For those who lived, worked and played there, The Outland's closure was 'end of an era'

Kelley Litle's first visit to The Outland was in the fall of 1991. She was 23 years old, a recent graduate of Drury University and was asked to stop in by a friend for lunch.

"I walk in and she's like, 'Lie, lie, you're not going to have lunch with me. I need you to be my waitress. I need you to be my food server. I need you to do my lunch crowd.' I was literally tricked to work there as a food server."

Despite the misdirection, "I had a blast, had so much fun," said Litle, who continued serving at the new downtown restaurant and pub. In May 1992, she stepped up as a manager, a role she served in until 1995. After a brief leave of absence, she returned to The Outland, where she tended bar until 1996.

To Litle, The Outland was "nothing shy of magic," which she attributed to the people who frequented the business during its more than 30-year tenure.

That run is is at an end. In mid-January, Kevin Dunn, current owner of The Outland Complex — The Outland Ballroom upstairs and the ground-level Odyssey Lounge — announced that the two venues were closing at their spaces at 324 and 322 South Ave.

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Dunn shared in a Facebook post, which he provided to the News-Leader, that he has secured a new location for the Odyssey Lounge that is not downtown. Dunn did not wish to provide details about the new space, which he hoped to open March 1.

Following Dunn's announcement, countless former employees, musicians and regular patrons shared their favorite memories from The Outland Complex on social media. Though the complex was most recently known for The Outland Ballroom and Odyssey Lounge, it was established in September 1991 with The Outland, a 22-hour restaurant and pub at 326 South Ave. Today, that space is Hour House, which will remain open as it was not part of The Outland Complex next door.

Jason Murray, owner of Springfield Loft Apartments, has owned the buildings at 324 and 322 South Ave. since October 2008. While a lease has been signed with a new occupant, Murray said he could not share the details.

Opening doors in a desolate downtown

The late Craig Watkins opened The Outland in September 1991 with the intent of offering a 22-hour restaurant and bar. The Outland boasted a hefty beer selection, with 100 imports and 200 domestic brands, which was unheard of downtown at the time, Litle said. In addition to The Outland, Watkins also operated Cully's and Park West, two downtown bars that are no longer open.

For a few months, The Outland also operated a late-night breakfast menu, with items like biscuits and gravy for less than $2, according to a News-Leader story published on Sept. 13, 1991. This didn't last long, Litle said, because retaining overnight staff was difficult.

More notable than the beer selection and breakfast menu was the timing of The Outland's opening. In the early '90s, there weren't many businesses that drew patrons downtown. The Outland was one of several establishments that helped revitalize the area.

"The interesting thing about this time frame ... there was nothing downtown," Litle said. "This is the era of a lot of the inner cities were blighted, scary. They hadn't been revitalized as we've come to know major city downtowns are now. Down there was the The Regency and (Nathan P.) Murphy's. They were the only two bars and they were very separate and there was nothing else. During the day there would be social services, some used furniture stores, a coin collector shop, some antique stuff, very rundown, nothing that was really a draw during the day and at night there was nothing."

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Serving salads, sandwiches, soups and chili during the day, The Outland was transformed in the evenings with the sounds of poetry readings and acoustic open-mic performances. A story published in the News-Leader on Aug. 28, 1992, described The Outland as "casual," where "comfortable" attire was encouraged.

In October 1993, Watkins opened an upstairs venue, Thumbs Up, at 324 South Ave. Thumbs Up was more of a sports bar with big-screen televisions and live music four days of the week, according to a story published in the News-Leader on Oct. 22, 1993.

After Thumbs Up, the upstairs venue cycled through a few different names and faces, including The Attic, a rock club, Bellbottom's, a club that played '70-'90s music, and Blue Zebra, an oxygen bar.

In the early '90s, the other downstairs venue at 322 South Ave., most recently the Odyssey Lounge, was Rockwell's, which Litle described as a "lunch joint" and "ice cream parlor."

For a short time, there was another bar that operated within the complex, Shannon's World. Located on the first floor, in the area that connected The Outland and Rockwell's, Shannon's World was a full-service liquor bar operated by Shannon Russell, Litle said. The small bar was modeled after Wayne's World from Saturday Night Live. The News-Leader contacted Russell via Facebook but was unsuccessful in reaching him.

Toward the end of the '90s, Rockwell's was replaced by The Highlife Martini Lounge, more commonly referred to as Highlife. The late Johnny Gregory operated the martini and cigar bar at 322 South Ave.

Joanie Gregory, Johnny's sister, said Highlife was modeled after the now-closed Martini Ranch in Chicago. Highlife sold a variety of cigars, high-end cigarettes and signature martinis. The bar was full of local artwork and the Gregorys hired a graffiti artist to create a glow-in-the-dark mural around the dance area.

