Continuing the celebration for Bogarts, which turned 50 over the summer, CityBeat asked a few local figures who have been associated with the venue over the years for their stories.
Most likely, every music fan living in Cincinnati and the Tri-State since 1975 has stood in line on Short Vine in Corryville underneath the glow of the Bogart’s marquee to witness something great on the venue’s stage.
Bogart’s was where I saw my first club show, which proved to be a drastic difference compared to the arena concerts I had seen as a kid. I was 14 at the height of a sea change in pop culture and music when the garage rock revival took over. One of the central bands of that movement and a favorite of mine at the time, The Vines, played Bogart’s in December of 2002. It was a life-changing experience waiting in line on Short Vine, then having to run across the street to Sudsy Malone’s, the grungy bar/laundromat/venue that I would later learn about and be glad I got to step into to use the bathroom after too many Coca-Colas.
We were second in line waiting in the December cold to get in and get a good spot, an experience that was also new to me. As the doors opened and people rushed in, I grabbed a poster for the show off the wall that I still have, and we got a front-row spot right by the stage. The opener was a young British band called The Music that I loved discovering that night, and when their drummer threw a drum stick to the foot of the stage, a suave British photographer working for NME Magazine handed it to me. When The Vines first came out, I was completely hooked and couldn’t stop imagining how my friends and I might become something like them. The band was young, wild and pure rock and roll energy. Seeing lead singer/guitar player Craig Nicholls smash his guitar into pieces — leaving shreds of wood all over the stage at the end — was completely amazing and reinforced my love for rock and roll and all these parts of it that I had only seen in videos from different eras, or older rockstars do at much bigger, more distant and larger concerts. This was right in front of my face and felt like it belonged to me.
Other standouts over the years include a time my dad took me to see The Used when I was 15, and singer Bert McCracken threw a water bottle into the audience that bounced off the wall, hitting my dad in the arm. It didn’t bother him, but I felt a little bad since he brought me to this teeny-bopper rock concert, but it was also instantly funny. Then, after the concert, the guitar player came out and did cartwheels naked to a Prince song as everyone left. I didn’t see that at KISS or Scorpions concerts (and thank god), but it was pretty hilarious.
I got to work at Bogart’s one time for a side job I’ve done over the years, and, not only that, but it was for a tour stop on the MC5 anniversary celebration tour “MC50.” I got to hang around in the venue hours before the show because I didn’t have anything at all to do that early, so someone introduced me to Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty, who was on the tour, and a little later, I met Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil as he left to go get some food before the show. But, by far, the most exciting moment for me was getting to meet MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer when he came to hang out with the fans who paid extra to get in and ask some questions. The show was insanely great and inspiring. Afterward, I ran into some Cincinnati friends and we hung out with openers, garage rock legends The Detroit Cobras, and the band’s co-leader, Mary Ramirez, told me I looked like a “Cincinnati boy,” a badge of honor of sorts.
Another favorite is seeing KISS’ Ace Frehley solo for the first time at maybe the loudest concert I’ve ever been to.
Jack White played a rare show there last fall, getting ready for his upcoming tour, and I was able to right a wrong from years before when I voluntarily didn’t go see my two favorite bands at the time, The White Stripes and Whirlwind Heat, in 2003 when my high school girlfriend couldn’t go. It was great to set things right and see a lifelong favorite at Bogart’s.
What follows is a collection of local voices sharing memories from over the years, of either performing at Bogart’s, working there, or just unforgettable experiences tied to the venue.
Peter Aaron is a musician, award-winning journalist, writer and radio DJ. He booked several significant shows in Cincinnati throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, including a pre-fame Nirvana at Murphy’s Pub. He’s also the lead singer of legendary Cincinnati/New York garage punk band the Chrome Cranks and singer of current band Stabbing Jabs. One of his most recent projects is putting together the history of Cincinnati punk compilation We Were Living In Cincinnati, which now includes a second volume released in June.
I was a Bogart’s employee from 1985 to 1987, helping with the promotions and doing some of the booking in kind of an advisory capacity. Dan Reed, the club’s main booking agent for what was called alternative music in those days, got me the job because he’d picked up a copy of my fanzine and liked it. I was about 21 when I started there. I’d make posters and fliers. Those postcard mailers they used to send out, with the lists of upcoming shows on them? My idea. Eventually, I got fired for slacking off, which turned out to be a good thing because it got me to start booking shows of my own at other venues. But that’s another story. Here’s this one.
