1. All Ages Venues

Eau Claire is lucky to boast a number of all-ages venues, both on campus and off!

On campus The Cabin does most of the heavy lifting with weekly shows. Zorn Arena and some of the other spaces and rooms in Davies or Schofield are no stranger to exciting events either, with bands like Polica, Bon Iver, and more making appearances in the last few years.

Off campus there is a growing number of great options for music for all ages audiences.
In the heart of downtown Eau Claire The Plus is a great option for affordable, all ages events and shows nearly every night of the week. Also Downtown is Acoustic Cafe, a longtime bastion of great all-ages live events. The newest kid on the block is The Oxbow and The Lakely (yes, the “Justin Vernon hotel”) which is also keeping a busy slate of all ages events going with live jazz and vinyl nights on their restarant stage and live bands in The Gallery on Friday nights.

Of course there is a a still vibrant house show scene in town, where all ages crowds have been gathering regularly for years now.

…we’re thankful that these places allow music fans not of drinking age to catch great shows, and even if you are 21 or older we hope you share our appreciation for these spots and will support them when you can!

2. The New Tribe Called Quest Album

This amazing album manages to honor the highly recognizable sound and feel of vintage Tribe while also simultaneously feeling completely current stylistically. This is quite a feat given that their most recent album together before this one came out nearly 20 years ago. Lyrically the songs are sharp, smart, and timely. This is a great and significant album and we can’t recommend it enough.

3. New music from Ronald Raygun

These guys made waves when they had a standout set as part of the very first Sawdust City Limits showcase (see above photo!) and their music is certainly something to behold live, but their guitar-driven, dynamic and experimental post-rock translates nicely to recording too! It’s great to have new tunes from this outfit after about a 5-year hiatus. But hey, don’t take our word for it…give it a listen for yourself:

4. The Newly Emerging EC Ethos

Speaking of Sawdust City Limits, we’re super excited about not only this new specific showcase but the spirit behind it and much of the other exciting endeavors we’re seeing pop up in town. The lines between different scenes are being blurred and a truly collaborative and supportive community is starting to take shape. The more inclusive and eclectic the shows are the more excited we at Blugold Radio are about them. A big proponent and someone spearheading this is Drunk Drivers band-member and event booker Jon Oldstadt (pictured at right modeling our t-shirt and looking good!), and hopefully others will follow his lead and we’ll continue seeing events that combine not only genres but mediums too (music, comedy, live painting, poetry, etc).

Let’s get weird, Eau Claire!

5. Blugold Radio Being a Thing

We feel so fortunate to get to do what we do. Playing our favorite music for radio listeners all throughout the extended area and, hopefully in so doing, getting to help shine a light on the great music being produced right here in the Chippewa Valley…it’s an incredibly exciting and meaningful thing for the Blugold Radio team.

Thanks go to both Midwest Family Broadcasting for the generous donation of 99.9, and the Blugold Foundation for supporting us while we work towards becoming self-sufficient!

We are grateful too for the many kind words and encouraging feedback that has been sent our way.

Thanks, everyone! We love getting to do what we do and with your continued support we’ll hopefully get to continue doing this for a long time to come!