Venue notes: The Bayou, Baton Rouge LA
Bar featuring live music that was located at 124 W. Chimes St,
near the LSU campus. It opened in 1977 and grew to play an
important role in the Baton Rouge music scene that was centered
on Chimes Street in the punk/postpunk era. That scene was
reportedly still flourishing when The Bayou was
destroyed by fire
in May 2002. It was eventually rebuilt (some of the front wall
appears to have survived) and the space is currently (2022)
occupied by City Slice pizzeria.
Correspondent Kenneth Norman writes in 2022:
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The Bayou was a long time college bar on Chimes St, which was
the block and a half long street next to the LSU campus. It
was the funky college retail area with book stores, laundromat,
health food restaurant and the famous record store Leisure
Landing. From at least 72-92, it was one of 3 bars on the
street, a bar called The Library (mainly grad students/no bands
or stage), one called the Chimes(frat/jocks) and the Bayou
(freaks/punks/nerds). It was still there when I left the area
in 1991. It was a tiny bar and I would be surprised if it
could hold 300 crammed in. My housemate was the doorman for
years. It was probably the coolest venue to see bands. Low
ceiling, tiny stage, incredibly dark. Basically the only
lights were neon beer lights and a spot over the register.
It was definitely on the punk/indie circuit as we had various
bands crash on the house floor many times. It’s the bar
featured in the movie Sex, Lies and Videotape.
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