Local legend: The Milestone Club
August 22, 2024
A new documentary immortalizes west Charlotte dive bar The Milestone Club.
by David Menconi
A time-honored rock ’n’ roll trope is the dive bar, the place where music happens. Nightclubs are typically decaying, down-market structures populated by colorful characters on both sides of the stage. And that pretty much sums up the vibe of The Milestone Club, the venerable Charlotte music venue.
For more than half a century, the 180-capacity room on Tuckaseegee Road has hosted thousands of bands ranging from legendary to obscure, outlasting waves of gentrification as well as every other club in town. “How To Save A Milestone,” a new documentary film, traces this improbable gathering place’s history. It’s about as close to permanent as joints like this ever get despite several close brushes with the wrecking ball.
“Charlotte just likes to mow s**t down,” says Liz McLaughlin, the film’s producer. “Once we realized The Milestone might not be here for long, we had to capture history before it was gone.”
“I mean, the place is a dump. The wood has been in there so long it’s petrified, like cement. But it’s like grandma’s house. We’ve been close to losing it a few times, and I would lay down my life to keep it open.” – Neal Harper
A TV reporter who covers climate change for Raleigh station WRAL, McLaughlin made “How To Save A Milestone” with her husband/director Jason Arthurs, a former newspaper photographer and who has gone on to a solid filmmaking career. This is Arthurs’ fourth documentary, and his first about music after a series of films about agricultural issues. It’s also a homecoming of sorts for him; Arthurs, a graduate of Gastonia’s Ashbrook High, grew up at The Milestone, playing there with his high-school band Nashua way back in the 1990s.
By then, The Milestone was already established as a local institution. The building was originally constructed in the early 1900s by the Hoover family (one descendant, Jamie Hoover, would gain fame in the 1980s as leader of Charlotte pop band The Spongetones). The building served as a grocery store and hardware store before the family sold it in the 1960s.
Clockwise from left: Club employees and musicians Kyle Knight and Andy Fenstermaker; former Milestone Club co-owner Neal Harper; and current club owner Wyley “Buck” Boswell. Photograph by Jason Arthurs, courtesy How to Save a Milestone.
New owner Bill Flowers turned it into a nightclub christened The Milestone Club in 1969. It’s been a music venue ever since, with a few semi-inactive stretches. But The Milestone’s legend took hold early and lasted, hosting everybody from Bo Diddley to The Flaming Lips plus R.E.M., Fugazi, The Go-Go’s and Violent Femmes, among many others. North Carolina Music Hall of Famer Hope Nicholls started going there in the late 1970s and says it’s the first place that made her think she could be a musician herself.
“I just thought it was the coolest place,” says Nicholls. “When I first started Fetchin Bones, I remember my biggest goal was to sing onstage at The Milestone. Top-tier goal. Everything else has been gravy. It’s foundational to me. Part of my deep mental wallpaper, and that’s a fact.”
The Milestone has had a series of operators over the years, including Wyley “Buck” Boswell, its proprietor since 2018. But the managerial figure who looms largest might be Neal Harper, who Arthurs calls “the unsung life force that has kept The Milestone alive all these years.”
Harper has been a Milestone regular since the mid-1990s, when he was running sound and booking shows as a teenager. He was co-owner from 2010 to 2018 and nowadays calls his handyman role “backup logistics.” In many ways, he’s the Greek-chorus voice of “How To Save A Milestone.”
“It’s special to me,” Harper says of The Milestone. “I mean, the place is a dump. The wood has been in there so long it’s petrified, like cement. But it’s like grandma’s house. We’ve been close to losing it a few times, and I would lay down my life to keep it open.”
Photographs by Daniel Coston
Indeed, one of those times The Milestone almost closed came in 2019, when the former landlord put up a “For Sale” sign. That was when Arthurs and McLaughlin decided to make a short film about the place, then kept filming through the pandemic shutdown. The story even has a happy ending, with current landlord Ross Pierson’s purchase of the building with a commitment to keep it open as a music venue.
“I told Ross once, ‘I prayed for you to show up because we needed someone with more money than sense,’” quips Harper.
“How To Save A Milestone” has numerous interview segments with musicians and clubgoers, plus long, lingering shots of the interior walls — which are completely covered with rock ’n’ roll wallpaper of graffiti and stickers. The movie premiers Labor Day weekend, with screenings at Charlotte’s Independent Picture House and The Milestone itself. The goal is to have it wind up streaming somewhere soon.
“It’s a special place that has touched so many fans, bands, owners and neighbors,” says Arthurs. “I’m so happy we made this. I love hanging out there. I’d go there right now if I had the time. Anytime I’m in there, I feel good. And it feels good to make an impact. I don’t think anyone wants to be known as the one who bought The Milestone and tore it down. Bare minimum, we bought them some time.” SP
