Coming soon to an airport near you: a live music venue.
McNally Smith College of Music and the folks behind Republic bars won a bid Monday to co-pilot a pub with a permanent music stage inside Terminal 1 (Lindbergh) at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
The new hangout — modeled after a music venue that's a popular feature at the airport in Austin, Texas — will be a Republic brand pub with a McNally Smith College of Music Stage inside it. Both entities will be involved in picking the musicians to play there. It will be housed in a relatively prime location between the C and D gates where a Quiznos and a newsstand are now. It will feature Minnesota musicians during "peak travel hours" such as 4-7 p.m. weekdays, although the exact booking scheme, layout and design have yet to be determined.
"We know from experience it can't be anything with a loud snare drum, or the TSA will come and tell you to knock it off," said Chris Osgood, community relations rep at McNally Smith College of Music. The St. Paul music college has been involved with pop-up performances throughout the airport over the past year.
The programming also probably can't involve songs like "Burn It Down," a standard by Osgood's own band, the Suicide Commandos.
The veteran guitarist was unnaturally pitted against his longtime musician friend John Munson (New Standards, Semisonic, etc.), who was helping pitch on behalf of another joint venture between the Cedar Cultural Center and Bryant-Lake Bowl/Red Stag restaurateur Kim Bartmann. Their bid lost out, however.
"Either plan would've been a great addition to the airport," Osgood said.
While Republic isn't known for live music, it employs many a musician. Also, co-owner Matty O'Reilly is a co-proprietor of Excelsior's 318 Café, a haven for the kind of acoustic music that will likely fill the airport venue's schedule.
