12/18/2025
One of my biggest memories at The Yard was our first ticketed show in 2023. It was a Thursday night in October. We don’t have a clue what we were doing. All I knew was if I had a music venue, I wanted Chris Knight to play it.
One rule I’ve stuck with most shows is that you have to have a local opener. Before I even booked Chris, I wanted Davey Smith to open the show. I remember shooting him a text that said something like “I think I have Chris Knight booked. Idk if people will show up or if we’ll even make money, but I would like you to open the show.” His simple response was “I’m in.”
We didn’t know if people would show up on a weeknight or even gave a s**t.
We were wrong. We had a packed house. Before Davey even finished his set, we were running out of beer. JJ jumped in his mustang and made 2 beer runs to keep it flowing.
The whole night felt like 30 minutes and after everyone cleared out after the show, I just remember sitting down for the first time that day and thinking “how the heck did we pull that off?”
I chased that high many times after that night. We’ve had so many awesome shows over the past 2 years that all sparked from that night. We didn’t want to have a space where mediocrity was acceptable. We wanted a spot that people would enjoy QUALITY entertainment and hospitality.
If you can’t be authentic, there’s no point in it.
I’ll miss nights like these but will always remember the great times had.
