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During The Rebel Lounge’s opening week in 2015, co-owners Steven Chilton and Chucky Duffy received an unexpected glimpse into the Phoenix venue’s storied past.
The catalyst: A call to 9-1-1 after a young woman took ill during a show. Once disaster was averted — emergency responders determined the woman was simply dehydrated — Chilton recalls overhearing a crew of firefighters who were lingering outside the 300-capacity venue. “There’s this 50-year-old firefighter and he’s like, ‘you guys aren’t going to believe it, but I saw Guns N’ Roses here,’” he tells Billboard.
The rest of the crew then began telling their own stories about their experiences at The Mason Jar, the iconic venue that previously inhabited The Rebel Lounge space from 1979 to 2005. The Mason Jar (also named just The Jar for a short time) was a quintessential 1980s rock club that served as every local band’s first venue.
“It was your dingy black box,” says Chilton, “gross bathrooms, everything painted black.” And it wasn’t just local acts who played there.
The list of artists who played The Mason Jar is a who’s-who of late 20th and early 21st century rock royalty: Metallica, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, Black Flag, Fishbone, Social Distortion, Avenged Sevenfold, Fall Out Boy and The Black Keys all performed at the small club, while Linkin Park — whose lead singer, Chester Bennington, was originally from Phoenix — played their first ticketed show there, Chilton says.
Over its 26-year run, The Mason Jar changed hands multiple times, but its most recognizable owner was Franco Gagliano.
“I can date what era someone was going to the Mason Jar by what price they remember the Kamikaze [drink] specials as,” Chilton says. “[Gagliano] used to get on the mic between bands and promote whatever Kamikaze special it is. Oh, the 25 cent Kamikaze? You were going there way early. Oh, the $2 Kamikaze? That was when you were going there.”
A big proponent of metal and punk music, Gagliano brought a lot of big names through Phoenix, which was smaller during The Mason Jar’s run but is now the fifth-largest metro market in the U.S. Local bands throughout Arizona played at the venue, and it also drew from nearby Southern California’s punk and rock scene.
“He was the kind of old school shady promoter that bands either loved or hated,” Chilton says. “If you bring him up to bands, there’s bands that go, ‘Oh my god. I love Franco! He always took care of us.’ And then there’s bands that go, ‘Oh my god. I hated Franco! He always ripped us off.’ And there is no in-between.”
The Mason Jar officially closed its doors in 2005. Over the next decade, the space held several different gay clubs before it went back on the market in 2015. Chilton and Duffy had been in search of a small club years earlier, and when Duffy saw the news that The Mason Jar was on sale, he called Chilton. “Chucky called me and was like, ‘I think we can make this work,’” Chilton says. That year, they bought the venue and got to work.
By 2015, Chilton was already a seasoned promoter. He started promoting shows in 2000 — while he was still in high school — under the name Psycho Steve Presents, and continued on that way through college before going on to work for local promoters. Around 2008, Chilton started doing gig work for Arizona promoter Stateside Presents (working the door at venues, being a runner for shows, making flyers, etc.), which turned into a full-time job, in addition to his work with Psycho Steve Presents. In 2011, Stateside opened the 500-capacity Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix, and Chilton served as the talent booker there until three years later, when the strain of doing multiple jobs became too much. He continued to co-promote shows with Stateside, but Psycho Steve was promoting enough shows on its own to fill the calendar at a venue the size of The Mason Jar.
“I knew there was a hole in the market,” says Chilton of jumping at the chance to take over the venue. “I knew I could book enough shows. And there really was a need for more venues of that size. We had a lot of bars that I could do shows at that size, but not enough that were really good venues.”
Duffy and Chilton decided on a full remodel of the building that they joke “has been a music venue longer than rock’n’roll has been a thing.” After existing as a honky tonk in the 1940s, it later hosted go-go dancers, punk and club music. By 2015, it had been gutted, and the new owners used that as an opportunity to make it their own. They redid all the plumbing and electrical, doubled the recommended number of AC units and got rid of the drop ceilings to open up the space. The black walls were toned down to grey, and white tiles were added to the bar for a modern feel. Old brick was left exposed, and they kept the 100-year-old wooden door that leads to the walk-in fridge.
“We wanted something that felt neutral,” says Chilton. “I really wanted a place that felt comfortable for every audience.”
To further distance the venue from The Mason Jar’s reputation, Chilton and Duffy renamed it The Rebel Lounge, inspired by the seminal surf rock song “Rebel Rouser” by Duane Eddy, who grew up in Arizona. While they opened Rebel with the sorts of rock shows The Mason Jar became known for — including concerts by metal band Atlas, Thrice’s Dustin Kensrue and English punk outfit GBH (whose first U.S. tour in 1983 included a stop at The Mason Jar) — the new owners were set on creating their own legacy.
“We knew we didn’t want to keep the name the Mason Jar, because, as nostalgic as people are about it now, at the end, it was a pretty divey spot. And we knew that wasn’t going to be the style of artist we were booking,” says Chilton. “We wanted it to have its own identity programming-wise.”
In just over 10 years, Rebel has hosted Soccer Mommy, The Heavy, Louis The Child, Declan McKenna, LANY, The Maine, TV Girl, Xavier Omär, Beach Bunny, Still Woozy, Shooter Jennings, Chicano Batman, Mitski, Pale Waves, The Lone Bellow, The Regrettes, Save Ferris, Tiny Meat Gang, Khruangbin, Japanese Breakfast, Snail Mail, Porches, Alex G, Men I Trust and many more.
“We get to take chances. That’s what I like most about booking a room like this,” says Chilton, who has seen megastars like Benson Boone and Chappell Roan come through the 300-cap room. For example, while Charley Crockett’s first show at the venue only sold 100 tickets, Chilton says “it felt like a win” to showcase an artist they believed in. Similarly, while the first Mitski show at Rebel Lounge wasn’t a sellout, the staff knew there was something about her — and Chilton says he listens to that kind of feedback. He adds that how many tickets an artist sells also doesn’t dictate how they’re treated.
“I don’t care if there’s 32 tickets sold, we’re going to treat this band right. Give them an extra drink. Put extra drinks in their green room,” he says. He stresses that it costs the venue nothing to be polite and that small matters like keeping the bathrooms clean, replacing a sagging couch and making sure the AC is blasting in the dead of summer make all the difference for artists, especially at the beginning of their careers.
“Chappell Roan was in Rebel twice and both times she was the opener,” he says. “You don’t know [if] that next opener [is the next] Chappell Roan, or if that opener is thinking about their next tour. Do they want to come back and headline a year from now?”
That mentality has paid off. The Rebel Lounge has hosted underplay shows from artists they’ve built relationships with, including Jimmy Eat World, TV Girl, Beach Bunny and hometown favorites The Maine, whose festival Psycho Steve Presents helps promote. Psycho Steve is also the promoter of Geese’s upcoming show at the 5,000-capacity Arizona Financial Theatre in October. “The only reason I am getting Geese,” Chilton says, “is because we took a chance on them at Rebel.”
At the end of the day, that’s what Chilton and Duffy care most about: Setting the stage for today’s crop of rising stars.
“When we first opened, I had all these people like, ‘Are you gonna bring back all these bands that used to play at the Jar? Are you gonna get Jane’s Addiction? Are you gonna get Tool? Rage Against the Machine?” says Chilton. “And I was like, ‘No. None of those bands are playing a room like this again.’ What I’ve said over and over again is, our goal is to get the next generation of bands. Ten years from now I want people saying, ‘Oh my god. Can you believe I saw them at The Rebel Lounge?’”
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