COVER STORY
Born to be Blue OKC’S HISTORIC BLUE NOTE LOUNGE READIES A FRESH START IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING CITY. By Brett Fieldcamp
When the Blue Note shuttered unexpectedly last October, just a few days after new owner Chris Simon took control, no one realized quite how different Oklahoma City would look by the time they were ready to open the doors again. For years, maybe even decades, the Blue Note, 2408 N. Robinson Ave., was the city’s premiere destination for catching cheap drink specials alongside the barely-controlled chaos of the underground punk and metal scenes. The place wore the smoke in its rafters, the spilled drinks on its floors, and the countless years of ripped posters and stickers along its walls all like badges of honor, a grizzled, veteran character actor down the street from Tower Theatre and Ponyboy’s more refined, “ready-for-primetime” aesthetic. But even in just the handful of months since going dark for some deep, major renovations under the new ownership, the city has changed. 89th Street has given the punk community a firm home. The Sanctuary has launched with an eye on the metal and hardcore scenes. Beer City has already started changing the entire scope and scale of what the OKC music world can be. And of course, we lost the Hi-Lo Club, that legendary queen of the dives. It was Simon’s first baby and the countercultural hub for much of the community that sustained rooms like the Note in Oklahoma City. Relaunching Blue Note straight into this city’s current identity crisis, and right at the outset of the wild summer season, will be no easy task, but Simon is confident in his vision of a simple, welcoming bar and venue where cultures can mingle without pretense. “I really want to mix up the genre of this place,” he said. “I don’t want to pigeonhole it one way or another.” A little bit stronger The Blue Note’s exterior has plenty of fresh paint, and a beautiful new neon up top to welcome guests, but the renovations inside have been extensive. The goal, however, is for it to still be recognizable and comfortable to patrons past. “The main room hasn’t changed too much,” Simon said. “We’re doing a
whole series of booths around the wall. There’s some wallpaper and painting the ceiling a dark blue. We rebuilt the stage and we’re running it about six feet out. There’s space in the back for A peek at the Blue Note’s renovation reveals details old and new. Photo by Berlin Green. storage now, which we didn’t have before.” come and play here and people want to his hopes of that bar’s displaced comAll of these new features and considcome and see music here.” munity finding a new hotspot. That erations are obvious and clear, but the It’s clear from every conversation could be Blue Note or even his other layout hasn’t changed. The bar is still that to realize that goal, the new opbar, Lost Highway, which has had its in the same place (and is actually altoerators intend to dramatically widen own expansion effort partially stalled gether the same bar, albeit cleaned the Note’s scope. by the time and capital required to pretty heavily). Simon even made sure “If there’s really any quote you can overhaul the Note and also by its imto keep the slants and orientation of the take from me on how we’re approachpending expansion space currently ceiling the same just to retain the spirit. ing music, it’s simply that we are going being used to store everything he could Most importantly, the stage is intact. to give a shit. That’s what we want. salvage from Hi-Lo. For all of the new wood, new conWhether it’s the blues and jazz that “It’s really going to be the people crete, new everything, they’ve seen fit we’re trying to get back in here, or that come to the bar that make it what to truly retain the minor local legend whether it’s rap, punk, doom, psych, it is,” he said. “I’m just giving you the that is the Blue Note stage. metal, country, rockabilly, we just want raw platform. It’ll be the people that “We rebuilt the stage with the same to give a shit about the bands and the come in here that want to do brunch, lumber,” Simon said. “We just took it music,” Redd said. or that say, ‘Hey, here’s this show that apart and rebuilt it, but we built it back Both Redd and Simon openly sing would be really cool,’ or even ‘Here’s a a little bit stronger.” the praises of music booker and prepiece of artwork I did of the Blue Note.’ All of these renovations — and the renovation holdover Jon Jackson, And that becomes a piece for the ages.” constantly inflating costs and time whose excitement and dedication to He’s already set on bring the kind requirements that come with them fostering a tighter music community of burlesque and drag shows that the — are integral to Simon’s vision of profor OKC through the Note, they say, Hi-Lo Club had become known for over tecting the space’s viability going will be one of their greatest resources. to the new Note, and he even admits forward and dragging this historic “We’re not going to be everything that some of the new 50s-era jazz venue into the increasingly saturated to everybody,” Redd says, “but we want lounge design had that partially in new millennium. to bring as much different good music mind, but beyond that, Simon knows “I’m just trying to make it better,” into the place as we can.” that a bar has to create its own legacy. he said. “I’m trying to give it another “Things like that happen organithirty years of life.” A piece for the ages cally,” he says. “Hi-Lo started with a little cult following and grew from Anchored to the stage With Simon at the helm, it’s easy to there, and I anticipate this doing the wonder if the Blue Note is being set up same thing.” The key to everything, it seems, is to fill the void left by the untimely For now, Simon isn’t looking too far still the music. demise of the beloved Hi-Lo Club, arinto the future, keeping his focus on Though Simon and co-owner Jerry guably the city’s nexus of all marginalrealizing his vision for what the Blue Redd are quick to reiterate that there ized countercultures, in particular the Note can be, not only for itself and the likely won’t be shows every night of LGBTQIA+ community that claimed underground music fans waiting for the week, and that the space is being the dive as its own so many years ago. the doors to reopen, but for this designed and considered with at least The quick and largely unexpected strange, changing city and its still una touch of casual bar culture in mind, closure of the Hi-Lo, following hot on certain future. they said that their intention is to keep the heels of a major development group “My head is spinning,” he tells me. the focus on Blue Note as a venue first. snatching up the Donnay Building, is “I need to get this place open so I can “We want this place anchored to the still something of an open wound for breathe a little bit and figure out my stage,” Redd said. “We want it to be relSimon. He said he can’t speak too much next move.” evant to 23rd Street and to Oklahoma about it, mainly because of potential City, a place where musicians want to legal proceedings, but he’s open about COVER STORY OKGA Z ET TE .COM | M AY 1 8 , 2 0 2 2
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