When Cheap Trick came through in ’87, I was there during the day while they were setting up. They were at sort of a low career point then. They hadn’t had any hits in a while, and they’d gone from playing arenas back down to Bogart’s-sized clubs. And as of the afternoon of this show, tickets had been selling very poorly. There was kind of a bleak pall over everything during the load-in. But I was still really excited to see them. The great Tom Petersson had just rejoined the band, who had been total gods to me when I was in high school.
After working in the front office for a bit, I took a break and went out into the main room to catch the sound check. Lo and behold, there was Robin Zander, walking around the floor of the club and absent-mindedly strumming an acoustic guitar. Damn! Looking back, I think maybe he was working on a new song. But whatever he was up to, there he was, one of my musical heroes. Right there. I had to say something to him. Get him to notice me. So I walked right up to him and I did.
“Hey,” I began, with a grin. “Maybe you could go out on the sidewalk and play for people…”
Almost as soon as these words had left my mouth, my heart sank.
I immediately realized how they’d sounded to him. Like a lame, attempted joke coming from some greasy, anonymous kid who worked at the club. With the bummer of lackluster advance ticket sales in his brain, to the golden-maned singer, one of the best in the business, my meant-to-be-funny quip most assuredly came across as: You better get out front and do some busking to drum up business, because you guys are has-beens and your audience turnout is totally tanking.
Not the message I intended, to say the least. Anyway, it was too late now. Open mouth, insert foot.
With my aural faux pas now hanging there in the dead air, Zander, who was wearing a colorful, fringed leather jacket and one of those cool military-style officer’s caps he frequently sports, quit strumming and stopped dead in his tracks.
With a stone face, he tilted his head back. His eyes looked me up and down with a cold, contempt-seething gaze.
Somehow, I managed to respond with a nervous, sheepish smile. There was a painfully long silence.
“Yeah…,” he said, nodding slowly and looking me straight in the eyes. “I could do that.”
And that was it. He turned and walked away, strumming once again.
As a fan, it was beyond humbling and humiliating. I felt like a complete ass.
But it was a learning experience, and it taught me to think a bit about the surrounding situation when I went to make friendly with other icons down the road (my encounter with Johnny Rotten as a show runner that year was more measured but memorable nonetheless; again, another story for another time).
When Cheap Trick finally did hit the stage that night, they totally and utterly rocked, as they always do. And just a few months later, they had their enormous comeback hit with “The Flame,” selling out Bogart’s almost as soon as the tickets went on sale and making their ascent back to the arena level, at least for a while.
And, as far as I know, Zander still hasn’t had to resort to busking.
Steve Schmoll is a veteran musician and live sound engineer who has toured internationally with numerous bands. He is also the former owner of Black Plastic, a beloved local record store.
I worked at Bogart’s starting in the fall of 1987 and through the spring of 1989. There were so many shows back then — shows almost every day of the week. Before that, I had already seen many incredible shows there — The Stranglers, Bad Brains, Devo, Cro-Mags, local metal shows, Sunday hardcore punk matinees, etc.
Probably the most mind-blowing show before I worked there was the Butthole Surfers, I think in 1986. One of the great aspects of the shows back then were the curtains. Curtains would be closed in between bands and open right before they started, so you didn’t see any of the behind-the-scenes action. So you would be up front just waiting for that curtain to open. There was not a lot of media back then, so with underground bands, you would only have a few photos to reference as to what a band actually looked like. Me and my weird high school friend were already really into the Butthole Surfers albums, so we had some idea there was going to be some fun insanity.
So the curtain opens with the band starting and there they are, unkempt, greasy in their tattered clothes, dual drummers to the right of the stage. In the background, an enormous movie screen showing vintage educational films that would change every 15 minutes: a highway safety film including all the gored corpses in their mangled cars, a vasectomy film and another of tropical fish swimming. The band only played one song, a forty-five-minute-long jam, occasionally lighter fluid being poured onto cymbals, then lit, and the flames would shoot upward as the cymbal was hit. Singer Gibby Haynes alternated between shouting through a megaphone and manipulating the digital delay on his vocals, while the stage filled with chaos: men with sideways ponytails, a female drummer, and — on the back-center riser — a naked woman in a hula skirt, her body painted green with red dreadlocks, thrashing under a strobe light as she danced and dribbled a basketball. Seeing this even now would be jaw-dropping, but seeing it forty years ago as a music-obsessed high school misanthrope, it was just unimaginable, just burning through my brain.
