WHAT'LL YOU HAVE? Them Coulee Boys will perform on March 30 at the Masonic Temple in Eau Claire. (Submitted photo)

Folk-rockers Them Coulee Boys had to do a bit of improvisation recently, although not the musical kind.

The band had been scheduled to perform Saturday, March 30, at The Metro (201 E. Lake St.), a long-shuttered downtown Eau Claire venue. It would have been the first show at The Metro since a February 2020 fire shut it down, and would have also served as a pre-party for the 2024 Blue Ox Music Festival, which will run June 27-29 outside Eau Claire.

However, the band and its fans were left in limbo March 4 when the City of Eau Claire announced it had revoked The Metro’s liquor license, reportedly because the building hadn’t passed a number of necessary inspections and hadn’t been granted an occupancy permit.

“We’ve played at The Metro before and we loved it,” said Soren Staff, the band’s co-founder. “We hope to do a show there eventually, but it just didn't work out this time.”

As they say in the business, the show must go on – and in this case, it will go on just across the street. After a few days of uncertainty, Them Coulee Boys’ show was relocated to the Masonic Temple (616 Graham Ave.). Tickets purchased for The Metro show will be fully transferable, so ticketholders won’t have to seek refunds or buy new tickets.

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The energy is a symbiotic thing … and it’s harder to get that in a (larger) theater.

SOREN STAFF

THEM COULEE BOYS

Staff said he’s relieved that the situation was sorted out so quickly. “We obviously still want to play,” he said. “Eau Claire has become home for us. We used to play four or five times a year in Eau Claire, but in the last five years it’s become Blue Ox and a show at the Pablo.”

Scheduling a homecoming gig at The Metro hearkened back to the shows the Boys played during their early years at smaller clubs such as the House of Rock and The Mousetrap, Staff said.

“The energy is a symbiotic thing … and it’s harder to get that in a (larger) theater,” he said. “And we were excited to have that again in Eau Claire.”

The Masonic Temple show will be held on the building’s lower level, which can accommodate an audience of approximately 450, larger than the upstairs theater, which holds 280.

The concert comes amid a ramped-up touring schedule for the band, which had gigs in the near future across Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, and North Carolina, including a June 27 performance at Blue Ox outside Eau Claire and an Aug. 8 appearance at Ashley for the Arts in Arcadia.

Them Coulee Boys are also looking forward to the release of a new record toward the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025. The as-yet-untitled album was recorded last year with Grammy-winning producer Brian Joseph at his Eau Claire studio, The Hive, and is now undergoing its final mixing.

“It’s so nice to have everything coming down the pike,” Staff said.

The Coulee Boys with opening act Clare Doyle • Saturday, March 30 • doors at 7pm • The Masonic Temple, 616 Graham Ave., Eau Claire • $20 in advance, $25 at the door • volumeonetickets.org