Our good friends at the downtown Sacramento all-ages music venue Ace of Spades recently celebrated their one-year anniversary, which made Submerge think, “Damn, it’s only been a year?!?” We literally cannot count how many amazing shows we’ve seen there in the past 12 months! The venue’s debut on Feb. 9, 2011 with Rob Zombie was a sold-out show, a term the venue would get used to. From there they hosted everyone from Tesla to Deftones, Snoop Dogg to Mastodon and countless local and regional acts as well. Pollstar, the concert tour industry’s leading trade publication, recently named Ace of Spades No. 52 on their 2011 year-end worldwide ticket sales top-100 club venue list. “What? There’s 51 clubs ahead of us? We got work to do!” joked Ace’s co-owner Bret Bair. “In all seriousness, we’re extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish in our first year and to be the No. 52 club is awesome and feels very rewarding.” Only a few California venues beat out Ace on Pollstar’s list, most notably San Francisco’s The Independent, which snagged the No. 30 spot. Bair mentioned that they weren’t surprised with the accolade for two reasons: They pride themselves on booking artists from a wide range of genres, and Sacramento is a top 25 market. “Eric [Rushing, co-owner] and I always felt that the city and its passionate music fans would support a larger music venue if we could get the talent, and they have!” Looking back on the venue’s first successful year, Bair mentions that the most memorable moment for him was when the Snoop Dogg show came together perfectly. “I actually stopped for a moment to reflect and thought to myself, ‘Holy shit, Snoop Dogg’s on our stage rappin’ ‘Gin and Juice!’” “I would like to give the City of Sacramento and its suburbs a shout-out!” Bair said, continuing with, “We love the fact that fans keep coming to the shows and having a good time, and that’s what it should be about at the end of the day, getting lost in the music and having a good time. We also want to thank all the local artists who have played our local shows or have supported some of the bigger national shows; without them, we would be out of business by now!” Learn more about Ace of Spades by visiting Aceofspadessac.com
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