I started working there and my main job throughout my time there was the mailing list. I had a clipboard and would start working about an hour before doors opened and collect addresses for the Bogart’s mailing list. We then would send out postcards a few times a month with our show calendar on them. Eventually, other responsibilities of doing the front window displays, working production (many times this would consist of loading the dummy cabs into the elevator, as even the thrash metal bands would have a wall of fake guitar amps behind them and one real one) and working security standing behind the barricade the year they started putting up a barricade.
Here are some brief Bogart’s memories off the top of my head:
- The first show I worked was Public Image Ltd. It was sold out, and I do remember the local TV meteorologist Steve Horstmeyer was in the line for that one.
- The Pogues: I remember working in the office and hearing a few days before the show that Shane MacGowan would not be singing, but they would have a replacement singer with them because MacGowan was in rehab. I worked production that day. Someone says, “The band’s here!” and the backstage door opens and Shane MacGowan comes in wearing sunglasses and passes out on the green room couch where he slept until about half an hour before showtime.
- Peter Murphy: Waiting for the encore as the crowd is demanding one. Purple lights from the cans light up the stage and he walks out and does a cover of “Purple Rain.”
- Seeing Teenage Fanclub on their Bandwagonesque tour
- Jerry Lee Lewis: Still young enough to get up on the stool and hit the high keys with his feet
- Joey Ramone telling me the best rock show he ever saw was The Who in 1969. “Go Lil’ Camaro Go” was on their new album. I said it was my favorite and asked if they were going to do any more like their original sound. “No, we are a rock band now like Motorhead,” he said.
- The Replacements: I got to work in the barricade and there were no other Replacements fans on the production staff, so I got to be in the front and center spot. Lost my mind when they went into The Only Ones’ “Another Girl, Another Planet” and had to quickly jump out of the way as Paul Westerberg leapt off the stage into the barricade area where I was.
- Agnostic Front: I got to play a few shows at Bogart’s and this was one of them — Agnostic Front at their hardcore punk peak, about 600 punks there, mostly skinheads. One of the openers cancelled last minute and somehow we got put on the bill. I was playing bass in Human Zoo, which was a Stooges/New York Dolls-style band. Songs end and there wasn’t booing, really, but like lots of yelling, “You suck!” “Play faster!” etc., and I look out at the crowd and it’s all dudes with their arms crossed over their chest, angry skins. A few songs in and I had really long hair then as now, so I could not see very well when I was playing, but I felt what was like a very hard raindrop on my head and look up and can’t figure out what it was and then seconds go by and then another one. The song ends, we go into our next one and just this constant rain of being pelted with pennies and was continuously pelted the rest of the set. It was hilarious and at the end of the set as we were packing up, I did grab all the quarters and dimes.
- Buzzcocks: One of my favorite bands and they were amazing. And, not really fitting of their music, they had these color televisions on the stage, like four big ones showing these corny graphics of “digital art.” Pete Shelley, towards the end of the set, goes, “Well, this is the last show of our U.S. tour, so I guess we won’t be needing these anymore”. He takes off the guitar, and swinging it like a baseball bat, starts smashing in the screens of the televisions, sparks and glass flying — so great.
- Legal Weapon: The L.A. glam punk band I had seen before at Jockey Club. It was a really small show. As we were leaving, I noticed a bunch of people were on the top balcony level drinking. I asked the next day, “What were people doing on the balcony level last night?” “Oh, Guns N’ Roses were driving through and had a party to celebrate “Sweet Child O’ Mine” going to number one.”
- One day in the front office — this almost never happened — they asked me, “Hey, we have Circle Jerks coming and have no opener, is there anyone you recommend?” I got one of my favorites who were still pretty unknown Nine Pound Hammer — huge show and the kids loved them. I ran into the guitarist 25 years later and he thanked me again for that show.
- Megadeth: This was right when they were breaking through into the mainstream and Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying? was on MTV every hour. So they booked two nights in a row, both sold out. Some deal was made with someone and we got boxes and boxes of this thrash metal magazine shipped to us. It looked like a magazine but all of the articles and interviews were bands from one label. It was like a Mad Libs-sized mini magazine, about 16 pages or so. So, night of the show, I did mailing list up until doors opened and then had to hand out these free magazines to kids after their I.D. check. There were probably like 500 of them. Most kids would look at them for a minute and then throw them on the floor. So, opening band is done, I have run out of magazines and walk out to the floor, and it’s packed wall to wall with suburban metal kids. And then up front I see this like slow-moving fireball go up in the air and go across the crowd in the front. I am like “What the heck was that?” And then a few moments later, I see another one of these fireballs go up into the air from another part of the crowd and then I could see and realize that kids were lighting the magazines on fire and throwing them through the air. So I go and tell one of the bouncers and he gets another one and the three of us each get trash bags and have to push through the crowd, grabbing as many of these magazines off the floor as we can find. I am glad no one was hurt but I love mischievous teenagers.
