The History of Minneapolis's Most Famous Music Club: First Avenue | Full Documentary

A possibly true story of the legendary Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue. Prince may have made the club famous, but many others have toiled backstage to keep this landmark standing. From the days of Woodstock, through disco, punk, and hip-hop this "pirate ship that goes nowhere" has weathered the storm - just barely.
00:00 Toussaint Morrison introduces you to "First Avenue: Closer to the Stars"
00:53 First Avenue: Closer to the Stars
01:24 Joe Cocker at The Depot: the very beginning
02:48 The early chaos of The Depot: meet the players and the place
08:45 The closing of the Depot...or is it? Welcome to Uncle Sam's
16:12 Welcome to Sam's...no Uncle
24:14 7th Street Entry opens up for non-traditional bands
31:04 New year, new name: First Avenue opens
32:35 "Here comes Prince.": Purple Rain saves First Avenue and also changes it
36:40 Dance nights and concerts at First Avenue
42:17 "You don't do Black music downtown" - the years that hip-hop found a place at First Avenue
45:05 Minneapolis is changing...
47:47 First Avenue is in trouble again...and again.
50:24 First Avenue closes
51:31 First Avenue is reborn, thanks to the people of Minneapolis
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#FirstAve #Prince #purplerain #Documentary

[@themuatas]

This was so fun to watch! Brought back lots of memories of hanging out, and our old band, Cold Front, playing both the Main stage and 7th Street in late 80s and early 90s...good times. Great documentary!

[@shable1436]

Got to be wild playing there

[@whipchick90]

I graduated HS in 83, and my best friend and I spent endless nights dancing there and attending shows. Back in the day, The Cure show was my favorite, in 84.

[@ROCKNROLLFAN]

Prince was the GREATEST that ever graced the music world. Purple Rain was the GREATEST Rock N Roll film ever made. That Man gave his ALL, helped a lot of people, and still has a vault of music for the next century and regardless of what's inside of there, he gave us the cream of the crops of EVERYTHING that was ever recorded when he was alive in the flesh.

[@Ann-db0P]

Totally agree. For me it’s about Bowie and Prince. I see quite some similarities and Bowie admitted so. My 2 biggest heroes, both sadly gone in 2016. When I hear 2016, that’s what I think of.

[@vcr210]

Was blessed to play the main stage 3 times and 7th Steet Entry many times.

[@markbrock1228]

From 1981 to 1992, First Avenue and the Seventh Street Entry filled my nights with all forms of eclectic genres of music. I am not alone in this perfect endeavor and thanks to the people in this documentary, I will be forever thankful. To this day, I cannot go to a large concert venue of over 1,000 people, for I have been forever spoiled as I could dance right up by the stage at any show at The Ave, or The Entry. I can die a happy man.

[@jackal59]

I've only been to Fifth Avenue once, but it was the best laid-out club I've ever been to. They also were great about ensuring a seat for my disabled partner.

[@charlesrocks]

Lots of great times playing gigs at First Ave. Glad to see it rolling

[@DETSRC313]

Knowing the world PBS is in and has been in it makes this documentary that much more powerful and better when I didn't think it could of been cooler then the production it already is.

[@siriusvenus8708]

I have always called First Ave "Prince's Club" and even tho he never bought the place, he owned it. That is never disputed.

[@anthonynelson9136]

Used to hang out at the Mermaid and the Launching Pad in the early 70's. Then we started to go down to First Avenue when it was called Uncle Sam's. Spent a lot of time in the Willard Filmore room. Those were some wild nights of drinking and dancing.

[@MillCityJam]

So Many Great Memories of FirstAve. Husker, Prince, Time, The Suburbs, Flamingos, The Replacements, The Wallets...... So many good shows. Still remember Kevin Cole playing great music and if the song didn't have a video - he played his own psychedelic vids instead... I still have a book of matches from FirstAve... Thanks for putting this together.

[@ericbergstrom6281]

I had soooooo many great times there!

