Thu 3/14 @ 6PM
There’s a new live music/concert venue in Akron. It’s called the Tap House, and it’s not to be confused with the now-shuttered Ripper Owens Tap House, which was also on Water Road in Akron, or the Rock City Tap House (formerly the Jigsaw) on State Road in Parma, or the Avenue Tap House in Lakewood. (People, we need some more original club names!)
This Tap House quietly opened its doors to live music in January. Now it’s ready to make some noise about its 450-capacity concert hall with state-of-the-art production. Tonight it’s hosting a free grand opening party from 6-11 p.m. Former Guns N’ Roses guitarist — and Cleveland native — Gilby Clarke will be the special guest performer. He’ll be joined by the recently reunited Akron quartet Foxx, who were popular on the local metal/hard rock circuit in late ’80s and early ’90s.
That should give you a pretty clear idea of the direction the Tap House is taking. It’ll have local bands Fridays and Saturdays, and concerts with touring bands generally on Thursdays. Both will lean toward ’80s-style hard rock and pop metal with some commercial country acts thrown in for good measure — the kind whose music would be almost indistinguishable from ’80s arena rock if they didn’t wear cowboy hats. It’ll be starting a Wednesday jam/open mic night for bands later this month.
The Tap House already has a bunch of concerts booked well into the summer, including Tuff, Faster Pussycat, Y&T, Eric Brittingham & Jeff LaBar of Cinderella, Love/Hate, Kip Winger, and Adler, the latest project of Guns N’ Roses drummer Steve Adler. You can find a complete schedule at the club’s Facebook page.