Located on Charlotte’s west side, more southern fried than gentrified, the Milestone Club remains a magnet for adventurous, live music-goers. End of this month is believe it or not, is the club’s 40th anniversary. For the uninitiated, the Milestone is located on Tuckaseegee Road, next door to the Last Pitcher Show. It’s most definitely Charlotte’s answer to New York’s no longer living but legendary, CBGB’s.
It’s a tremendous sounding room for live music, capacity maybe 150, great for cutting edge music – local, regional, national and imported, whatever your taste, week after week, year after year. It’s a place to hear music in an intimate environment before the performers get famous, or while they’re at their creative best, minus the crowds and without Ticketron. Generally priced under $10.00, you can see the world’s greatest bands before anyone else. One example, REM played the Milestone on their very first tour out of Athens. “Maybe before they even used the name REM,” says current manager Neal MF Harper. Neal runs the club while partner Philip Shive does the booking.
Neal says owner long time owner Bill Flowers gave him his big break. “I wouldn’t be be running the Milestone if it wasn’t for Bill. He let me set up the sound when I was just 16. There was always something crazy happening there.”
The most famous Milestone story was when REM first toured, they had no money, so Bill Flowers let the band sleep for free on the stage. Only problem with that was he locked them in and the door can only be unlocked from the outside. Needless to say, the fellows were a little disturbed upon realizing they couldn’t get out, so eventually they busted out. According to Neal, “That was around 1984 - their first tour. Three stops in Georgia, one in South Carolina, then Charlotte and Chapel Hill”. According to Neal, REM’s manager, recently was reported saying about the Milestone, “Yeah we love that place. It’s a proving ground for bands coming up in the South.”
Even if you don’t know the bands, you can still hear cool sounds ranging from head banging metal to punk to folk to Andy the Door Bum, who runs the door on weekends and actually made a recording there while checking ID’s. “The Door Booth Album” (on Neal’s Afterbirth Casserole label) was recorded at the Milestone door alcove. According to him and many others, “The Milestone changed my life. Been working there now four and a half years. Made my first recording there and it changed my life. We recorded in the door alcove, which was a pain because everyone kept coming in and we had to keep stopping.” Andy continues, “Anyway, it changed my life because now I make music all the time and it’s just great. The Milestone made it possible,” he says.
Wandering thru the Milestone early, on a Friday night, can make you feel like an anthropologist, clipboard in hand, unearthing artifacts while noting the hieroglyphic like graffiti covering the walls. Between shots of whiskey and Jagermeister, Neal takes me to a back corner proudly showing me the Michel Stipe poem written on the wall:
“In these tears
I cry a bit
More and more
Every time
I shout for forgiveness
From these sins”
MS
Visiting the club on an October night, soaking in the smoky atmosphere, I listen to a passionate set by local Charlotte band Grown Up Avenger Stuff. Wanna talk to the band? Sure, no problem at the Milestone. Next up was M.E.G.O, louder than God, made the reinforced floors and walls vibrate.
Couple of nights later I saw the screechy Holy Smokes and heard the good time sounds of Appalucia, playing jug band music, minus the jug. Should have stayed for Josh Roberts and the Hinges but that’s how the Milestone goes; catch as many bands as you like on any given night; some are great, some are memorable and some not. And there’s always time to throw down a few cold ones nearby at the bar.
Here’s my list of favorites I’ve seen there. My all time favorite was watching Mo Tucker, that’s Maureen Tucker, the drummer with the Velvet Underground, from about 5 feet away, backed by the incredible Half Japanese. Other great, shows were the Bad Livers, the Melvins, the Go-Go’s and the Brains (“Money Changes Everything”). I also liked the Lunachicks, Superchunk, Steel Pole Bathtub, Joe King Carrasco and the Crowns, the Accelerators and of course Eugene Chadbourne. (and his electric rake!)
The best combo show was the late Hasil Adkins, Southern Culture on the Skids and Cowboy Mouth. Other memorable shows caught were They Might Be Giants, Edie Brickell (Ms Paul Simon) and the New Bohemians, Swervedriver, Hawkwind, the tragic duo House of Freaks and the Bevis Frond. I saw Hole, along with maybe 10 others, but the set was short and the gargling-with-glass-throated Courtney Love, spent half the night grousing at the bar complaining about Charlotte not being LA. Well, duh! Some people never change.
