hour before I get onstage." So the solution is I went and got some of those hippie bedspreads, tacked those up, made a little tent. A hippie tent. Which is very cool. People say, "leave this up all the time." No! But you can write on the wall and you can read the wall if that's how you're entertained. But for people that request it, that's how we do it.
So nothing ever gets changed or censored. No, you don't get in trouble for writing your name on the wall, you get in trouble for spray-painting and stinking up the joint! The fire part – this was way before Rhode Island – just freaked me out. Fireworks, pyro – we banned that years ago when we said the insurance policy won't allow it. But mainly it was because it worried me a lot. But [GWAR] guaranteed they wouldn't do it, and then they did.
KA: Best rumor about the club you've heard that's untrue?
BB: Best rumor that's untrue… that we're corporate millionaires! [Laughs] [Bands say,] "We've got to play the house party, the do-it-yourself punk rock places because the 40 Watt is so 'corporate.'" You're kidding me? You know how rich we are! Look at this couch, Kenny! [Laughs] When people see a "My Morning Jacket" show and it's a sold-out night, well, there are plenty of nights where I'm always happy if there's 50 people here. At least I'm having a little party! And it will be fine.
KA: You are here every night?
BB: Well, not every night, but quite a bit. I know that there's maybe a lot of people who don't do that because maybe they have family obligations or whatever, and have to get up early. I can invent my own schedule, so I can do it, plus I think it would be kind of silly to have a nightclub and not go to it! Then maybe it is a money machine or something like that. If you don't like it, or enjoy it, if you can't be down with that. Freakin' out about every little penny. It's Athens, GA, it's not the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.
KA: What motivates you? What keeps your pistons pumping?
BB: I always think it's really weird when people say there's nobody they like right now because I'm like really, really? I'm not always running to the record store every day, but listen to this… I'm always afraid I'm gonna miss something!
