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It's 8:24 p.m., and I've already discovered one way that Minneapolis' newest and biggest nightclub, Club Three Degrees, differs from every other live music venue in town: The shows start on time.
"How many freaks are in the house?" singer Toby Mac is asking as I enter the packed Warehouse District venue.
By freaks, of course, Mac means "Jesus freaks," a term that his old group dc talk often used to signal a younger and hipper brand of Christians. Three Degrees, which grew out of the New Union Christian club in northeast Minneapolis, is up to the same freaky scheme. Last Friday at the faith-based nightclub, the scheme was clearly working well.
Mac and fellow '90s star Kirk Franklin were the club's first sold- out show, with more than 1,600 attendees ranging from young kids with braces to old folks with canes to lots and lots of teenagers. It was a major test for the club and, said co-director Nancy Aleksuk, "I think we passed."
Adding to the momentum was the fact that Rolling Stone and Time magazines did small write-ups on the month-old venue, at 113 N. 5th St. As Christian rock clubs go - and there aren't many to go on - this one is the most ambitious in the country.
"There are other Christian clubs, but they're not nearly as sophisticated in a rock-club sense," said Mac's manager Laurie Anderson, who came from Nashville to see the venue. "This was the like the House of Blues venues that they're playing on the tour, but with the Christian aspect."
Indeed, what's amazing about Three Degrees - if you take away the surprisingly polite volunteer doormen and pretend that the bar is stocked with Leinie's instead of root beer - is that it's really not all that different from other nightclubs. The main performance space looks and sounds like a...