The Basement
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street, Private Lot
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Music: Live
- Best Nights: Fri, Sat
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
- Smoking: Outdoor Area/Patio Only
- Coat Check: No
7 Reviews for The Basement
The Basement is the home for local music in Nashville. The venue is the perfect spot to showcase up and coming bands. Tuesday Night is what makes The Basement a great Nashville venue. Tuesday Night is "New Faces Night" it really acts as an open forum where Mike Grimes, the owner, lets anybody have a chance to play in front of the audience. The crowds love the show because there is no cover charge and because each performer is limited to a 20 minute set. This is enough time to let the band showcase their best stuff, when they may not be ready to hold down an entire show. The short set also lets the audience get a good taste of the band's style without beating anybody over the head with it.
In addition to their famous Tuesday Night new faces, they host great indie bands from all over the country on every other night of the week. I had a chance to see one of my favorite performers, Eef Barzelay of Clem Snide, perform at the basement several times. The setting is so intimate because the basement is literally the basement of what used to be a house. Its cozy, and clean. There are velvet curtains behind the stage, which has exposed red brick. The vibe is great, and feels almost like a private club because everybody knows everybody else there.
The Basement is a great gathering spot for locals. If you are new to Nashville go to a new faces night and you will start to meet a lot of great Nashvillians.
If you're familiar with Grimey's New and Preloved Music, you probably know about Mike Grimes' downstairs and aptly named music venue The Basement. The Basement, though small, holds some really impressive and very intimate shows on a weekly basis.
Though The Basement is one of the less spacious venues in Nashville, it makes for some of the most memorable and neat shows you'll see. It's non-smoking indoors, but there is a pretty fantastic little patio for smoking and relaxing outside. The sound is always nearly flawless, and it's small enough that you can hear the band no matter where you venture.
The Basement serves beer only, but they offer Yazoo as well as the usual domestics. The bartenders and sound guys are always friendly, and if your band is booked to play The Basement, you'll get $1 domestics and superior monitor mixes. The Basement books local and national acts and also has comedy shows pretty regularly. While you'll typically see Tennessean acts (small and large), if you buy tickets in time you'll also be able to see the more intimate shows of bands like Guided By Voices and comedians like Fred Armisen and Zach Galifianakis.
Though there is a foosball table, it's eaten the money of patrons more than once. Other than that, there's little about The Basement I don't absolutely love. If you get the chance, come by one of Grimey's record sales/shows which are co-hosted by Grimey's and The Basement. They are always a blast.
I heart the Basement! When I first moved to Nashville, I noticed all the shows I wanted to see were playing there, and I often walked three miles in the rain, through bad neighborhoods, carrying a cake, to get there. It's a small enough place that you feel REALLY lucky to be in the crowd when the shows are really special. I've seen lots of great indie rock and some superb Non-Nashville singer-songwriters. Close-up, intimate shows (a few tears for Devotchka, and some goosebumps for Jon Langford), and sometimes crazy rock shows (note to self: do not take dad to see the Alcohol Stuntband again). Smoke free, darts for throwing between sets, and Geoff, one of the nicest bartenders in Nashville. It's also a good place for spotting whatever rockstars may be in town, you know, when they're out and about incognito...
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Mike Grimes has been one of the leaders of the anti-Nashvile Country movement here in town for years. A staple of the music scene that doesn't involve over produced, under talented singers, Grimes first carved out a niche for himself as the owner/proprietor of Grimey's, his labor of love record shop that has garnered a preferred retailer award from Britain's premier music rag, MOJO magazine. A few years back, on the heels of the untimely demise of his super cool Slo Bar, an early pioneer in the world of "East Nashville Cool," Grimes decided to open another bar/venue in the basement of the newly relocated Grimey's. The Basement was born.
A simple name for a simple concept. Good bands, good bartenders, and good music. In the three plus years I've lived in Nashville, I have seen a lot of great shows at the Basement. There was that Lou Barlow solo show that lasted for over two hours, ending only when the man finally ran out of songs he could remember how to play. Or what about that first Ben Nichols/Cory Branan show, where the raucous energy and roguish charm of both performers hit you like a wave and mingled with the smells of sweat and cheap beer. Or the time I discovered a young (now defunct, maybe) band from Atlanta called the Love Drunks, a beer and insanity fueled garage blues act whose frontman, a red-headed Jew named Patrick, climbed all over the empty tables pouring hot wax down his chest while belting out songs with the energy of Iggy Pop. Some of my best Nashville memories exist in this tiny space.
The Basement is that, tiny, but not so tiny that you feel trapped. It's the perfect size venue for really experiencing a band personally. The reason that it ranks in my list above say, the Mercy Lounge or the Cannery Ballroom, is because at the Basement, the bands are almost in the audience, so your feeling of inclusion in the show is that much stronger. You walk out of the Mercy saying, "Wow, that was a good show," you walk out of the Basement saying, "Wow, that was a great experience."
On a final note, the Basement was one of the first places in town to go smoke free, and they should be commended for it. They should be commended, as well, for having a patio, complete with heat lamps for winter, that is more than large enough to accommodate a bevy of smokers.
All of these things added to the community events thrown there, like the Sausage Fest or the Memorial Day concerts, and you have a venue that really sets itself apart from the Nashville norm.
Kudos, Grimey.
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called the Basement because it's located in the basement of Grimey's New and Preloved Music store, it's a great venue to hear rock & roll in the 'ville. reminds me of Lucy's Record Shop from a decade ago. i've seen several shows here, and there are always decent-to-good bands playing. i'm also happy to report that it's smoke-free (with an outdoor patio for smokers). and who can complain about $2 PBR?
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Peter pretty much hit the highlights right on. The only draw backs to this place are the acoustics, the sound guy, and the price of their watered-down liquor. The acoustics wouldn't be an issue if the sound guy didn't so often have the levels up too loud. I think he might just be a bit deaf.
Whatevs, that's tollerable most of the time, especially considering the bands they book, which rock for the most part. Pretty much the same bands that they sell up stairs at Grimey's. Their open mike night brings out some of the more eclectic sounds of Nashville and you never know when someone "famous" is going to show up for a short set. A pretty decent place, mostly due to the atmoshpere of some sort of creepy wine cellar. I just wish they didn't water down the booze., or at least they could water down the booze prices in return.
Oh, and if you take your girlfriend, expect a drunken Mike to hit on her.
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This place reminds me of New York... it is in the bottom of this big spooky brick building with a rickity fire escape; it is small and shadowy and has a hidden feel to it; and there a great walled-in patio in back that you don't even realize is there until your third visit because it is accessed by a sort of secret door in the corner. Good or at least interesting music pretty much guaranteed, in an intimate setting. Great people watching (hipsters). go on Tuesdays... it's a free showcase of new bands and $2 Dos Perros on tap. Other nights there will be a $5 - $10 cover.
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