Green Bay’s live music scene is set to get a shot in the arm when a long-vacant downtown site becomes home to the city’s newest concert venue.
Revelry will open this summer in the former Schauer & Schumacher building at 227 E. Walnut St. with two stories of space to host mid-level national touring acts and smaller local and acoustic performances. It aims to both revitalize a prime downtown location that has been empty for nearly 25 years and to fill a void in the city for a 425-person capacity concert space.
“This is perfect, I think, for a lot of bands to be able to start coming back through Green Bay again that maybe have not been for a few decades, that have been going to Milwaukee or Madison and going around us,” said general manager Tom Johnson.
Revelry’s main concert space will be upstairs with a full stage and high-end sound and lighting. It will also be available to rent for small weddings, private parties and other gatherings. A bar on the first floor will be open regular hours with its own smaller stage and room for 220 patrons.
The business is shooting to open Aug. 1, with grand opening plans in the works for Aug. 28 and 29.
Johnson’s name is a familiar one in local music circles. His Tom Johnson Productions has been booking bands at venues in and around Green Bay for 20 years, including the Lyric Room, Green Bay Distillery, Badger State Brewing Co., Crunchy Frog and Baba Louie’s. He was also selected to assemble the lineups for the free Draft City Music Fest that brought De La Soul, Less Than Jake, GZA, Riverboat Gamblers and others to Leicht Memorial Park during last year’s NFL draft.
For Revelry, Johnson is working with partners JoLinda Gorzelanczyk and Jason Burkard, the owners of Cheesesteak Rebellion, David Anderson and Austin Esquibel as well as several silent partners.
They chose the name Revelry, because of its celebratory tone.
“It’s kind of classy enough for a wedding but cool enough for a punk show,” Johnson said.
Could attract acts who play High Noon Saloon, Majestic Theatre in Madison
He had been thinking for some time that downtown Green Bay was in need of a music venue, particularly after the Lyric Room in the Broadway District was sold in 2023 and later closed, ending a decade of live shows by touring and local bands at what had become a favorite space.
The challenge for Johnson was finding the right location. Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich helped connect him with property owners to look at available spaces. He checked out the former Children’s Museum of Green Bay location on Washington Street and old Confetti’s nightclub on Walnut Street, among others. As soon as he stepped inside the historic Schauer & Schumacher building, he knew it was the one.
“Nothing was a better location than the Schauer building. The layout is perfect for what I need. The ownership there (Neenah-based Investment Creations LLC), they’re just great. Kind of everything fell into place,” Johnson said. “It just happens to be right in the heart of downtown right next to the parking ramp, so there’s plenty of parking. It’s really going to revitalize the downtown, I think.”
The building, which is more than 120 years old, housed Schauer & Schumacher Furniture for decades before the business moved to Ashwaubenon in 2001. It’s one of two Schauer & Schumacher buildings on the busy corner. The other, the former funeral home at 109 N. Adams St., is being renovated to become Everson Law Firm.
The 425-person capacity for Revelry’s main stage will be more than double what the Lyric Room held and also hits the sweet spot for the kind of artists Johnson likes to bring to town. When he has booked acts like Rev. Horton Heat and Bridge City Sinners at Green Bay Distillery, attendance is typically in the 375 to 450 range. That’s about half-full in the Distillery’s large room. At Revelry, those shows would be sellouts.
It would also put Green Bay in the running to land some of the same caliber of acts who routinely play the High Noon Saloon and Majestic Theatre, both in Madison – bands that often route around Green Bay, because there isn’t a comparable venue.
Green Bay and the surrounding area is not without its share of live music venues, but most of them are larger. For example, EPIC Event Center, which opened in Ashwaubenon five years ago, has room for up to 2,100 for general-admission standing shows. It takes significantly bigger names to fill a room that size. The 1,000-seat Meyer Theatre downtown offers a more formal theater setting versus a club atmosphere for punk, metal, rock, alternative and other genres.
Any genre of music is going to feel like a cool fit at Revelry, Johnson said, and he already has several artists booked so the venue can hit the ground running once it opens. The setup will allow for two experiences to happen in one building on any given night – a ticketed concert upstairs and a bar open to anyone downstairs.
“That’s the goal is to bring in a bunch of cool shows and create a new fun place for people to just come and hang out,” he said.
Decor in downstairs will pay tribute to Green Bay’s music history
Revelry plans to embrace the architectural features that make the sprawling upstairs space so unique, including the Gothic arches, old-world timber, hardwood floors, brick and large windows. Soundproofing will be added but the ceiling will remain open, Johnson said.
“It’s a pretty gorgeous building,” he said.
With the lease already signed, Johnson said work has started upstairs. Renovations on the ground floor will begin in May. Because most everything had already been ripped out of the building, the large shell of a space won’t require a lot of demolition, but it will need an elevator, stairwell, electrical, plumbing, paint and other infrastructure.
The downstairs bar will have a punk rock feel. Johnson envisions perhaps a mural on one wall and decor that includes old concert posters from punk shows at late, great venues like Kutska’s Hall and Concert Cafe.
“I want to really bring the musical history of this town to life in the downstairs,” he said. “We’re going to make it our own and make it feel like a fun place to be, while still paying tribute to some of the stuff the city has done over the last how many decades as far as music goes.”
For more information and updates on its progress, visit Revelry’s website at therevgb.com.
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or [email protected]. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.
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