Random Notes On A November Morning

The PopCulteer
November 13, 2026

We just have a few short items for The PopCulteer this week. Our schedule got more than a bit disrupted by doctor appointments and internet outages, so we need to get our footing and get back on track.

Gift Guide Notes

Because of the disruptions this week, I wound up scrambling a few things in The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide, just in order to maintain a regular posting schedule.  Because of this, I’m going to be playing catch-up a bit. Sunday, our regular Sunday Evening Video feature will double as a bonus Gift Guide entry.  Then every weekday next week you can expect three or four Gift Guide entries, with some of them tied to programming on The AIR.

I’ve got a killer list of gift suggestions this year, and I don’t want to have to drop any of the cool things I plan to plug.  If all goes according to plan, I’ll have three entries going live later today.

What’s Going On At The Glass

The Nanker Phelge at The Empty Glass.

Short answer: I don’t really have much of a clue.

I’m always going to have a warm spot in my heart for The Empty Glass, the world-famous dive bar on Charleston’s East End that is an awesome venue for live music. Mel and I had our first kiss there. I rehearsed the band Three Bodies there the day before we went into the studio to record demos. Just a few weeks ago I got to see Ann Magnuson’s Bongwater Cabaret debut there.

Currently there’s a controversy.  Popular bartender/soundman, Greg McGowan and his partner were fired. And a ridiculous number of people have come to me looking for answers.  I simply don’t know enough of what happened to offer anything of use.

I don’t know the new owners.  While the Glass had been a second home to me for a long time, for the last decade, since I was diagnosed with MG, I haven’t been there much. I got old and need more sleep these days.

I do know that Greg is one of the most respected and talented sound engineers and record producers around, and in a bigger city he’d be in such demand as a record producer/engineer that he wouldn’t have time to work in a bar. I can absolutely understand why people are upset that he was fired.

I don’t know why, and can’t offer any explanation.

I’ve seen talk of a boycott, and not knowing what’s happened, I really have no opinion on that. I would hate to see one of Charleston’s few remaining legacy bars that doubles as a music venue fall by the wayside, but again, I’m on the dark about the whole thing.

So…you folks can quit flooding my DMs with questions.

The Bar Scene In General

This whole thing has made me worry about the state of live music in Charleston.

I come at this from the perspective of somebody who never drank, so it’s weird that people ask me about the bar scene in the first place.

Charleston has lost a lot of great music venues that served alcohol in recent years.  The fate of The Blue Parrot, one of my favorite places to shoot video of bands back in the day, is still unknown. The Levee/Boulevard Tavern went down years ago when “The Wolf of West Virginia” tried to turn it into a pro-gun testosterone-heavy idiot bar, and I don’t know if anything is in that building now. The Sound Factory dropped live music around fifteen years ago and is now some kind of drinking/dancing establishment that I have zero interest in.

There are some bright spots. The Roq, below The Quarrier Diner, offers live music from a variety of styles.  Folklore Music is one of my favorite places to hear music when I make it out in Charleston these days. Pumzi’s is a great new “sober curious” venue, which is something we sorely need in this area.  The New Brickhouse, in Saint Albans, is taking the same tack and has put on some killer hard rock shows.

And those last two venues are something that Charleston has been lacking for decades. For more than a generation we haven’t had a good all-ages venue that’s stuck around long enough to introduce kids to the joy of hearing live music and developing a real scene. Everything has to be tied to drinking.  That means that kids don’t really get the chance to hear live music on a regular basis until they turn 21 (or get a fake ID).

The saying is that the best music in the world is whatever you’re listening to between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. Imagine how difficult it is for kids who can’t legally get in to hear a band perform live for the first six years of that period.

Having the music scene in town intrinsically tied to drinking has always been a recipe for disaster.

And of late, that disaster seems to have come in the form of all the breweries, distilleries and the like that have sprung up in recent years, many founded with generous tax incentives. These new places, in my limited experience, aren’t great music venues. The acoustics generally aren’t very good, if they even bring in live music.

But they do siphon off the folks who go to bars just to drink. And that dilutes the demand for bars, which in turn hurts the bars that bring in live music disproportionally because they’re not the bright-shiny-new drinkin’ spots, and they have a hard time competing with the novelty factor combined with the hardcore beer and whiskey fans who don’t care about live music.

This hurts the bars that are primarily live-music venues, because, to be honest, the live music doesn’t bring in nearly as much money as the alcohol.

Until we can build up live music venues that don’t depend on alcohol sales to stay in business, Charleston’s music scene is going to be in a precarious place.

STUFF TO DO

With me being swamped this week, I’m only going to plug one event, and it’s down in Huntington on Saturday. You can read all about it HERE.

For much more comprehensive guides to things you can get into in our region, check out these two wonderful resources:

Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

Mya Ross at Status Quo does a much better job of compiling a list of local events than I do, and you can find the WTSQ guide to events HERE. Toss ’em a donation while you’re over there.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing. Plus there are free concerts almost every weekend at Taylor Books.

You might also find cool musical events at Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

And I need to get my nose back to the Gift Guide grindstone. That is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for our regular features and The 2026 PopCult Gift Guide.