[@ryandeanlindgren9054]

Lived a couple of Blocks Away in 1992 and 1993. Changed My Life 🎸 👊

[@aaronbaertsch9269]

Grew up going to punk shows there in the 80s. Love that it is a Minneapolis staple in the music scene for the last 50 years!

[@marty8621]

This is a terrific time capsule from Greyhound Bus Depot to today. First Avenue was my living room '83 to '85. Great videos on the big screen Fri and Sat. Great bands the other nights. Props to Kevin Cole and Roy Freedom.

[@debs656]

Kevin Cool indeed! ❤ I spent many hours here in the mid-80s when I was lucky enough to be working at the U of M. One of the best times of my life!

[@myidentityisinjesus8880]

I danced and danced behind the screen on stage in the 90's. ❤ I was always bugging my friends to go to First Ave❤️

[@wheelmeoutofhere9662]

My absolute favorite venue that I didn't discover until my mid 30s !! My favorite part of all this is the loyalty that the employees have and this isn't a place that makes you feel over the hill after the age of 25.

[@troymontbriand2962]

Saw Ace Frehley there in I think 87 with Y & T.....was so cool to see Ace that close, great memories!

[@mozfonky]

was a great docu on pbs about the Minneapolis sound from around 89. it was really good and i haven't seen it anywhere since.

[@TheAmazingSnarf]

what an incredible story. thank you for assembling this history for those of us lucky enough to have First Avenue and 7th Street as part of our coming of age. memorable moments include, but aren't limited to: Massive Attack / Thrill Kill Kult / Love and Rockets / Crystal Method / and that magic evening that Low played the main room when they released The Great Destroyer to a loving, and beloved, audience. I wouldn't be who i am today without the exposure to the incredible music and art contained within that hallowed space. Thanks PBS, First Avenue, and Minneapolis in general. cheers!

[@lidlnutz]

this is interesting af, and the low view count is an injustice. Let's share this people

[@TwinCitiesPBS]

Aww, thank you!!

[@zaricehoytsr383]

Bc nobody cares about any city north of Chicago tbh. If they would've put Prince name in the title it'd get way more views

[@dereckvon]

Glad to be part of the story. My Omaha band (Digital Sex) played 7th Street back in the 80's.

[@shable1436]

That's awesome man, what's up with these ppl saying they didn't let black artists play there though? I'm from east coast never been there, but I like this documentary, it's very informative

[@eiremike1]

Amazing doccie! My love and respect to everyone who gave so much blood, sweat, tears and love to make the venue work, stay open and give good music a space to develop and display. So many of my favourite bands played there

[@Buzzygirl63]

Wow... seven people at a Bad Brains show?! I was too young to go to First Avenue that year and obviously very few locals heard much of their music, but... the things you wish you had known of looking back.

[@DETSRC313]

I remember how much fun I had on my first tour and being able to perform at this legendary venue!

[@ChrysYvetteTheGeneralsDaughter]

Amazing 💕💯🎤🤩💫❤️ #nowwatching

[@shable1436]

Never been to Minneapolis, or the state but I like this documentary

[@nickhughes4800]

Sunday Night Dance Party in the 90's was the best when you had Monday off of school!

[@m40dot]

I never had Monday off school, but would go from SNDP closing at 1, then would walk to the 90s from 1-3 as they couldn’t serve after 1 so we could get in 18+.

[@gfanarakos]

by far the greatest place of music history

[@Cormac-jd2kx]

That place made the film. It looked so authentic like a real concert. Everything that Graffiti Bridge lacked

[@henryheinzjunker8807]

WONDERFUL !!!

[@privatejoy7587]

that looks like sonny t @29:56 on bass

[@johnedwards2051]

I hung out there 82 to 88 love that club

[@overkillaudioinc]

That's my Uncle Jack Meyers, this was my playground from age 15!

[@torblixa7760]

i was there....great fun. and this is 10% of it

[@Bergnutz]

My favorite place to see a band, I've seen so many great shows here from American head charge , to down, superjoint ritual, hank3 four or 5 times, tyler childers , whitey Morgan

[@jordanhal2814]

Nicely done!

