Part 2: I guess I do have one somewhat intersting 'return to the scene' story. I lived in the Baltimore/DC metro area in the 90's and there was a dive bar named the 8x10 club in Baltimore that used to book mostly blues and jazz acts. It was a run down row-house type of place, but had a cool vibe for the type of music they hosted.
I saw some of my blues heros in that place, most notably Luther Allison who used to put on 3 1/2 hour long shows WITHOUT a setbreak, and if anyone ever saw a Luther show it was amazing because his energy level was always sky high. I saw him play probaby 6 or 7 times and I think half of those shows were marathons without a break. He was effing amazing.
In the latter part of the 90's, maybe 97 or so, the 8x10 closed because we had a bad winter and the roof collapsed under the weight of the snow.
It was closed for a couple of years. Someone bought the place and put something like a million bucks into it and reopened it under the name The Funk Box. They didn't book blues acts anymore, but started booking jam bands. Cool thing about that for me is that, along in that time I discovered Panic and, Luther had passed away and I'd been into blues for so long that I was looking for something new. I latched into the Jamband scene and discovered so much new music. But the Funk Box was there to book that music for me too.
Apparently, there was another club named The Funk Box somewhere in the US, so a few years after they reopened, they went back to the original name of the place and it's been the 8x10 ever since.
I moved away 10 years ago, but I like to get back every couple of years. It's alway a Deja Vu experiene to go back. No matter how many times I go there, I think back to those shows with Luther Allison, and the few times before the shows where I got to chit chat with him. The 8x10 is such fantastic place to see a band and is still my favorite venue...
The only downside of the place for me is that I used to record there all the time and now we have to patch into the house system. Not all that big a deal and I'm really glad that they didn't eliminate taping altogether, so that was a really cool compromise when they institued that system, but I do miss using my own gear when I go there.