New Name, Same Sweat: The Loud Is the V Club Reborn
Huntington regulars did a double-take at the marquee this year, and the venue would like to reassure you: nothing you loved is gone. It just got louder.
The Loud is the freshly rebranded incarnation of The V Club, the Fourth Avenue institution that has anchored Huntington's independent music scene for the better part of two decades. As the house puts it, "The Loud may be a new name in Huntington, but it is just a refreshed label for one of the Tri-State's longest-running music venues." Same ownership, same commitment to live bands, and — crucially — an upgraded sound system installed during the quiet of the 2020 shutdown, finally getting the workout it deserves.
The proof is on the August calendar, which is exactly the genre-agnostic grab-bag that made the V Club matter. This Friday, Aug. 14, it's IceZaya & Fat Shane; Saturday, Aug. 15 brings House of Heavy, a nu-metal, alt-metal, and metalcore DJ party for the pit-nostalgic. Doors at 8, shows at 9, 18-and-up — the usual house rules for a room that has never pretended to be anything but a rock club.
Then the room flexes. On Tuesday, Aug. 18, The Loud hosts a genuine coup: Buckcherry and Kentucky's own Black Stone Cherry on the same bill, with Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown opening. Black Stone Cherry, out of Edmonton, Kentucky, is as close to Tri-State arena royalty as this corner of Appalachia produces, and catching them in a room this size is the kind of thing you'll be bragging about in five years. A few nights later, on Aug. 22, rising Appalachian songwriter Bayker Blankenship headlines with Tristan Trincado — a reminder that the same stage swings from national rock to homegrown roots inside a single week.
Why does a name change rate a spotlight? Because independent rooms are fragile, and losing one is how a music town quietly stops being a music town. The V Club could have simply closed, the way so many mid-size clubs did over the last five years. Instead its owners reinvested, re-soundproofed, rebranded, and kept the lights on for the bands and the 18-year-olds who need a place to see them. That's not a marketing story. That's a survival story with a happy ending.
So learn the new name, but keep the old loyalty. The Loud is the V Club is Huntington's rock heart, still beating on Fourth Avenue, still 18-and-up, still worth the cover. Doors at eight. Be early.
Sources: The Loud WV — venue and calendar; Bayker Blankenship — official