The Lounge Ax was a music venue in the

Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US president Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, to near Ardmore Avenu ...

neighborhood of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, located across the street from

Wax Trax Wax Trax! Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago. It began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado, opened by life partners Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, who sold the store in 1978 and moved to Chicago. In November of that y ...

. It was an important venue for live

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

, especially

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

. The club was opened in 1987 by Jennifer Fischer and Julia Adams, who were joined around September 1989 by Sue Miller, previously the booker at two other Chicago clubs, West End and the

Cubby Bear The Cubby Bear is a sports bar, eatery, and music venue in Chicago, Illinois. The Cubby Bear is located at Addison Street, Addison and Clark Street (Chicago), Clark Streets across from Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. It was establishe ...

. For most of the club's existence, it was owned by Adams and Miller. The band

Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboardist Page McConnell, all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being the ...

played their first performance ever in the state of Illinois at Lounge Ax on March 30, 1990. Miller married her husband, musician

Jeff Tweedy Jeffrey Scot Tweedy (born August 25, 1967) is an American musician, singer songwriter, author, and record producer best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, began his music care ...

, at the Lounge Ax in August 1995. The ceremony was conducted by a waitress at the club named Lana Levins, who was also an ordained minister. In 1996,

Touch & Go Records Touch and Go Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. After its genesis as a handmade fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s underground and alternative rock scenes. To ...

released a compilation album to benefit the club, titled ''The Lounge Ax Defense & Relocation Compact Disc'', featuring artists such as

Guided by Voices Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band formed in 1983 in Dayton, Ohio. It has made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard. The most well-known lineup of the band consisted o ...

The Jesus Lizard The Jesus Lizard is an American Rock music, rock band formed in 1987 in Austin, Texas by vocalist David Yow, guitarist Duane Denison and bassist David Wm. Sims. They relocated to Chicago, Illinois, in 1989, where they found kindred spirits in ...

Sebadoh Sebadoh () is an American indie rock band formed in 1986 in Northampton, Massachusetts, by Eric Gaffney and Lou Barlow, with multi-instrumentalist Jason Loewenstein completing the line-up in 1989. Barlow co-created Sebadoh as an outlet for his ...

Tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...

The Coctails The Coctails were a musical group from Chicago, who formed while its members were attending the Kansas City Art Institute. The band was active from about 1988 to 1995, with reunions in 2000 as the last band to play on stage at Lounge Ax before ...

and

Yo La Tengo Yo La Tengo (Spanish language, Spanish for "I've got it"; also abbreviated as YLT) is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley ...

. Lounge Ax was featured prominently in the Chicago-based movie ''

High Fidelity High fidelity (hi-fi or, rarely, HiFi) is the high-quality reproduction of sound. It is popular with audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts. Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudible noise and distortion, and a flat (neutral, uncolored) ...

'', released in 2000. The club served as the site where

John Cusack John Paul Cusack ( ; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor. With a career spanning over four decades, he has appeared in over 80 films. He began acting in f ...

's character, Rob Gordon, and the staff from Championship Vinyl first encounter Marie DeSalle, played by

Lisa Bonet Lilakoi Moon (born Lisa Michelle Bonet ; November 16, 1967) is an American actress. She portrayed Denise Huxtable on the sitcom ''The Cosby Show'' (1984–1992), for which she earned widespread acclaim and a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Aw ...

. Its location across from the

Biograph Theater The Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, was originally a movie theater but now presents live productions. It gained early notoriety as the location where bank robber John Dillinger was lea ...

plays an important part in the dialogue leading up to the Lounge Ax scenes. On January 15, 2000, the final show at Lounge Ax was headlined by

(who reunited for the occasion), with Dianogah and M.O.T.O. opening.

References

Music venues in Chicago Nightclubs in Chicago Music venues completed in 1987 2000 disestablishments in Illinois Former music venues in the United States {{Chicago-struct-stub