A new venue for music is finally above ground
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Sage Merritt / News Virginian
Published: April 18, 2007
"We've got to work together and get this thing off the ground," Earven said. "You've got to support this place, come out here and see all the shows, or it's going to go away."
Earlier that week, the building at 305 East Main Street, formerly Club Caribe, got a fresh touch of paint on its already brightly-colored exterior. Under the paintbrushes of Shawn Duff and Troy Brooks, a green banner unfurled across the fa-ade of the building, gold letters spelling out the location's new name - the Federal Building.
Under that banner, a crowd of local music lovers of all ages and walks of life flocked to the Federal Building on Saturday night to celebrate the official opening of the venue, which attendees and organizers alike hope will be a long-lived fixture of the Waynesboro downtown.
The event Saturday night featured three local heavy metal bands - Zero Presence, Charred Martyr and Property - who entertained an all-ages crowd for the evening. According to Federal Building proprietors Shawn Duff and Will Stringham, Saturday's show was a taste of what is to come for the venue.
"We want to keep this as an all-ages venue and give local kids and adults a good place to enjoy good music and food, and to have fun," Duff said. That's part of what we're doing here - it's for the kids. We want to expand to all music, but we will also stay true to our roots. There are so many kids around here who listen to heavy music. We want to give bands like that an outlet as well."
A previous attempt to start a venue above Cycle Recycle on Main Street was shut down due to lack of permits, but Stringham and Duff saw promise in the enterprise. Crowds flocked to the "underground" events and many more expressed support for the idea of bringing a venue that catered to all-age crowds and featured bands that deviated outside traditional musical genres.
"It started off as a pipe dream," Stringham said. "But having the opportunity and the space above Cycle [Recycle], we wanted to test the waters. No one in this area is doing things like this and we got a great response. It just so happened that this nice building opened up right at the time we had to quit doing shows [above Cycle Recycle]. There is no other building in Waynesboro that is set up for something like this."
Waynesboro resident Matt Van Huss, 22, was enthused to be in attendance at the show Saturday night.
"This is definitely a great thing," Van Huss said. "It's a good thing that it's all ages. You've got nothing to do around here and this will finally be some place around here to go. I know people in a couple of these bands - I'm glad to see them play."
Duff and Stringham plan to eventually feature music at the Federal Building three to four nights a week. Genres will vary, Duff said, but he hopes to stick close to the tastes of local music lovers, particularly kids.
"We've already booked national and international acts," Duff added. "But everything we do will center around local musicians. There are 101 bands in this area that are decent, and if they play, they'll bring their friends."
In addition to music, the Federal Building features an arcade and, in the near future, will begin serving pizza, sandwiches and appetizers.
"We want to serve our first sandwich by next week," Duff said.
Contact Sage Merritt at 932-3559.
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