Robert Wendel is the operator of the Facebook group page Bogart’s Memories, which has over 6,500 members who share photos, ticket stubs, posters and memories from their time spent at the venue.
I pretty much have great memories of all Bogart’s shows, but here’s a few that really stand out:
- Motorhead, Dec. 3, 1984: My very first Bogart’s show. The sound was amazing and very loud. Ears rang for days.
- WASP, March 7, 1986 – Incredible stage show, lots of blood and raw meat.
- Frank Marino and Ronnie Montrose, June 9, 1986: Two of the greatest guitarists playing the same night. A real shred fest.
- Gregg Allman and Dickie Betts, July 19, 1986: Both played an individual set and then came out together to play some Allman Brothers hits.
- King Diamond and Megadeth, July 27, 1986: Was wanting to see if King could pull off the vocals live and he nailed it.
- Slayer and Overkill, Nov. 24, 1986: Pure thrash heaven.
- Paul Di’anno’s Battlezone, Dec. 18, 1986: Was great seeing Iron Maiden’s original vocalist doing solo and Maiden tunes
- Anthrax and Metal Church, June 12, 1987: More thrash greatness.
- Frehley’s Comet and White Lion, July 11, 1987: Awesome seeing KISS’ Ace Frehley doing solo and KISS tunes.
- Gary Moore and Hurricane: Aug. 18, 1987: One of my favorite guitarists! Just amazing.
- Manowar and Victory: Aug. 24, 1987: The Loudest show I ever saw at Bogart’s! The hair on my arms was moving!
- Grim Reaper, Armored Saint and Helloween, Oct. 10, 1987: Can’t beat this trio of heavy metal bands
- Savatage and Trouble, July 14, 1990: Savatage never disappoints.
- Wrathchild America and Pantera, April 10, 1991: Pantera before they were famous! Hell yeah!!
- UFO, Aug. 31, 1995: The reunion tour with Michael Schenker. Great show!
- Dio, Armored Saint and Lynch Mob, Feb. 21, 2001: Three incredible bands in one night!
- Volbeat, July 26, 2011: Volbeat before they got huge!
Eric Stein is a local musician, formerly of The Griefs and The Greenhornes and currently of the Grotesque Brooms, among others, who played Bogart’s as a member of The Greenhornes in July 2002, opening for Guided By Voices. He recalls a favorite performance as a teen.
Saw a few shows there. The Cramps (might have been the Flamejob tour) were pretty good. Bogart’s had a wire cage-type-thing in front of the stage so the audience couldn’t climb up or throw beer bottles at the performers. And I don’t remember much about the night but I do remember Lux (Interior) saying with a very condescending tone, “I don’t get why there’s a cage separating us here. You don’t seem like a crowd that needs a cage. You don’t seem dangerous at all,“ or something along those lines and I found it very funny. But he seemed like he meant it wholeheartedly. He seemed kinda pissed off a bit.
Daisy Caplan, originally from Louisville, Kentucky, is the drummer of local band Lung, which just released its fourth studio album, The Swankeeper, and tours the country regularly. CityBeat reached out to ask about his experience when Lung opened for Jesus Lizard at Bogart’s last September.
“I’ve not only played there, but I probably wouldn’t live here if it didn’t exist. I used to come up several times a month for shows when I was a youth.”
On performing at the venue:
“Always really smooth and fun. Great stage with good sound, big without losing the intimacy/immediacy of the audience. They also tend to hire solid folks who are absolute pros.”
Takoda Hortenberry is the vocalist and drummer for local band Beef on Feel It Records. Beef was the local band chosen to open a special appearance from Jack White at Bogart’s in October 2024 for a series of pop-up shows he was doing at smaller venues at the beginning of his last tour.
I haven’t been able to attend a concert at Bogart’s since moving back to Cincy a few years ago, but I grew up seeing all my favorite bands play there.
Honestly, I don’t know what to say about that night except that it felt extremely fucking fun. Bogart’s has brought so many bands through that I’ve waited outside the door for hours to get a front row spot to see. It just felt really good to be a part of it on the stage side of the venue. I felt the same kind of stoked playing there as when I first saw one of my favorite bands play there.
Chris Schadler is a local musician in bands like Stallone N’ Roses and Fairmount Girls. He’s also the co-founder and owner of MOTR Pub and the Woodward Theater.
As teenagers, we all loved going there to see Chastia /Leather/CJSS.
