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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
{The Blue Banner}
Page 8
West Asheville venue overcomes bad reputation
Photos by Ian Hayes and Timothy Meinch
Betty and Ron Cook transformed a hole-in-the-wall bar into a punk rock-friendly concert space, which appeals to faithful regulars, as well.
Mike’s Side Pocket now offers music, security and friendship
By Timothy Meinch
Staff WRrrER
TMMEINCH@UNCA.EDU
Punk rock brings fresh faces to Mike’s
Side Pocket on Haywood Road and tears
down an established bad reputation.
“This used to be a a real rough place, and
we’ve worked real hard to turn it around
and make it a place for the young people
to come do their music, and for the regu
lars to come have a few beers,” said Betty
Cook, co-owner and manager of Mike’s
Side Pocket.
Mike’s has spent much of its life bur
dened by the shady reputation of its previ
ous owner, Mike, according to Cook.
“He loved to fight; that’s what got him
killed. They found him down in the Swan-
nanoa River after he got in a fight down at
the Trophy Club over his girlfriend,” she
said.
Cook started working for the current
owner, Ron Cook, two years ago and mar
ried him shortly after. Then, she decided
something had to be done about the atmo
sphere.
“I couldn’t tolerate it. It was a constant
fight and fussing and it got old after a
while,” she said. “We decided together to
try and change it and get rid of the drug
people and stuff like that.”
That’s when the live music started.
“I’ve been working at this for two years
with the music scene and trying to get
bands in here and running off the people
you don’t want in here,” 53-year-old Betty
Cook said.
At first, just a couple country bands
played on occasion without much success
or change in the customers, she said.
“Then we had a girl come to work for us
by the name of Maiy. She was into punk
rock and said she could get a lot of the
punk rock bands to play up here,” Betty
Cook said. “We didn’t have any idea what
we were getting into, but we told her to
go ahead.”
Now the bar features live music every
night of the week, except for occasional
nights when no one books, according to
Cook, an Asheville native.
“At night you have a lot of the younger
crowd, the punk rock crowd, and when it’s
blues, some of the older crowd stays,” she
said.
The venue hosts a lot of bands from out
of state as well as local artists, Betty Cook
said. One punk rock group came all the
way from Italy.
“We do a lot of punk rock because no
body else will let the punk rockers play.
But we book anybody. We have country,
we have bluegrass, solo people and every
thing else,” she said. “You hear something
different every night.”
Mike’s received two citations for noise
violations from the police department at
the beginning, and then the owners decid
ed to sound proof the building, according
to Betty Cook. They now roll carpet over
the bottom of the doors during shows.
“I think we’re doing a good job at dump
ing that reputation now,” she said. “It’s
just getting better and better as we go
along.”
Black clothing and about a dozen tat
toos, including one under each eye, dis
tinguish the young bartender, Devon Bou-
vier, from the afternoon regulars like Terry
Silver, who drank in the building 35 years
ago and still frequents it today.
“We have a lot of punk shows,” Bou-
vier said. “But shows like this don’t make
money like they used to, so we gotta sell a
lot more beer.”
The everyday regulars, Mike, Miles,
Ray, Ron and D.C. help make that hap
pen.
“There’s a lot of different kind of people
in here,” said 56-year-old Mike Nichols in
a slow Southern drawl. “There’s a lot of
the hippies and there’s a lot of the rainbow
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