Chicago Metro (venue)
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| Former names | Cabaret Metro |
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| Address | 3730 N. Clark Street |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 41°57′0″N 87°39′31″W / 41.95000°N 87.65861°WCoordinates: 41°57′0″N 87°39′31″W / 41.95000°N 87.65861°W |
| Owner | Joe Shanahan |
| Capacity | 1100 |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1927 |
| Opened | July 1982 |
| Website | |
| metrochicago |
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This page is about the concert hall; for the metro region surrounding Chicago, see Chicago metropolitan area.
Metro (formerly Cabaret Metro) is a concert hall at 3730 N. Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois that plays host to a variety of local, regional and national emerging bands and musicians. The Metro was first opened in 1982. The capacity is 1100, divided between the main floor and the balcony. The building housing Metro also houses Smart Bar underneath the main venue.
In the late 1970s, Joe Shanahan, having experienced the art, music and dance culture in New York City, created a club to host creative acts in Chicago.
Shanahan was directed to the Northside Auditorium Building. The building was originally built in 1927 as a Swedish Community Center. When Shanahan came across it, it was home to a jazz/folk club, Stages.
Shanahan opened Smart Bar in July 1982 as a dance club, mixing a variety of the new genres of the time. Smart Bar was on the fourth floor of the building, which now houses the offices of the Metro staff. DJs Frankie Knuckles and Joe Smooth performed regularly. Ministry and similar bands performed their new industrial music by playing tapes of newly recorded songs.
In August 1982, Shanahan, through his production company Latest Creations, booked and promoted a concert the then little-known band from Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. The show was a success and Shanahan began booking the club's weekend slots, gradually taking over the main floor of Stages. He then moved Smart Bar from the fourth floor to the basement of the building. Metro, then called Cabaret Metro, was re-opened as a live music venue in its current space.
Metro at first booked mainly local bands, including Naked Raygun and Big Black, and later brought in bands from out of town, including New York's Sonic Youth, Glenn Danzig's Samhain and the Ramones, Athens for R.E.M. and Pylon. Minneapolis for The Replacements, Hüsker Dü and Soul Asylum. Texas for the Butthole Surfers, and California for X and The Bangles. In Metro's first year of business, it hosted New Order, Depeche Mode, Killing Joke, Billy Idol and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
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