First Avenue

701 N 1st Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55403

First Avenue is the beating heart of Minneapolis music, an independent nightclub set in a 1937 building that began life as a Greyhound bus depot and opened as a club in 1970. Its exterior, studded with hundreds of silver stars commemorating performers who have played there, is one of the most photographed walls in American music, and the mainroom holds around 1,550, with the adjoining 7th St Entry taking the smaller, scrappier bills at around 250. Its fame is inseparable from Prince, who made the club his home turf and used it as the central location for the 1984 film Purple Rain, with several recordings drawn from performances on its stage. The wider history is just as rich: Joe Cocker, Ike and Tina Turner, Iggy and the Stooges, The Ramones, R.E.M. and Nirvana have all played here, and U2 reputedly wrote part of October during a soundcheck. Closed during the pandemic and reopened in 2021, it remains one of the longest-running independently owned venues in the country.

History

Formerly known as

The Depot1970–1972
Uncle Sam’s1972–1980
Sam’s1980–1981
Sam’s Danceteria1980–1981
1st Avenue
First Avenue and 7th St Entry

via MusicBrainz

About First Avenue

Its fame is inseparable from Prince, who made the club his home turf and used it as the central location for the 1984 film Purple Rain, with several recordings drawn from performances on its stage. The wider history is just as rich: Joe Cocker, Ike and Tina Turner, Iggy and the Stooges, The Ramones, R.E.M. and Nirvana have all played here, and U2 reputedly wrote part of October during a soundcheck. Closed during the pandemic and reopened in 2021, it remains one of the longest-running independently owned venues in the country.

On stage