Comments (0) Best Rock Club to Die in the Past 12 Months - 2007
Mississippi Nights
While far too many local music clubs and venues have shuttered their doors in the past few years, no closure stung more than that of Mississippi Nights. One might argue that the club's booking had declined in quality in recent years, or that its cover-band pedigree in the 1980s was the very antithesis of the underground. But there was a mystique around the Nights, owing in part to its unique location, on the very bank of the Mississippi. "The river was so close, that's sort of legendary to people traveling through the Midwest," recalls Michael Apirion of the Unconscious, a Mississippi Nights staple band. "I remember stepping out the back door on set breaks, trying to get a little mojo out from the river." And oh, the travelers Mississippi Nights drew, the touring bands who might have otherwise skipped over St. Louis: Nirvana, Jane's Addiction, the Replacements, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tori Amos, X, Psychedelic Furs and Fishbone, to name a scant few. This roster alone makes the venue worthy of admiration, but the family atmosphere the place fostered among staff and regulars — as evidenced by the many tears shed during the final jam on a cold January night — perhaps reveals the most about how much Mississippi Nights will be missed.
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