[@LahoriKitchenFatima]

I m waiting again😎

[@TwinCitiesPBS]

Yyyeeesss!! And this is a good one too!

[@LahoriKitchenFatima]

😊

[@bearsmartdurango]

That was so good.

[@cartier2312]

Legendary 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

[@daniellamantia7324]

Great 💜

[@avace917]

I'm very early in the video as I type this so you may actually mention this later, but the checkerboard design on the floor was adopted for Prince's Parade Tour in 86.

[@jayskywalker5049]

Naw before that he use to rock those checker board buttons on his trench coat that had rude boy on them em... I feel like that was a nod to 1st Ave

[@avace917]

@@jayskywalker5049 I never noticed that. Both could be in tribute to the club.

[@jacquelynlinn1505]

Damn. Richard Luka looked good!!

[@gregory9028]

A documentary about First Avenue that does not contain Prince. Why? Much respect 0+> " The greatest to ever do it" !!!! 07/07/1958 -- 04/21/2016

[@lidlnutz]

35:35 made me super happy for some reason. LOL. I felt what he was saying

[@TwinCitiesPBS]

❤

[@eerievon2946]

Hey! there's a picture of SAMHAIN in this, kool.

[@newhorizonsforfifty2833]

My mother LOVED Fingerhut!

[@brethazlett5354]

Steve is a sweetheart! 😍😘

[@xeyesofstardustx]

I think pretty much everybody worth going to see live has played at First Ave. I'm pretty surprised to learn that the club used to be a Greyhound bus station.

[@KiantraHall-sl2ye]

💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

[@sidv192]

Cool. Saw Liam Gallagher (of OASIS fame) in 2017 for $35 general admission and got to stand 15 feet from center stage, what more could you want?

[@pettyceddy9538]

What’s wild is prince put this place on the map and u listening 2 white dudes complaining about the exposure he brought which meant more money .even after his death people only care 4 this place because of prince

[@christianschultz4985]

Prince was certainly the most famous star who get their break at the Av. But the Mats and to a degree Soul Asylum owes their careers to success at, well, first, the Entry, but eventually the main room. I do get it. Prince stands a head and shoulders above. Just wanted to acknowledge others whose careers owe, to a large extent, the venue on the corner and that impossibly black room.

[@iggypopisgod9]

top 5 Entry/ave shows Helmet, Entry, 91-92 era Iggy Pop, Main, 1996? Husker Du, Warehouse tour, Main Mats, PTMMe tour, main Peter Murphy, Main, 90s

[@peterhuber1702]

Great documentary - I have a lot of thoughts on it. Its interesting that there was never a successful business there - even over the height of it's fame with Prince.....Seems like the people who ran it were dedicated but incompetent and never realized there was no money to be made from underground, local rock and punk bands...that the kids coming to see the shows were poor...the audience had no real money to spend. It's amazing that they kept it running on the bare minimum for so long, especially seen in how the building itself was crumbling and was 'held together with duct tape'...How there were several times when the business did fail and someone from the old days of The Depot kept bringing it back but not doing anything significantly different about making it financially successful. Finally it's really interesting and bit confusing about what happened in 2004 with it's current situation - now it's suddenly successful because one person owns the building and is even able to buy up all the other big clubs in the area? Bryon Frank must have had some serious capital in real estate to just buy the whole thing....and now his daughter is running the club? Too funny. After seeing this show, I think First Avenue's legend is more hype than reality. As a MN resident who was young during the Purple Rain days, I've only visited First Avenue twice and always thought it was pretty sleazy...a dark, dingy dump of a club that had live bands but the only ones I saw there didn't play very good music, they were very loud but not interesting. I didn't understand the 7th Street Entry either - I remember it as a plain dark room with some anonymous rock band set up in the corner playing way too loud and a few drunk people standing around, not really listening to them - I didn't stay long. This program helped me understand what they were trying to do with the Entry, comparing it to CBGBs. The people who went there were trashy too - a lot of punk types who all looked unemployed and wore clothes from the thrift stores....maybe I just wasn't into the punk scene and lived in south Minneapolis, so going downtown wasn't fun or exciting for me. The dance nights were OK but the times I was there for those, no one was dancing, everyone was just standing around trying to look moody and cool......it ending up being a pretty boring place and I never went back. Also, Block E and 1st Ave was a really sketchy and dangerous part of downtown in the 1980's and those of us who live here avoided it. They talk about that a bit in the documentary. Then about Prince....no one I knew at the time thought he 'owned First Avenue' , by 1989, all us locals knew he owned the Glam Slam club and we'd go there trying to catch a glimpse of him on the upper level.

