In the late 90s, there weren't too many places for all-ages shows. Sure, every now and then, there would be concerts at the Myriad (still a better name than Cox Convention Center), Will Rogers Theater, the Diamond Ballroom, and even the Tower Theater (until the promoter oversold a Slipknot show). Or your local coffee shop might book some crappy high school bands, like Nancy's Cyber Cafe in Midwest City, or if you were in a Christian pop punk band, Outer Cafe. Everything else seemed to happen at places like the Samurai Sake House, which I was too young to go to so I'd settle for the radio ads with the greasy voice of Greg Zoobeck announcing some kind of weekly 'Hot Mama Contest.'
All that changed in 2001, when Reggy and Lucy Wheat opened the Green Door. The first time I went, I was a junior in high school. We'd heard about the place, so a crew of my friends drove out from Midwest City to see some random show on a Saturday night. It was this weird, sketchy part of town. The building looked like a bombed-out crater, and the parking lot was straight out of Mad Max. We paid the $5 door charge, got the X's marked on our hands, and looked around. It seemed out of a movie- older (to us) punks drank at the bar, biker-lookin' dudes played pool and flipped through the now-legendary jukebox.