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The Academy of Country Music Awards has included 8 Seconds Saloon in Indianapolis as a nominee in the category of “Club of the Year” more than once.
Mark Nicholson, owner of 8 Seconds Saloon, estimates the 34,000-square-foot former bowling alley has been in the running five times without bringing home the trophy.
But Nicholson has high hopes the music venue at 111 N. Lynhurst Drive will win on May 16, when the ACM Awards are handed out in suburban Dallas and streamed live on Amazon Prime Video.
“This is the year we really want to win, just because it’s our 25th year,” he said of the venue, which takes its name from the length of a rodeo competitor’s successful ride. “We feel like we’ve deserved it multiple times.”
Since 1999, 8 Seconds has been a reliable destination for catching rising country stars onstage and for showing off moves on the venue’s expansive dance floor.
The list of past performers spans more than one generation of A-list artists, including Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Jason Aldean, Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs and Kane Brown.
Nicholson started working at 8 Seconds Saloon in 2002, three years after his late brother, Brad Nicholson, opened the venue. 8 Seconds followed a similar concept, A Little Bit of Texas, in the building.
As the person who hires touring acts, Mark Nicholson said the present condition of country music is strong.
“If you have a venue, country is really where you want to be,” he said. “If not, you’re going to be struggling or dealing with a lot of uncertainty.”
8 Seconds has a reputation for keeping ticket prices in check. Most shows have a $5 entry option, and the ceiling rarely exceeds $25.
“Coming into this thing, my main goal was to keep everything at an affordable price for everyone to come out and have a good time,” said Nicholson, who concedes that representatives of artists occasionally push back on the 8 Seconds ticket policy.
“The agents get mad sometimes because they think we’re making their artists too cheap,” Nicholson said. “Twenty-five years in, they know us. They’ll say, ‘Just so you know, we have a 28-city tour with this guy and you have the cheapest ticket price in the whole country.’”
Bill Stamper, the general manager at 8 Seconds Saloon, does the budget-conscious math: “You can get a gallon of gas to get here, then buy a ticket and a beer and spend $20.”
At the ACM Awards where Reba McEntire is scheduled to host, 8 Seconds’ competitors in the Club of the Year category are Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, Texas; Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia; Joe’s Live in Rosemont, Illinois; and Mission Ballroom in Denver.
At 100,000 square feet, Billy Bob’s is advertised as the world’s largest honky-tonk, with ample room for line dancing.
At 8 Seconds Saloon, line dancing is the main attraction each Wednesday night, when the average attendance is 400, Stamper said. A free lesson is included with admission ($5 for men, $3 for women) and attendees can text song requests directly to the DJ booth.
Stamper said 30% of the crowd is made up of first-time visitors, and an increase in attendees younger than 25 is significant.
“Songs that are 10 and 20 years old are famous again because of TikTok,” Stamper said. “I think TikTok is helping line dancing get bigger.”
8 Seconds Saloon isn’t the only Indianapolis business in the running for an ACM Award. Hank FM, or WLHK-FM 97.1, is nominated in the category of Large-Market Radio Station of the Year and Hank FM morning hosts Annie Fox and Cole Dunbar are nominated in the category of On-air Personality of the Year for large-market stations.
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Trash pit
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