In a story for the News-Leader published on Aug. 25, 2000, former features reporter Mike Brothers wrote of Highlife: "This is where you’ll want to be at the end of the night as the after-hours mob forms on the sidewalk here, at The Outland and the Boogie.”

Calling The Outland home

Over the years, many musicians and bands called The Outland Complex "home." One of these was Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, an indie pop band established in Springfield in 1999.

Philip Dickey, a founding member of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, guessed that the band played at The Outland close to 50 times, establishing its own type of "residency" at the bar. Over the years, the band held five album release shows at The Outland and smashed two guitars on the bar's stage.

"I think that's where we learned how to play a set," Dickey said of The Outland. "We would always use it to test out new songs before we went on tour."

Brothers recalled reporting on Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin's first performance at The Outland while working for the News-Leader.

"The album was basically just burned CDs ... and they were handwritten on with marker and it came in a quilted pouch. They made like 100 of them and it was the most quaint, unassuming thing you could possibly imagine," Brothers said. "It was really a joy to watch those guys come up and to get to interview them."

Thee Fine Lines, a Springfield rock band made up of brothers Jason and Justin Kearbey, was another band that regularly played at The Outland in the early 2000s. Thee Fine Lines performed its first show at The Outland on Oct. 31, 2001.

"We weren't that great yet," Jason said. "We'd only formed the band a couple of months prior ... That show was kind of shaky, but he (Matt Netzer, owner of The Outland at the time) loved it. Even though we weren't really solid, he just asked us back all the time for the next year or two." The News-Leader contact Netzer about his time operating The Outland but was unsuccessful in reaching him.

In addition to the supportive staff, the Kearbeys enjoyed performing at The Outland Complex because of its simplicity.

"I think as a band, playing The Outland was like one, maybe two, steps up from playing your friend's basement because it had a simple sound system that wasn't overly complicated," Jason said. "You didn't put your band equipment in a greenroom somewhere ... you just put your stuff along the wall and then you set yourself up when it was your time."

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Calling The Outland home, literally

For regulars bands like Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Thee Fine Lines, bar close meant returning home at the end of the night. But for one regular, home was the complex.

In 1995, Springfield native Kymmee Bieger moved into the upstairs space beside what most recently was The Outland Ballroom. She lived in the space, which was without a kitchen, bathroom and air conditioning for two years. Her rent was about $100 per month.

"The person I was in my 20s made a lot of really radical decisions without fully thinking them through," Bieger said with a laugh.

When a friend, who worked as a doorman at The Outland, mentioned that the vacant upstairs space was being refurbished into an apartment and would be available at a low rate, Bieger jumped at the deal.

"It was painted, floor, walls, ceiling all black. It used to be a dance club," Bieger said. "One whole wall had mirrors and I think that's probably where the bar was originally. There was my space up front (near the windows that overlook South Avenue) and the back was another space where they built a DJ box and you had to climb up a ladder into it."

Because the apartment didn't have a bathroom, Bieger had to walk through The Attic to use the venue's public restroom — even during concerts.

Though she could hear and feel the music around her, Bieger's apartment, for the most part, was kept separate from the operating venues. However, she did recall one time when her apartment was used as a greenroom.

"I can remember one night, the band The Scofflaws, they're a ska band, and their stipulation (a contract agreement) said there was a greenroom," Bieger said. "So then ... the kid who ran The Attic ... he comes to me and he's like, 'Can we use your apartment as a greenroom?' I'm like, 'Excuse me?' He's like, 'Yeah, can this ska band just come and hang out in your apartment before their gig?'"

The Outland Complex wasn't just Bieger's literal home though; it was her figurative one, too.

"There was a weird camaraderie amongst everybody who worked there and the regulars," Bieger said.

Breaking into the 2000s

In early 2003, Yankton Sothern opened The Outland Ballroom at 324 South Ave. Guitarist for Springfield band Fuller's Earth at the time, Sothern remembers the inaugural show in the Ballroom. Big Beat Club christened the venue, which Sothern said had a "pretty good turnout."

But only a few months after the Ballroom's grand opening, the venue had to be shut down because the upstairs floor was bending under the weight of a bouncing crowd — an issue that many regulars recounted. Over the course of 10 days, Sothern and a small crew removed the ceiling of High Life to install a 714-pound steel beam under the Ballroom's dance floor, according to a News-Leader story published on May 14, 2003.

Sothern continued operating the Ballroom until 2006.

Reflecting on those three years, Sothern said some of his favorite musicians that he booked included Bret Michaels of Poison, Jay Farrar of Sun Volt and The Appleseed Cast. But some of Sothern's favorite memories were when the venue was empty.

