Fringe attendance slightly down

Envy nightclub was overflowing and raucous on the Sunday night before Memorial Day. This Sunday night, not so much.

The city is trying to shut down the Minneapolis club following a wave of late-night crime in the Warehouse District. Closing time outside Envy and nearby venues was often a madhouse on Sunday nights, when they catered to the 18-plus crowd, and the surrounding streets have already had a few shootings this year.

The city boosted its police presence downtown in July and made agreements with Envy and some other establishments to suspend 18-plus nights on Sundays. Last week, officials said the City Council would try to revoke liquor licenses for Envy and Bootleggers down the street. Inspectors had reported seeing fights, drugs and underage drinking there.

So it was a subdued night at Envy, with far fewer - and less boisterous - clubgoers.

Where did everyone go instead? Partyers jammed Aqua next door, where there was a "Blackout Bash" for people 18 and over where attendees dressed in all black.

That's partly why, when the clubs let out at 2 a.m., the bedlam outside looked similar to the scenes in the spring.

Screaming youths streamed onto 1st Avenue as police sprayed tear gas and chemical irritants, although no major fights were witnessed. Several cops rode horses. Bouncers yelled, "Keep it moving! Let's keep it moving."

A clubgoer who went by the name Crisis Fresh, 29, said he didn't like being sprayed, but "you get immune to this after a while. Cough it off, two minutes, and you're back to normal."

Sahnie Badd, 24, said the cops sprayed in the opposite direction of where she was parked. "We're that way, but they're making us go this way. It's like a battle you've got to go through."

Close to a dozen Envy security guards in yellow-green neon shirts lined the outside of the building, keeping watch as the crowds dwindled. One complained that Envy had not caused any of the problems, but was paying the consequences. The city's crackdown would put them all on the streets with no job, he argued.

Police Sgt. Steve McCarty said Monday that clubs would be examined on a case by case basis. With Aqua, "you can't just say, 'OK, you're having an 18 and up night, we're shutting you down' ... at Envy, they had problems," he said.

With so many cops swarming the streets, the sidewalk in front of Pizza Lucé no longer hosted the rowdy crowds that once congregated there. The customary smell of marijuana had been replaced by the stench of horse manure. Police had so little tolerance for mayhem that they ordered one driver stopped at the intersection out of his car for honking five times in a row.

"Nobody," he said, "got shot tonight." MAYA RAO

If you ask us, Uptown could use a good, homegrown neighborhood bar with a stellar craft beer list and locally sourced comfort food. Is that too much to ask?

Boom, prayers answered: The owners of Republic say they will open a second location of their acclaimed beer bar in Calhoun Square, hopefully by November. Matty O'Reilly and Rick Guntzel have signed a lease for the second-level space formerly home to the Independent.

The original Republic opened in May 2011 in the old Sgt. Preston's at Seven Corners. The pub made a quick name for itself by holding weekly craft beer events and expanding its tap beer portfolio to a whopping 56 drafts. O'Reilly's Uptown plans call for a total remodel of the Independent's sleeker, clubby space. He'll warm up the room by adding timber and brick.

"It'll be very similar to the Seven Corners location -- we'll strip the space back to nothing, see what's there and then add what we need," he said.

They're aiming for about 40 tap lines, continuing Republic's commitment to Minnesota craft beers as well as German and Belgian favorites. The food will mirror the original location, but the new kitchen's pizza oven means they might add flatbreads to the scratch-made menu.

O'Reilly lived in Uptown 20 years ago and spent many nights in this very bar, when it was called the Smiling Moose. The look of the area has changed, but that doesn't mean he can't bring some of that neighborhood charm back.

"For me, I'd love to maintain that sort of place in the community again," O'Reilly said.

TOM HORGEN

Trampled by Turtles, Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket each offered up a somewhat unusual mix of songs last Friday night at Somerset Amphitheater. Most of the quibbling over the show, though, will be over that just plain idiotic beer-line debacle. I heard solid reports of hourlong waits for a beer (including the wait also required at the damn food/drink ticket line). Considering that concert venues make most of their money off beer sales -- and Somerset Amphitheater certainly could use a cash injection after SoundTown's cancellation last month-- the problem will no doubt be remedied next time. Beyond that, I'll take a long beer line at a scenic outdoor venue over an instantaneous Budweiser at Roy Wilkins Auditorium any time of the year, and I side with Current jockey Jill Riley's candid assessment of the matter: "This should not go down as the night you couldn't get a beer. It should go down as the night you saw My Fucking Morning Jacket!" Obviously, the Current won't be rebroadcasting the show like it did MMJ's last time in the area (Rock the Garden 2011).

After a decade in the indie dustbin, Conor Oberst's Desaparecidos returned with a roar Thursday at the 400 Bar. A sweaty, nostalgic crowd heard a politically minded punk band that hadn't missed a beat during its lengthy hiatus. Oberst, of folksy Bright Eyes fame, led the charge with "Greater Omaha," a chunky screamer off the lone Desaparecidos album, 2002's "Read Music/Speak Spanish." Oberst looked almost more comfortable screaming in front of warring guitars; the man can front a punk band. "I was very impressed with the mall, until I saw the one in Edmonton," Oberst goaded the audience prior to the song "Mall of America." "Get your shit together and build a real mall." JAY BOLLER

The Minnesota Fringe Festival reported essentially flat numbers for attendance at the 11-day performing arts festival. According to preliminary figures, 46,280 tickets were distributed, compared with 48,432 in 2011. The number of performances was down, due to show cancellations, so the average attendance per show was 56 -- the same as last year. In terms of total tickets distributed, the Fringe marks a second year of decline from the record of 50,222 in 2010.

"Ash Land" by Transatlantic Love Affair was the best-attended production in the festival. The troupe used movement and dance theater to tell the story of a Dust Bowl farm threatened by foreclosure. "Class of 98," presented by Mainly Me Productions, was second in total tickets sold.

GRAYDON ROYCE

It'll be a David Byrne twofer in September. Not only will he open his tour with St. Vincent on Sept. 15 at the State Theater, but the night before he'll promote his book "How Music Works," with a conversation at McNally Smith College of Music. The Current morning DJ Steve Seel will interview Byrne. Tickets to that 7 p.m. session cost $10; the on-sale date hasn't been announced yet.