{"id":17408,"date":"2019-11-13T05:30:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T10:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=17408"},"modified":"2021-10-27T09:36:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T13:36:00","slug":"deep-strangeness-with-boundaries-the-odditorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/13\/deep-strangeness-with-boundaries-the-odditorium\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Strangeness, With Boundaries: the Odditorium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Third in a five-part series<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seven years ago, an online discussion on the subject of \u201cdangerous dive bars\u201d in Asheville elicited a number of comments. One of the posters on the reddit discussion group r\/asheville wrote, \u201cY’all have missed the Granddaddy of them all: Cowboys Nightlife. Have and know how to use your knife.\u201d Today \u2013 after a time when it was known as The Get Down \u2013 the building at 1045 Haywood Road in West Asheville is nothing like the honky-tonk bar of old. The Odditorium is something far more unusual: a bar that has hosted everything from drag and freak shows to comedy nights to yard sales to storytelling.<\/p>\n

This dive bar is rich with character; it’s also an all-ages music venue and a museum of sorts. Amy Marshall and business partner Tamy Kuper bought the place from Mickey Fox and rechristened it the Odditorium on April Fools Day 2013. \u201cWhen we took over, we wanted something a little bit different,\u201d says Marshall. They wanted to keep Fox’s focus on helping touring bands, but they sought a different personality for their new bar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cTamy and I both are collectors of oddities,\u201d Marshall says. \u201cSo we just started out with our private collections, things that we loved and brought in as decor over the years.\u201d Those items tend toward the macabre; creepy vintage dolls in glass cases, circus-themed items, an is-it-real mummified body, a two-headed duckling and other strange taxidermy, bizarre vintage photographs and the like. Marshall and Kuper partnered with Dark and Deviant Oddities, adding additional for-sale items to the cabinets of curiosity in the bar.<\/p>\n

Marshall says that early on, she and Kuper received some sage advice from a friend who owns a bar in Fort Lauderdale. \u201cYou can’t make<\/em> your bar anything,\u201d their friend said. \u201cYour bar will become what it\u2019s going to become. And my advice to you is this: let it.\u201d They have done their best to follow that advice. \u201cThe patrons, the employees, the community define that,\u201d Marshall says. \u201cIt takes on a life of its own, and we don’t fight it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it’s still a punk and metal bar at its core,\u201d says Marshall. \u201cIt’s still a neighborhood dive bar.\u201d<\/p>\n

She notes that even though the Odditorium has a reputation for deep weirdness \u2013 a recent \u201ckink night\u201d being a handy example \u2013 they have established boundaries. \u201cIf we like it and it\u2019s weird and unusual or different, or a conversation piece or even a little risqu\u00e9,\u201d she says, \u201cwe\u2019re like, ‘okay, yeah.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in that context, it’s somewhat surprising when Marshall emphasizes that the bar has a \u201cvery strict moral code.\u201d Those words would seem to apply more to West Asheville Baptist Church, across the street and 1000 feet east. But Marshall explains further.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not bring in anyone with a history of violence: against women, against any people. We won\u2019t bring in anyone that makes our patrons feel unsafe,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have had to cancel acts that we have booked because we heard from people, ‘That\u2019s not really a show you guys want to host,’\u201d She sums up the Odditorium code as engendering \u201csafety and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

But those admirable boundaries allow for plenty of strangeness. \u201cIf it\u2019s gross and it\u2019s a little macabre and it\u2019s pushing the buttons and the boundaries \u2013 if it might almost make you want to puke a little bit \u2013 we do those too,\u201d Marshall says with the knowing smile of someone who’s seen it all. \u201cWe believe in creating conversation and giving people a place to do what they do. And if that\u2019s not a show for you, if that\u2019s going to upset your tummy or if that\u2019s going to make you not feel like you want to be here, then that\u2019s okay. You don\u2019t have to be here that night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall admits that there are some shows that even she will pass up. Asking that the specific details of one performance aren’t shared, she says, \u201cThere\u2019s a fine line between art and just being gross. And some of our worst of the worst were when that line was blurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot every show is a show I want to attend. Not every show is a show I like, or that\u2019s suited for my son. And I don\u2019t go to those,\u201d she says. \u201cBut there are shows that do push the boundaries, and they also need a safe place to do that. The Odditorium is that place.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s also \u2013 with exceptions made for things like kink night \u2013 a place for young people. \u201cWe\u2019re a safe place for them,\u201d Marshall says. \u201cWe\u2019re one of the only bars left in town that are all-ages. Being a music fan from when I was very, very young, I wanted to go to shows at age 13, 14, 15. I really loved the places that would let us in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have such a great group of underage loyal people in this community,\u201d Marshall says. \u201cAnd eventually they become 21, and they stay loyal to us. They fall in love with us, and we fall in love with them.\u201d Marshall says that tourist patrons are rare: \u201cMaybe 10 or 15%; not a lot. But some national exposure including a story on RoadsideAmerica.com titled \u201cThe Odditorium: Freak Bar\u201d has raised the bar’s profile. The site is \u201ca wonderful outlet for tourists who want to go to oddity locations,\u201d Marshall says.<\/p>\n

In addition to live music \u2013 the bar hosts a full schedule featuring nationally-touring and local bands \u2013 the Odditorium is home to many other events. \u201cNot-music things include comedy \u2013 that’s always free \u2013 burlesque and drag,\u201d Marshall says. \u201cWe do those three every single week. Other than that, we do magic, suspension, freak shows, carnivals and the yard sales. We do ’80s and ’90s proms, we have dyke night. We host [meetings of online Facebook group] Asheville Cat Weirdos.\u201d In a city with more than its share of fascinating entertainment venues, the Odditorium is in a class by itself.<\/p>\n

Not long ago, the Odditorium was visited by people from Ripley’s Believe it or Not. \u201cOur hearts grew that day,\u201d Marshall says with visible pride. \u201cOur eyes got all sparkly! They came into our little neighborhood dive bar, and they liked it! There\u2019s nothing<\/em> more flattering than that. And when they were leaving, they said, ‘Oh, this would be my home away from home if I lived here, and I\u2019m going to send my people.’\u201d And Marshall reports that the visitors did just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to see the true West Asheville community, come to the Odditorium,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople will come in, peruse the museum and have one of our specials.\u201d Even the specials from the well-stocked full bar are, well, odd. \u201cThey get a little takeaway with them,\u201d Marshall says with a mischievous smile. \u201cThey might get a bone or a bug or something like that. We even have a cocktail they can drink out of a human skull.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Third in a five-part series Seven years ago, an online discussion on the subject of \u201cdangerous dive bars\u201d in Asheville elicited a number of comments. One of the posters on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[237,3963],"class_list":["post-17408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","tag-asheville","tag-odditorium","cat-41-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17408"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21873,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17408\/revisions\/21873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}