[@fuckboi_killa]

Any place that immortalises GG Allin on their building gotta be lit

[@byfaithwalking1529]

29:55 is that Sonny Thompson?

[@siriusvenus8708]

The years I went to First Ave--i.e. 1984-87, there was a weekly hip-hop night, one day a week. To say that there were no "black" bands welcomed with open arms may be true, but there wasn't exclusion because one night was reserved every week for "black" music (hip hop, at the time that is what it was called it was before Gangsta rap and other genres now with huge followings). The bands played were very often "punk" and white male rage or disco or hard rock, but that was the selling music at the time and hip hop was not as economically profitable on a large scale. I never saw hip-hop bands in downtown at small cafes or bars as this man claims in the video but I must have missed the clubs, unfortunately. It was very white though. I always considered the club "black" and that Prince was King and I often went dancing with a black female friend every weekend--

[@diegomontoya796]

Its was sure nice of minneapolis to pull the Quests liquor license as 1st ave was basically out of buisness.

[@gfanarakos]

life was easy no mobiles no high tech bullshit...music and good tempo

[@janedoe41276]

Is this documentary available to purchase on DVD/Blu-ray?

[@carolynlukic5140]

I liked the Depot and Uncle Sam's, but didn't get to 1st Avenue. I think It was because I had settled down by getting married and having kids.

[@gfanarakos]

i think First Ave... should be renamed to Prince Ave.. but anyway is not oly prince its for all musicinas globally so First Ave.... great music history of global culture

[@randyscott3386]

Times Square in New York used to be cool too .

[@brethazlett5354]

My brother Buck and I scraped up the old floor for Steve. Made over $97k. In two days😂😎❤️

[@itsjustnopinionok]

19:25 and 32:36 is what U came 4.

[@josephedric4081]

31:06 WTF!!!???

[@bobbritches846]

Oh no! What happened to this place?! To bad.

[@jessicajaerosenbaum115]

Sharron (Fingerhut's wife) was super sexy when she was young and then they show her now and she's still good looking for her age! That lifestyle is a preservative for beauty

[@rickstraws92]

Lol it’s funny how disrespectful they are when talking about Prince making it popular

[@shable1436]

You mean that soul asylum guy? He's a POS crap music, but the actual club ppl wasn't dissing skipper

[@bobingalls4643]

if you remember fingerhut, you're old.

[@cassandra5390]

oh NO NO YEAH. means: yeah kinda,...you have to.

[@HANNAHLUMERIA-it5rw]

If PRINCE voice not speaking i usually wont watch

[@khines2994]

Prince would be turning over in his grave to see them cancel HIS FRIEND Dave Chappelle. Even when his concert was SOLD OUT. They've rightfully lost a lot of support for that ridiculous decision

[@NorthStarKnifeReviews]

😂

[@Sasha-cl3su]

Hated this place the smell the bathrooms the music

[@garfieldharrison510]

I remember hearing they didn't let Black people come in there. They never let anyone of the Bands come in there. Prince never had a chance to play in those clubs.

[@shable1436]

What you mean? I saw ray Charles, Albert Collins, tower of power, Robert cray, James brown, all those are black artists

[@wesleywashington1251]

Why bring up Green Day? That's such a lame group