I bought a beer and found a spot where I could stand against the wall. When people say that you can cut the tension with a knife, I know what they are talking about. People seemed unsure of one another, and I didn't feel particularly safe for reasons I wasn't quite familiar with. The Sons of Silence had always had a strong presence in Boone, and it seemed like the entire gang had made it out to this concert.
The bar looked tiny - it was absolutely packed to it's brim with bikers and cowboys, but mostly bikers. It was tense and dangerous, with a heavy anxiety settling over the pace. I walked in and instantly caught a vibe I hadn't felt before. Interestingly, the heavy rain didn't deter a long line of motorcycles from being lined up near the entrance of the bar.
There were several people who needed a tow by the end of the night. The lot hadn't been properly graveled and it was very muddy. I bought a ticket and took the ride, as they say. In 2007 I had no idea that David Allen Coe was still touring, let alone willing to play a "small" bar in Boone, Iowa. Personally I was ecstatic - My mother had played his records all throughout my childhood and I knew all his hits and most of his B-sides. I think Drowning Pool might have played The Venue along with a few other shitty radio bands of the time, but booking Coe seemed pretty big by Boone standards. It was a big deal to have David Allen Coe come to town, and the Boonies seemed pretty excited about it.
Naturally, the owner needed a way to draw in larger crowds, so he built a stage in the wide open room and started booking national bands. The building was too big to build a crowd to capacity on weeknights, and even if there was 50-70 people there on the weekend, it seemed like a small crowd because of the excess space. The place was high on testosterone and low on common sense. No woman in her right mind would go in there by herself without fear of something scary happening. When it first opened it billed itself as a "Honkey Tonk" which is not a horrible thing, but it created a clientele that consisted of cowboys and farmers dubiously mixed in with the Affliction t-shirt wearing crowd. The Venue was huge by Boone's standards, built into an old abandoned warehouse. So when The Venue opened on the edge of town, it didn't cater to a huge populous of Boone's regular bar hoppers, as established drinkers weren't likely to stray far from the circuits they frequented. Boonies enjoyed drinking and like the creatures of habit that most of us are, they enjoyed drinking at the same places during the same times of each day.
Out on the south side of town there was the night clubs and the restaurant bars. Down around the corner you had Ooops! which was famous for it's greasy but delicious breakfasts. You had Wilson's across the street that maintained a steady rotation of bar dwellers from early in the morning until late into the night. Lynn's had the morning crowd which consisted mostly of railroaders who worked the overnight shift for Union Pacific. The bars in Boone were pretty standard, with each having a steady stream of regulars who frequented the establishments at particular times during the day. I had been living there for several years by that time and it seemed odd to have a country music legend playing in what amounted to being small town Iowa. In 2007 David Allen Coe played Boone, Iowa and I remember thinking it was a pretty big deal.
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