Vickki Dozier

Lansing State Journal

If you were over 21 in 1972, the Lansing area's newest and hottest night spot probably wasn't for you. The Brewery catered to the 18- to 21-year-old crowd.

It opened April 19, 1972 at 3411 E. Michigan Ave. During its first week, it served about 2,000 people each night.

"The Brewery opened right when the drinking age was lowered from 21 to 18," said Jack Bodnar, who was studying for his master's degree at Michigan State University, covering music for the State News and working at the nightclub. "And that’s what the whole idea was. To jump on that. Its initial appeal was 'here’s this place with lots of booze, right off campus, with great music and its huge. We can drink now, legally.'"

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Owners Paul Kacer, Bruce Wahlin and Rick Becker told the Lansing State Journal they were trying to convey a brewery or old factory atmosphere where people could feel at home.

The inside was designed so people could sit in the main room and still see the band. There were four bars to provide quick service and a pitcher could be drawn in 8 to 9 seconds with double heads.

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show made a one-night only appearance on the nightclub's first anniversary. That night there was a Freaker's Ball, an event for which the waiters "flexed their muscles in new Rolling Stone T-shirts, and the bartenders stripped to the waist and doused themselves with gold-fleck body paint."

The Brewery brought in some of the biggest names in the music business: Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Kiss, Aerosmith, Spirit, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, Chubby Checker, Lynyrd Skynyrd, REO Speedwagon, Dr. John and others.

"There were so many fantastic musical acts that came in that they had to turn people away," Bodnar said. "It was just phenomenal to have Aerosmith in there twice, BTO twice, at the peak of their powers. It was one of those places that picked up bands just as they were emerging, and, luckily, they didn’t back out. They wanted to show up at a place with a good rep.

"The Audience at The Brewery, they were just nuts. The place had great acoustics, a nice stage. The performers loved it. It had it all."

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Bodnar said that as the nightclub evolved, it began to draw in an little older crowd, up to the age of late 20s. Because everyone wanted to come.

"It was just a no-holds-barred, too-good-to-last kind of thing," Bodnar said.

In 1973, someone tossed a live tear gas grenade onto The Brewery's dance floor, forcing a mass evacuation. More than 500 patrons were forced to dash from the club.

In July of 1974, a brawling mob of about 300 young people, mostly patrons of the Brewery, were involved in a melee that caused a giant traffic jam on Michigan Avenue when rioters rolled rocks from the nearby American bank and Trust branch yard into the street.

Becker wound up buying out the other two owners, and it became his baby for the next 20 years. The club underwent a name and image change, becoming the Silver Dollar Saloon in April of 1975, to counter its one-time reputation as a bawdy brawling house.

While they catered to a more mixed clientele, "The Dollar" continued to bring in big name bands. The format was changed a few more times.

Ingham County seized the bar for unpaid property taxes in 2006 and the building was razed in 2009.

Contact Vickki Dozier at (517) 267-1342 or vdozier@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@vickkiD