The Orange Peel

The building at 101 Biltmore was a skating rink in the 1950s, vacant most of the 1960s, home to a short-lived bowling alley, then vacant again until 1974, when it became The Orange Peel — a club where young African Americans danced to The Commodores, The Bar-Kays, and the house band, Bight, Chew & Spit. DJs spun disco and funk off one of the few Black-owned radio stations in the country, WBMU-FM. By 1978 it was over. The building sat empty, then served as an auto parts warehouse, until New Orleans club owners Jack and Lesley Groetsch borrowed the original name and reopened it October 25, 2002, with funding from Asheville philanthropist Julian Price. They tried to honor the earlier club by hosting reunions for the last graduating class of Stephens-Lee High School.

Rolling Stone named it one of the top five music venues in America in April 2008. Bob Dylan played in 2004. The Smashing Pumpkins did a residency in 2007. The Flaming Lips, Queens of the Stone Age, The Black Keys, Mastodon — the list runs long for a 1,050-capacity room. The stage was built by sweat-equity volunteer labor from Asheville musicians. At the end of 2009, the club opened Pulp, a basement members-only lounge with a live feed piped in from upstairs. In 2015 they started booking outdoor shows. By 2020 they'd opened Rabbit Rabbit, an outdoor venue on Coxe Avenue.

Go for the sound — flat floor, low ceiling, no bad sightlines. Go because a room this size still books acts that could fill arenas. Go because the stage was built by the people who play it.