The Club Above

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In the early 1990s national acts like Soundgarden, Urge Overkill, and the Jayhawks played the Heidelberg. Leo wants to turn the well-worn venue into a top nightspot again. She's brought in a new sound system, better lighting, a stage backdrop, carpeting and paint, and a green room for the bands. But the biggest change is Leo herself: the kind of energetic, in-the-know booking agent the club's been lacking for a long time.

"Ann Arbor is starving for some good rock and roll," Leo contends. "I just really want the local music community to get to see original, unique acts and get them to discover stuff. I don't want to bring for the twenty-fifth time in a row this same college band that tours around the country. I want variety, I want new, I want exciting, I want rock and roll."

Leo has connections as well as passion. She's played bass or drums in many local bands, most notably the Avatars, and was part of the late-90s explosion of Detroit garage-band rock, often playing shows with the likes of the White Stripes. Her shows are fresh but exhibit a keen sense of rock history: she terms some of her multi-band music nights a "Rock and Roll Circus" after an old Rolling Stones concept, and her Club Above debut show last spring featured the Sixties icons Question Mark and the Mysterians.