Saunter up to Dürty Nelly’s on a Wednesday night and you’ll see a gaggle of people crowding the entrance outside. It’s not that they can’t get in—they’re just taking a breather, chatting with friends, maybe having a smoke before they plunge back into the chaos inside. In the parking lot, you might hear a drunken diva blaring through a Kesha song at karaoke, or a local band blowing the doors off. Dürty Nelly’s makes an explosive impression, and that’s before you’re blinded by the bright neon lights of its signature stage sign.
“I think the community loves our thriving dive-vibes,” says owner Jordan Brunk. “There’s nowhere else like Dürty Nelly’s.” He’s right: People flock to his pub for its party-time atmosphere, and its friendly staff make sure that party rages until the clock strikes midnight.
Since COVID restrictions started easing up, Brunk has been determined to bring more live music to Dürty Nelly’s. In the spring of 2021, he hired Koda Kerl to manage the bar’s bookings, in part to emulate the casual live-music setup at Brunk’s other bar and restaurant, Crozet Pizza at Buddhist Biker Bar. At Nelly’s, Kerl and Brunk have launched a “curated writer showcase,” and expanded their performance space from the single neon-lit indoor stage to an additional pickup truck bed outside.
The pub’s shift toward being a live music venue has caused some locals to declare the bar’s going through a renaissance. But while Brunk can’t vouch for the pub’s heyday—“Dürty Nelly’s is older than I am,” he says, “and the origin story is best told by our lovely happy hour regulars that have been there since day one”—he does believe that Nelly’s is “a safe haven for the talented van people” now that bands are on the road again.
Kerl’s been a touring artist himself, with Chamomile and Whiskey, so he knows the value of smaller clubs like Nelly’s. And that know-how has helped him bring local talent to “Koda’s Corral,” including Adam Long, Emily Kresky, Kai Crowe-Getty, Rob Cheatham, Will Overman, and Kerl himself.
“We don’t have an enormous budget, but we’ve been gaining a reputation for being fun and an easy stop on the way to more lucrative shows,” Kerl says.
The bar’s booker has striven to keep things diverse, too, from the sounds to the crowds. Country, garage rock, and jangly jagged indie stand side by side on the calendar, and the bar has even hosted music video shoots for local bands. Sometimes the only things showgoers might have in common are a love for cheap drinks and great tunes.
“It’s fun to see people in their 70s hanging out with college kids and people of different tastes,” Kerl says. “That’s the kind of stuff that makes us proud and happy to be a part of the scene.”