Harmony School, 1998, Page 118

Description:	Opening a music club is one thing, but keeping itopen is another story—especially if its centered aroundyouth, is a reality Brad Wilhelm knows all too well. He,more than perhaps anyone else in Bloomington, knows theday to day reality of running an all ages club. As Rhinosreaches its sixth year with workshops and weekend shows,we decided to meet with Brad to hear his take on Rhinosplace in the youth music scene. In the course of ourconversation, this is what we learned:Rhinos is the product of many failed attempts toproduce a successful all ages club. These began with streetdances, designed to attract young people who didnt haveaccess to the regular club scene. These street dances haveremained a Bloomington presence for over twenty yearsthanks to Eric White. In the early eighties an actual allages club was opened on the second floor of an earlyincarnation of Caveat Emptor-near 4th and Walnut. Theplace was called Rickys Cantina, but money soon became aproblem and Ricky couldnt pay the bills. The old librarybriefly opened an all ages club, but it didnt go over wellwith adults, so it went belly up. A punk rock club with abasement-like feel called The Little Litter Box opened andclosed in 87 . BW3 attempted to put on all-ages shows, butthe fact that they sold alcohol in another part of therestaurant complicated matters--too much so, it turned out,they mixed the shows. The owners of Mars and theBluebird tried to produce a profitable non-alcoholic youthclub, but college students werent hot on the idea of hangingout with high school students. The fact that there was noalcohol didnt help either from a business standpoint andthe place folded. Then came the infamous 17th StreetWarehouse. With rumored under age drinking and randombrawls, it was eventually shut down by the police and theProsecutors Office. Ironically, 17th Street had a directimpact on the creation of Rhinos. It turned out that whilethe Warehouses activities were unfolding, HarmonySchool had initiated Rock & Roll workshops and weekendshows in their gym. This too created a headache for theProsecutors Office as neighbors of the school in the ElmHeights area were concerned with noise and crowds. Asolution to all these problems was proposed with a singleplan--Bob Miller of the Prosecutors Office and Steve (Roc)Bonchek of Harmony drew up plans for a professionallyrun all-ages music club at a new, downtown location.Funded with a $50,000 start-up grant, Rhinos waslaunched. With shows once a week in the Knights ofColumbus building, Rhinos slowly grew into a success. Insome ways too much of a success, as it turned out. Rhinosproved to the business community that the downtown comerlocation had potential. The Ice House offered the Knightsof Columbus more rent than Rhinos could afford and the
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-harmony/id/1686
Collection:	Harmony School

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