Memorable local bands seen were the Lunatics, Tom Montefusco and his Noise Orchestra, the Blind Dates, Antiseen, The Spongetones, Don Dixon and Marti Jones.
Bands I missed at the Milestone, but saw elsewhere include the likes of the Violent Femmes, REM, Love Tractor, Fugazi, Hillbilly Frankenstein, Husker Du, Dinosaur, Jr., and the Dead Milkmen.
The old player piano in the corner is gone – my favorite perch, above the moshers - but the atmosphere remains the same as manager Neal and booking dude Phillip made numerous changes. They improved the sound system, added a few racks, took out the bleachers, added a place for bands to peddle their wares and even improved and expanded the bar. Now they even sell mixed drinks. They keep up the place so it looks almost normal or at least not filthy. When run by owner and sometime manager Bill Flowers, for years he only served Miller or Bud and half the time ran out, so intrepid club goers had to hoof it down the street to the local 7/11 to bring back some cold ones, while dodging the locals who occasionally stole instruments left on the sidewalk.
Talking recently with former manager Penny Craver, drummer for the Blind Dates – now running the restaurant called Dish says, “The neighbors there were as afraid of the people attending the Milestone as the music people were afraid of them, what with their wild hair, the Mohawks…”
Penny’s take on the ‘Stone is “that it’s the place where all the various bands on small labels would play. Now,” she says, “They’re bypassing us for the larger and bigger clubs in Charlotte and elsewhere. “But it’s nice to have a club this size.”
Penny’s favorite Milestone anecdote, “Was our second night open, in 1991. We had Fugazi. People were climbing walls over the patio and jumping in. I let lots of local musicians in free. It was mad. There were 700 people there that night. Cool history in it. Times have changed. It was a great place to run.”
Besides Neal, Penny and owner Bill Flowers – who bought the place in 1969 - other Milestone managers included the personable Tony Farina, (from the Inn) the dynamic duo of Jeff Lowery and Tim Blong, who went on to run noteworthy, memorable venues like the Pterodactyl and 13-13,
Despite Penny’s thoughts, the old days are not yet over. Current manager Neal says, “If walls could talk here, you’d need ear plugs.” The Melvins – the founders of grunge – played here not too long ago. Dexter Romweber plays there this month.
My own favorite new band of neo-bohemians, Spindrift, played their first Charlotte gig of course, at the Milestone. Their spaghetti-western oater “Legend of God’s Gun” played recently at this year’s Charlotte Film Festival.
Neal has his own current favorites playing the Milestone. He says, “Captured By Robots has been real amazing every time they’re here. They come every year. The Sword became pretty big. Now they tour Europe opening for Metallica.”
Again visiting the Milestone – it’s addictive - I caught two excellent Brooklyn bands, the So-So Glos and Titus Andronicus, playing loud, fast and relentless. Weekdays often bring the best touring bands because not having decent radio, Charlotte draws smaller weekend audiences. But lying between the larger or cooler burgs, like Atlanta and DC or Asheville and Chapel Hill, brings in notable touring bands with open weekday slots.
Another excellent Milestone quirk is that the shows start late. While not good for working stiffs going in at 8 the next morning, as far as I’m concerned, I miss way too many shows by arriving at 10 at night. Who wants to be at a music hall by 7:30? Apparently, plenty don’t mind and it leads to the Milestone’s next problem. The weekday shows, however excellent, draw sparse crowds. The club is out-of-the-way in unfashionable West Charlotte, but in reality, not too distant from city center. Though other clubs are located in more desirable locations, they lack the Milestone’s mystique, attitude and presence.
Neal takes me around for one last look at the hieroglyphics on the walls, this time showing me a note signed by KMFDM:
“Itchy bitchy
Scratchy snatchy,”
which sums up the Milestone itself - short, sharp, fast, and funky.
As the cliché goes, for the Milestone this 40th anniversary is just the beginning. Let’s bring on the attitude and catch the Milestone’s next 40 years.
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Here's the layout in Charlotte's Creative Loafing, Oct. 21, 2009.
One sentence was changed plus they added a mention of Nirvana:
http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/milestone_hits_40th_anniversary/Content?oid=749830
