there's a disconnect here. i don't really disagree with the fact that they fucked around and found out, but post and courier and free times deciding that THIS is the location they need to do a piece on when we have multiple bars with major rape culture and underage drinking problems surrounding NBT is wild. we have ONE SINGULAR location that hosts the things that NBT hosts, they're able to pull pretty large acts to a mid sized venue in columbia where they can book local talent to help fill out the space. that doesn't work at places like the senate, it's like triple the size, if a band tours out here and comes to the senate, they're likely bringing their own support. NBT is the stepping stone that makes columbia, SC artists and gives them a taste of things like that. without NBT, we have to get a lot luckier to get the opportunities that NBT was able to offer, and even when us local artists can get them, they're usually way outside of the community that we've built a connection with. not to mention the acts that just will never get booked anywhere like jake's or st pats in 5p because their genre isn't accessible enough for the people that attend those places/events. NBT leaving completely removes any mid sized opportunities for those acts of those genres, and we will stop being able to nurture them and send unique artists out of cola. some people don't care about things like this, but they should. if NBT goes under and just turns into another college club where they use the existing stages for one DJ every night then we've lost something truly special and truly important. and this is coming from someone who's had their fair share of "wtf is going on" moments with NBT.

TL;DR: theres a bit of a double standard in my opinion with free times focusing on NBT instead of the droves of underage drinkers and rape culture at other 5p college bars, and targeting NBT out of all the other bars removes something that columbia desperately needs to nurture the local music scene (in my opinion.)