Brian Powers is a reference librarian in the local history department of the Cincinnati Public Library, a music fan and author.
“The first time I went to Bogart’s was three days after I arrived to live in Cincinnati. This was late January 1995, and it was a Sunday night with Nick Lowe and Jim Lauderdale opening. Such a great show! I appreciated that Bogart’s allowed people who were under 21 years old to stand with the older concertgoers. For years, I went to the Boathouse in Norfolk, Virginia, and saw lots of great shows. But they kept the teenagers in a separate section and usually the younger crowd couldn’t stand in front of the stage, even though they paid the same ticket price. I liked that anyone of any age had the opportunity to see their band in front of the stage. Saw so many great shows – Flaming Lips come to mind. Another concert that I thought was incredible was Patti Smith, a performer who I know more about her legend than her music, but she put on an amazing show when she was in her fifties. Such intensity – much respect to her!
Chris Smith is a reference librarian in the local history department of the Cincinnati Public Library, as well as a punk historian who has attended several shows at Bogart’s. Here are some of his memories.
You had to be 18 to enter at a time.
Some shows of note:
- First show for me was the original Three Dog Night on Nov. 22, 1982.
- The Plasmatics on Dec. 4, 1982
- Iggy Pop with Clem Burke on drums, Feb. 14, 1983
- Other shows in 1983: The Stranglers; Modern English; Motorhead; Psychedelic Furs on March 29; Lords of the New Church; seeing Brian James and Stiv Bators, members of the Lords and two punk rock legends — Stiv rolled around in broken glass at one point. They were touring the first album, amazing show, band was so tight.
- Other shows of note in the 1980s: Motörhead (three times), Randy Newman, B.B. King, Nick Lowe, Iggy Pop on several occasions, Jesus and Mary Chain, Pixies, Curve, Spiritualized, Sonic Boom, Robyn Trower, Pere Ubu, the Replacements, Love and Rockets and the Primitives opening for the Sugarcubes. I still remember being backstage with Tracy and the Primitives when Björk walked in, visibly nervous about going on. I gave her a hug, told her how good she looked, assured her everything would be fine — and then literally sent her on stage. Other highlights included Joe Jackson premiering all-new material in 1988, as well as performances by the Buzzcocks, Slayer, DEVO, Alvin Lee and Joan Baez, among many others.
- The 1990s and beyond: Iggy Pop, The Damned, The Darling Buds, Pansy Division, Green Day, Public Image Ltd., to name a few.
Adam Vorobok is a reference librarian in the local history department of the Cincinnati Public Library who has frequented Bogart’s over the years.
In January of 2002, I was a college student at Ohio University and deeply in love. I had a perfect weekend set up: my parents, who were living in Cincy at the time, were out of town. I was going to take my crush to The Suicide Machines show at Bogart’s and we were going to stay at their house. The problem was I didn’t drive and needed my older brother to drive me home and he wanted to stay for the Mitch Hedberg comedy show. (Oh, how I regret this now, especially after learning the tickets were only $3). When she decided not to come with me, I still insisted on my brother taking me so I could buy her a shirt and get it autographed. Which I did. When I gave her the shirt, she looked mortified. And when I asked her out a few days later, she rejected me by shoving me to the ground. Oh, punk rock love.
Elliott Ruther is a musician and co-founder of the Cincinnati USA Music Heritage Foundation.
Bogart’s has been such a vitally important venue for the Cincinnati music scene for decades, in all its various names and iterations. Whether as a venue for touring acts, or for local bands, its history is unique and deserving of a historic marker, along with other music history happenings with its Short Vine neighbors. For me personally, my first memories were seeing friends in high school band competitions in the 1980s and metal festivals, along with Bo Diddley and George Thorogood (which I still think is the loudest concert I ever saw). Later, I enjoyed seeing local friends who had some real traction nationwide, like Bobby Gayol of Moth, headline Bogart’s shows. It is also a venue to experience pop-up shows of major acts in an intimate venue, like Bob Dylan in the late ‘90s or Jack White last year. Incidentally, if you find a bootleg of the Dylan show, you will get to hear Dylan deliver a stand-up comedy joke, as well as an enthusiastic fan in the mayor-to-be, John Cranley, with whom I went to that show. Otherwise, I have loved learning about all the shows and happenings from others who have shared their stories, like how often James Brown was there, to include developing bands from musicians playing there. Or, how Prince did a “secret show” there, which was in part a purposeful following in the footsteps of Mr. Brown. It is one of the real gems of our community, despite, or as demonstrated in, the debates about the venue and its changes. May it live on for another 50 years.