Illinois Live Music Venue Closing

More and more live music venues are closing down in Illinois and the latest causality is legendary for shows.

History Of The Famous Durty Nellie's In Palatine, Illinois

During the early 1990s when my friends and I started going to bars, we discovered a very cool live music venue in downtown Palatine called Durty Nellie's. I always called it the "Franken-Bar" like Frankenstein because it seemed like four totally different bars pieced together. There was a little Irish Pub, an acoustic room, the main music venue, and a killer beer garden.

The place was hopping all the time. It was a fun bar to hang out at. They always featured amazing live bands including local, regional, national, cover, tribute, original, and so much more. Even though we loved hanging out at Durty Nellie's, it definitely needed some upgrades. In 2003, they built a bigger and better venue. The new place offered a few separate rooms for different types of entertainment. That was a huge success.

Then in 2019, tragedy struck the facility. There was a massive fire that destroyed the club. Durty Nellie's reopened in early 2020. Then just after getting back in business, they were forced to shut down again because of the COVID lockdown. They never had a chance to recover. Huge venues like that were no longer viable. After fifty years in business, the iconic bar is going away for good.

According to nbcchicago.com,

Legendary Illinois Live Music Venue To Be Demolished

The owners have decided to take that property in a different direction. Durty Nellie's can no longer support itself. They are going to tear it down. It's going to develop into an apartment complex. There's a promise to include a new smaller version of the venue but we'll have to wait and see. It's sad to see another one of my favorite places go over forever.