In a city where the music scene is dominated by souless bars and clubs (The Quest, First Avenue, Ground Zero) that have as much charm and personality as *insert witty simile here*, Elizabeth Larsen's brainchild, the Foxfire Coffee Lounge, was a true diamond in the rough. At the time it was (and if it were still alive today, would still be) the only full time non-exclusive all-age venue in Minneapolis. And us kids loved them for it.
My band played its first show in Minneapolis at the old Fox. We were sixteen and thinkin' we were unstoppable. God I loved that place. It was a little more inviting than a hole in a wall, but just barely; that's probably what I loved most about it. The intimacy you felt with whomever you were seeing that night. The connection between artist and audience you just can't get at a bar or large club. The sound was terrible and the food was over-priced (if you ask me), but that made it all the cooler.
The space where the Foxfire Coffee Lounge once stood has since been replaced by another lounge/music venue, called Sursumcorda. Except, instead of smelly punk rock kids, there mainly upwardly-mobile twenty-somethings with black hair and leather pants who think a blank white sheet of paper can qualify as art.
Oh well.
The Foxfire Coffee Lounge (July 2nd, 1998 - September 7th 2000)