If Slim’s, the “premier music hallway” of downtown Raleigh, were an actual nineteen-year-old, it would be a scrappy, rowdy punk kid with a heart of gold. For the better part of two decades, Slim’s has been an essential incubator for local bands getting their start as well as a prime spot to get soused with a bunch of colorful, loveable rapscallions. Van Alston, who opened the bar in the late nineties, has been a positive force in local music for decades, for reasons ranging from small loans that help bands make ends meet to helping open new spaces like Raleigh’s Ruby Deluxe. To celebrate all things Slim’s, three of the venue’s contemporary staplesNest Egg, Naked Naps, Drag Sounds, and Royal Niteswill sling raucous rock sets from its small stage. The bar’s tongue-in-cheek motto may be “We’re not happy until you’re not happy,” but we’ll be happy as long as Slim’s sticks around.
