With incense burning and air flowing in through a broken window, there was no aromatic evidence of last weekend's party at the Sound Gallery by Monday afternoon. But there were plenty of visual clues: a sign on the front door asking for a $10-$15 donation, a flier emblazoned with Sean Anonymous' and Lizzo's names, and a DJ table in the corner.
"It was actually pretty laid-back and a lot of fun," recounted Jacob Grun, the Sound Gallery's owner and de facto party host. "For Sean and Lizzo, it gave them both a chance to try out new stuff."
A "try-out" pad is a good description of the Sound Gallery, along with experimental incubator, artistic co-op, video production hub and the two main titles that drive it — recording studio and rehearsal space.
Sort of a modern and more musical Minneapolis version of Andy Warhol's Factory, it's spread over two main rooms on the fourth floor of a 90-year-old former Ford auto parts warehouse within Jim Thome-hitting distance of Target Field, its high concrete ceiling and artfully colored walls soaked in paint and history.
On closer inspection Monday, there was also leftover evidence of the decades of music and mayhem that predated Grun's eight-year involvement with the storied space: a cheap, gaudy, teal-colored imitation of a Flying V guitar, and a giant road case with Froot Loops still stuck inside.
Those items all used to belong to the clown-faced, fun-loving '90s hard-rock band Flipp, whose frontman Brynn Arens haunted the space going back to the mid-'80s when metal bands like Obsession and Funhouse first used it.
"We were so spoiled in that space," Arens said, lamenting its loss but perfectly describing the qualities that persist to this day. "For one thing, it's just a great-sounding space, especially for recording drums. For another, it's kept just nice enough to not be a total rat-hole, but not so nice you have to worry about finding a coaster to put down your Coca-Cola."
Kiss, Crüe worked here
It's all thanks to Flipp and its industry connections that Grun can now tell guests that Kiss once rehearsed at the Sound Gallery, and Mötley Crüe did a radio broadcast there (good thing the freight elevator still works; Gene Simmons and Vince Neil never would've climbed the grungy flights of stairs). Flipp also built the studio there, using money from its deal with Hollywood Records.