Welcome to the Backline Rehearsal Studios home page. We are nine rehearsal rooms in a former tire warehouse two blocks off the strip, behind the muffler shop. If you have driven past and wondered what the noise was, it was us, and we apologize to nobody.

My name is Mick and I own the place. I opened it in 1994 because I got tired of my own band getting kicked out of every garage, basement and storage unit in town. Now your band can rehearse somewhere with a real drum kit, real amps, a real PA, a bathroom that works, and neighbors who can't hear you.

Cash or check, paid before you play. We have been burned. If you are a touring band coming through and need a room to run the set before the show, call ahead and we'll usually squeeze you in at the hourly rate.

Every hourly room (A, B and C) comes with:

• Drums: a five-piece kit, hardware, hi-hat stand, two cymbal stands and a kick pedal. Bring your own cymbals, snare and sticks. There is a house snare and there are house cymbals if you forget, but they sound like what you'd expect house cymbals to sound like after five years of strangers.
• Bass: a 200-watt bass head on a 4x10 cabinet.
• Guitar: two half-stacks, one tube, one solid state. Bring your own pedals and cables.
• PA: a powered 8-channel mixer, two speakers on stands, two vocal mics with stands and cables. Bring your own mic if you have one you like; we clean ours but they've been through a lot.
• Also: a keyboard stand (no keyboard), a music stand, a clock you can see from the drum stool, a chair, a trash can, a fan, egg-crate foam on the walls, and carpet remnants on the floor that were already in the building when I bought it and which I have decided are load-bearing.

Room A is the big one (fits a six-piece with horns, barely). Rooms B and C are for trios and four-pieces. Everything is checked every morning. If something's broken when you get there, tell me before you start and you won't be charged for it. If something's broken when you leave and you didn't tell me, we have a conversation.

A lockout is your own room, with your own key, where your gear stays set up all month so you never have to load in or load out. Six of them, rooms 1 through 6, each about 12 by 16 feet with a door that locks and a wall you can put a couch against (and they all have a couch; I don't know where the couches come from, they just appear).

• $250 a month, first and last month up front, month to month after that. No lease.
• No backline in the lockouts. It's your room, it's your gear. That's the point.
• Access during building hours (see below). The building is locked and alarmed at midnight, no exceptions, so please don't be the band that sets it off at 12:15 a.m. again. You know who you are.
• One band per room. You can share the rent with a second band if you both sign, but I need both names and both bands are responsible for the room.
• Your gear is your responsibility. The doors are steel and the building has an alarm, but get renter's insurance on your amps if they're worth anything to you. I mean it.
• Lockout bands get the hourly rooms at the 4-hour block rate any time they need the extra space or a recording setup.

As of this month all six are taken and two bands are on the list. E-mail me and I'll put you on it. Somebody always breaks up around the holidays.

There are not many. They are all there for a reason, and the reason is usually a specific band.

1. NO SMOKING IN THE ROOMS. Not cigarettes, not anything. The foam on the walls is not fireproof and the fire marshal has my home number. Smoke out back by the loading dock; there's a coffee can.
2. Everybody out by midnight. Hourly and lockout, no exceptions. The alarm goes on at 12:00. Last hourly booking starts at 10 p.m.
3. Pay before you play.
4. No glass in the rooms. Cans and plastic are fine. The one time we didn't have this rule cost me a kick drum head and a drummer's bare foot.
5. Leave the room like you found it. Cables wrapped, mic stands up, trash in the can, amps off. If the room's a mess when you leave, the next band tells me, and you're on my list, and my list is short and I remember it.
6. No gear left overnight in hourly rooms. If it's still there in the morning it goes in the closet and you can have it back when I see you. The closet is currently holding one tambourine, a distortion pedal and a very nice tuner. Come get your stuff.
7. Bands only, rehearsals only. No shows, no parties, no "a few friends want to watch." Two guests per band, max, and they sit on the couch and they don't touch the board.
8. Cancel 24 hours ahead or you owe me for the room. Half rate if you call the same day. Nothing if you don't call at all... just kidding, full rate if you don't call at all. Call.
9. Be decent to each other. There are nine bands in this building on a Saturday night. Don't poke your head in another band's room. Don't "borrow" from the hall. Say hi in the parking lot. Some of the best bands in this town got started in that parking lot.

To book an hourly room: call (555) 555-0142 during hours, or e-mail [email protected] with your band name, how many people, and two or three times that work. I check e-mail every afternoon before we open. Friday and Saturday nights fill up a week out. Weeknights you can usually walk in.

To get on the lockout list: e-mail is best. Tell me who you are and how long you've been together. (If the answer is "three weeks," do a few months of hourly first. Trust me on this. Lockouts are for bands that are going to be around.)

Can we record in there? Sure. Bring a 4-track or a DAT and take a feed off the board, or set up your own mics. It's a rehearsal room, not a studio, so it sounds like a rehearsal room. For $5 I'll run a cassette off the board so you can hear what you actually sound like, which for most bands is the most useful five dollars they'll spend all month.

Can I practice drums by myself? Yes, and please do, on the weekday afternoon rate. Drummers who practice alone are the reason bands sound good.

Do you have a keyboard / a drum machine / a spare bass? No, no, and there's a house bass with three strings that you're welcome to.

Is it loud in there? It's a rehearsal studio. The rooms are treated so you don't hear the band next door much, but you will hear them a little, and they'll hear you. Nobody has ever complained about this in five years except one acoustic duo, and they're the exception that proves something.

Do you book shows / manage bands / know a guy? No, no, and yes, but I'm not telling you.

What about the Y2K thing? The building has a light switch and a padlock. We're going to be fine.