Rhino's celebrates 20 years

Rhino’s All Ages Music Club will put on a 20th Anniversary Retrospective showcase Friday and Saturday, bringing together more than 15 bands that have played at the venue in its two decades in Bloomington.

Tickets cost $10 per night or $15 for the whole weekend, and the doors open at 5 p.m. each night.

“I’m really super-excited about it,” said David Britton, assistant director and booking agent at the club. “My thought was to try to get as many bands who were a big part of Rhino’s over the past 20 years. It’s been a very nostalgic month and a half for me.”

Britton started coming to the club in the early 1990s when he was a teenager, and he said representing two decades of Rhino’s performances in two days was a challenge. One thing he wanted to make sure of was that he didn’t misrepresent the venue by booking too many bands from one genre.

“I definitely wanted it to be all over the map,” he said. “We have metal bands, we have hip-hop bands, we have indie rock bands, punk bands and people just playing acoustic. I wanted it to, as much as possible, reflect what we’ve done over the past 20 years.”

Rhino’s has changed a lot in those 20 years, too. In the early days, it was simply an all-ages rock club, whereas today the venue works with the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department to put on after-school programs and engage high school students in the area with the arts.

Britton said he hopes the Retrospective will reflect this dimension of Rhino’s, as well.

“We’re about so many things now, so it’s hard to do,” Britton said. “We’ll definitely try to get some of the kids’ artwork up for people to see, and on Saturday, all the employees who are in bands are playing back to back.”

Employee performances aside, ultimately, it’s still all about the kids.

“Rhino’s wasn’t started by adults. It was started by high school kids as a senior project,” Britton said. “That, more than anything, explains what Rhino’s is about. Kids wanted it here, kids made it happen, it’s here for them, so this is a celebration of that.”

For a complete list of the bands playing the Rhino’s Retrospective, go to idsnews.com/livebuzz.