Nineteen years ago, Kurt Cobain walked into the 40 Watt — and didn’t find a full house waiting for him.

The show hadn’t sold out, the first in a week to do so, and he and his band decided they had something to prove.

“Everyone was kind of raging that night, but in a good way,” said Barrie Buck, a University alumnus and the club’s owner since 1987.

Now in its fifth location, The 40 Watt has hosted huge musical acts such as Nirvana, R.E.M. and The Killers. Photo by MICHAEL BARONE

Soon enough, before the set had finished, Cobain threw himself offstage, grabbing onto a projector screen as he did so.

After that, the crowd began to rage along.

Nearly 20 years later, the club still remains at the center of the Athens music scene and all that time has left behind more than just memories.

There are Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling, glowing all year long.

Chinese lanterns mix with store-bought stars, all twirling around a disco ball whose light glints across two faded floral couches below, halfway between a Tiki bar, a pool table and a velvet painting of fried chicken.

In one bathroom, a giant pineapple covers the wall. Backstage, messages have been scrawled over many years in as many markers.

Now in its fifth location, it seems like nothing that has been moved into the 40 Watt has ever moved out again.

“It’s just a mix of things you find, things you inherit and things you rescue from the dump,” Buck said.

The eclectic objects that dot the walls, hang pinned from the ceiling and fill far corners are evidence enough of the years spent with a venue full of people, musicians and all they bring along.

Python left an old backdrop, now hanging next to the entrance.

Cobain left a message in a back room for girlfriend Courtney Love, once stolen, now returned. The Flaming Lips left confetti.

“Literally, we were still cleaning it up seven years later,” Buck said.

The most enduring mark, perhaps, is that any of the others were left at all.

Since moving to its current, and largest, location in 1991, 40 Watt has seen many artists on its stage — none easily defined by one genre or target audience.

Country singers have stepped up beneath the lights; as have former University students-turned-stars.

John Mayer played a gig before his fame skyrocketed. The first time My Morning Jacket walked in front of the audience, there were only 100 faces in the crowd.

“That was always the key: have all styles, all genres,” Buck said.

Appreciating and understanding talent-in-the-making has been a defining trait of the Watt’s lineup throughout the years.

“There were lots of times where we’d have only 200 people, but we knew they were going to explode,” said Velena Vego, the club’s booking agent.

Variety has also been important: the idea that live music is meant for the discerning    masses.

To that end, Vego pursues and schedules without loyalty to a particular aesthetic. Her goal, mirrored in the history of past performers, is simply to showcase talent.

“I’m trying to be a tastemaker across the board,” she said.

The passing of time has made her task easier, but no less important.

Twenty years ago, when Vego came to work at the 40 Watt, there were far fewer bars and clubs downtown.

The music scene wasn’t nearly what it would become; and the club’s place within it was still being defined.

Buck had just relocated to a thrift shop she had once frequented, having moved from the building the Caledonia Lounge would someday call home.

“It [was] a ‘plain Jane’ building, for sure,” Buck said.

She had the strain of a small designing budget, but the luck to have friend Curtis Crowe, with whom the original idea for the space had begun back in the late-‘70s, helping her lay it out.

“I love that, him still being a part of it after all these years,” Buck said.

She also had the benefit of a built-in base of customers: those regulars who had been going to the Watt since its earlier iteration on Clayton Street and before in the ‘80s, when the previous owners left amid financial trouble.

Buck, who’d graduated with a degree in political science and was considering law school, was a bartender at the time; and she decided to continue on with the help of the club’s then-booking agent.

“I said, ‘Why don’t we do it?’,” Buck said.

The pair hired a lawyer, who discovered the 40 Watt logo had not, in fact, ever been trademarked.

With the help of the logo’s original artist, Buck was then able to retain the same look and feel when moving the venue to the first of two new homes.

“That was the first lucky break, I guess,” she said.

A few years later and already they were over capacity, reaching crowds that surpassed the 200-person limit.

So 40 Watt moved again, into its ex-thrift store space, and began further building on the club’s reputation, spreading the word and reaching out to performers.

Even then, in the early-‘90s, Vego had an ear out — a feel for where the sound was heading.

“I was staying away from the hip … cover bands, booking the grunge bands and no one was doing it then,” she said.

College radio was exploding and 40 Watt was there at the blast site.

The trend would continue, with a mix-and-match of bands and singers coming through over the years.

In one sense, the diversity among them is crucial.

“That’s always been our thing: never the same bands, never the same clientele,” Buck said.

However, building relationships among artists, their crew and the surrounding community is even more important — it’s kind of the whole point.

“That has really helped create the 40 Watt name,” Vego said.

The Drive-By Truckers roll in for three nights annually, an event that continually sells out.

Brian Burton, a former University student and downtown record store employee, has made repeat appearances as part of both Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells.

Kenny Chesney came once, out of the blue, and then once more.

“Most bands don’t just play the 40 Watt once,” Vego said.

It’s also not just bands that play in the venue, either: for the past 21 years, the dragged-up performers of the Boybutante Ball, an event that supports AIDS research, have been fixtures.

Buck has also worked with Nuçi’s Space and the Humane Society; she’s hosted charity events and afternoon meetings — but active involvement in the Athens community comes with the territory.

“We’re here,” she said. “We’re a part of this town.”

Her philosophy is based on consistency, even as the music continues to shift and evolve.

“Just being around as long as we have is an improvement,” Buck said.

Two decades in and there are no great changes coming soon.But stability should not be confused with stagnation.

“Every year you wanna outdo yourself,” Vego said. “You don’t wanna rest on your laurels.”

There have been marriage proposals in the 40 Watt, along with birthday parties and baby showers.

The same space that saw Iggy Pop has also seen The Killers; Wilco has played the same stage as The Cramps.

Above it all, the disco ball still spins.

“You always wanna make sure that when people come in,” Buck said, “they go, ‘This is awesome.’”

“There were a lot of times where we’d have only 200 people, but we knew they were going to explode.’”

Velena vego

Booking Agent for the 40 Watt