"If it ended up where there was a night where we didn't have anything going, we would just do karaoke, and it was ridiculous," Sothern said. "It was mostly for the people who worked there. We would play this game where you put the CD on and you'd make a playlist ... When your turn was up, you had to get up and sing whatever song it was, whether you'd ever heard it before. As dumb as that sounds, it was so fun and we're all still friends. We still joke about that sometimes."

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin regularly performed at the Ballroom. In 2016, for the first time, the band sold out the venue.

"It was kind of confusing to us because we'd been trying for so long. To do it 16 years later was surprising," Dickey said with a chuckle.

A bit later, Highlife changed, becoming Front of House Lounge. With this name change came a new look, too. The space became more a performance venue, later transitioning to Odyssey Lounge during the pandemic while Dunn owned it.

Influence of Lou Whitney, The Studio

For musicians, both locals and touring acts, one factor that set The Outland Complex apart was the accessibility to Lou Whitney and The Studio next door. The late Whitney, a musician, producer and engineer, opened The Studio at 328 South Ave. in 1994. Whitney died at the age of 71 in 2014. The Studio moved to 3389 S. Scenic Ave. in 2017.

Whitney was a member of Springfield-based bands including The Skeletons and The Morells.

Several Springfield musicians said sharing The Outland stage with The Skeletons was among their favorite memories at the complex.

Dickey recalled a standout memory with The Skeletons:

"A lot of the people who were coming to see us were in our generation, like high school and college kids, so I think a lot of them may not have been familiar with The Skeletons and their history," Dickey said. "But The Skeletons played the Andy's (Frozen Custard) theme song, which they recorded ... anyone who wasn't familiar before realized, 'Oh yeah, this is the best band ever.'"

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In addition to performing at The Outland, Whitney was known for bringing in larger touring acts, including Jonathan Richman, OK Go, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, Vic Chesnutt and Dave Alvin.

Joe Livingston, host of "The Roundabout" on KSMU, said one of his favorite shows at The Outland was when Whitney booked Wilco. The band played at Thumbs Up on Friday, Jan. 27, 1995, according to a News-Leader story published on the same day. Admission was $5.

"Like a lot of shows in Springfield, it wasn't that well-attended for a band that now plays all over the world," Livingston, who first visited The Outland in '91, said. "Being at The Attic or Thumbs Up ... the venue is so intimate, for the majority of shows, you get to meet your heroes."

Jason Kearbey said after Whitney died in 2014, he noticed a shift in the complex.

"After Lou died ... they (owners and bookers of The Outland) did a good job of trying to maintain, but I think you just can't really replace that," Kearbey said. "I think about The Studio being sort of as integral to The Outland's identity as anything. If you're just a person going to the bar, you probably don't think about that, but as far as music and scene, I think that was really big, them basically sharing a wall."

Pandemic uncertainties

Like many other music venues across the world, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic was a time of uncertainty for The Outland Complex. In spring 2020, then-owner Jimmy Kochs closed the complex's doors — many feared for the last time. But after rallying support from the community, the venues re-opened under Dunn's ownership.

In 2020, Seth Kean opened Sweet EMOtion, a vegan ice cream shop, in the Odyssey Lounge's walk-up window. The shop relocated to 211 E. Walnut St. in July 2023. And in 2022, Randy Vineyard and Trevor Sterley opened Hour House at 326 South Ave. The bar hosts live music, karaoke and drag shows.

Although the complex bounced back, the effects of the pandemic have lingered.

"We thought we survived during COVID. We did survive during COVID — some flipping miracle," said Johan Collins, owner of local booking agency SprinGood. "We survived during COVID and that was crazy. But the people aren't coming out like they were before COVID."

For the time being, until the Odyssey Lounge reopens, Collins said all SprinGood shows will be held at The Riff and The Regency Live.

'End of an era'

Livingston spent the majority of his time at The Outland Complex for work — just once, he performed on stage with his band Y Is For You.

"We opened for this guitar player named Earl Slick and we did a cover of Built to Spill's 'Randy Described Eternity,'" he said.

Recently, Livingston visited the complex to watch his son Eli play in his own band, Theme-Black.

"Over this last Christmas break, my kid's band played ... a cover of Built to Spill's 'Randy Described Eternity' — 25 years apart, me and my kid both played the same cover song on the same stage. That sort of sums up my experience at The Outland, and it makes me a little emotional to think abut my kid being into the same music I was."

As someone who has frequented The Outland Complex since its opening, Livingston described the venues' closing as "an end of an era."

"I was pretty heartbroken about it," Livingston said. "It was definitely a favorite place of mine to see a show and I just sort of feel like my musical home is gone."

Greta Cross is the trending topics reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretacrossphoto. Story idea? Email her at gcross@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield residents reflect on The Outland's 33-year history downtown