**UPDATE: Soilwork and most of the other touring shows booked at The Rock will now move to the beautiful Robert's Bar (aka Robert's Off Ten) in Mounds View.
According to the club's Facebook page, tonight is your final chance to hang out and bang your head at The Rock nightclub in Maplewood. Says the Facebook posting, "The Rock is officially closing it's doors this coming Friday. Thursday will be the last day open and we want to gather as many people as possible to say goodbye in style!" We're still awaiting word from management on the reasons for the closure and -- perhaps foremost on fans' minds -- what's going to happen to its upcoming list of shows, which was to include Soilwork and Death Angel on Saturday, We Are the Fallen on Aug. 1, the Goodyear Pimps on Aug. 6 and Tantric on Sept. 15.
Throw the Fight guitarist Ryan Baustert, whose band was supposed to play there Friday, said they only just found out yesterday their gig (a tour kickoff) was canceled. "It sounds like they weren't making the money like they used to and were hurting," said Baustert, who mourned the loss. "It was a crucial place for a lot of bands."
The closure leaves Station 4 in downtown St. Paul as the only regular metal venue around the metro area. Meanwhile, Maplewood has gone from the hardest-rock burb out there to just another strip-mall mecca in a short year's time, what with the very messy closing of Myth mega-nightclub last year. Myth's founding owner Mike Ogren previously ran The Rock but sold it before he opened Myth.
