Closed for permit problems, hardcore venue Hard Love is ready to reopen

A recently opened hardcore venue in Jacksonville’s Murray Hill neighborhood filled a niche for local fans of the genre, but permitting issues led to a monthslong closure.

From the moment owner Josh Card opened the doors to Hard Love last year, the venue filled a void in the city’s cultural ecosystem for hardcore music, an abrasive offshoot of punk rock that emerged from Southern California and Washington, D.C., in the late-1970s. 

Though not as renowned as other bastions of alternative music in the Southeast like Athens, Raleigh-Durham, or even Gainesville (where the punk-friendly music festival known as The Fest will celebrate its 24th anniversary later this fall), Jacksonville has long sustained a hardcore scene. Key to that endurance has been a fragile ecosystem of bands, fans and music venues like Hard Love.

After months of hard work and raising money to keep the lights on, Hard Love has a grand reopening planned this weekend. With its doors back open, the venue will reassume its role as a torchbearer for Jacksonville’s storied punk and alternative music scenes.

Jacksonville’s hardcore history

The family tree that eventually leads to Hard Love and the fans of hardcore music that surround it goes back decades, notably to the 1980s, when Jacksonville’s punk scene really began to grow.

Dan Knieremen, now 57, remembers the shows — and all the scuffs and bruises — well.

Today he heads Rat Town Records, an independent punk record label that he runs out of his home in Atlantic Beach, but his start with the local music scene goes back to seeing shows as a teenager around Jacksonville. 

A particular favorite, Knieremen says, was the 730 Club, a venue operated by members of local punk band Stevie Stiletto and the Switchblades (later just Stevie Stiletto). 

Touring acts made their way to Jacksonville before that venue on Dellwood Avenue opened, but it was the 730 Club, Knieremen says, that drew well-known punk acts from across North America, including hardcore pioneers like Hermosa Beach’s Black Flag and Vancouver’s D.O.A. 

In the ‘80s, though, Knieremen says fans of punk, metal and other types of alternative music were social outcasts. While that could be a unifying force, it could also lead to strife among the various groups. Couple that with the presence of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in the punk scene, and Knieremen says shows could get violent. 

Nearly half a century later, the scene is much different. For one, there’s a lot less violence.

“I don’t remember the last time I saw a fight at a show,” Knieremen says. “Which is crazy because, when I was a kid, it would be the opposite.”

The 730 Club has been closed for decades. Stevie Stiletto frontman Ray McKelvey died in 2013. Still, alongside Knieremen, the ranks of local punks continue to grow.

The music itself has changed, too.

With more venues and a larger population of fans, different places can cater to more specific listening habits. 

That, Knieremen says, points to a healthy music scene.

“Now there’s so many people and so many bands, how can it not be good?” Knieremen says.

Hard Love, for example, primarily books bands that play hardcore music, a genre noted for its emotional, didactic lyrics and its screamed vocals. But it’s not just the volume of the distorted guitars and the singing that defines hardcore as a genre, owner Josh Card explains.

Hardcore has its roots in punk, but it diverges, bringing in influences from metal, emo and other subgenres.

As the music got louder and more intense, Card says, the messages got stronger. It’s not uncommon to find religious individuals in the hardcore scene, or people who identify as straight-edge, meaning they abstain from drugs or alcohol. 

“It’s very community oriented,” he says. “The messages behind hardcore are unity and persistence, perseverance and rising to the occasion and pushing through.”

All the more reason for Jacksonville’s hardcore fans to want a community space and venue all their own.

Hard Love finds a home

Card, a Jacksonville native, got his start playing in bands like the Christian hardcore punk band Red Baron. 

Attending shows at venues like the Murray Hill Theater — just down the street from the venue he now operates — Card found a love for hardcore music and the community surrounding it.

He played in a number of Jacksonville groups, including Casey Jones, a hardcore punk band that spun off from another notable Jacksonville band, Evergreen Terrace.

Card ultimately moved away from Jacksonville, but he returned in 2024 to be close to family. When he got back, he saw a hole in the neighborhood: No practice spaces, and no dedicated hardcore venue.

“I saw the gap when I first got home,” Card says, “and I started asking around about, you know, where are the hardcore shows now? Where are the bands playing?”

Along with venues from the 80s and 90s that have long been shut down, hardcore-friendly venues like Nighthawks in Riverside and Rain Dogs in Five Points have closed in recent years. For a time, the hardcore scene was left adrift. 

So when Card found the Post Street building that was once a vacuum service center, the plan to create a rehearsal space came together fast. What he didn’t initially envision was leasing the adjoining space, once a laundromat, to open a hardcore venue all his own.

Hard Love opened its doors one year ago this month. Since then, Card says the response has far-surpassed his expectations. 

Hard Love’s attendees include people who have been going to shows in Jacksonville for years, but also teenagers looking to get out and hear music. 

Jacksonville native Natalie Woodin has been going to concerts since she was a kid, and she has been catching shows at Hard Love since its opening day. 

“I truly think Hard Love is one of the best things that could have happened to the community,” Woodin says. “Especially for the youth in the scene to have a safe space — for everybody to have a safe space. It’s for music, but it’s more than just music.”

Card, a father himself, says it has been his goal to ensure that his venue can be welcoming for people of all ages and backgrounds. 

“Hardcore music has typically always been a place for kids who don’t really feel accepted in other places, and they feel like they’re finding a world where, ‘Oh, okay, this is cool. I can be different. I can be weird here,” Card says. “With that, we also have a large trans and queer population that comes to our shows.

The scene is like a melting pot, Card says, “which is what I’ve always loved about it.”

Punks and permit problems

Card says he has heard plenty of negative comments about the venue, from noise complaints to unfounded allegations that Hard Love sells alcohol to minors. 

But it’s not complaints about alcohol sales or loud music that ultimately shut Hard Love down for months. 

What shut the venue down was permitting. 

Following reports of events at the venue space, the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department took a look and found that Card did not have sufficient permitting to host concerts. 

“During that inspection, it was determined that a portion of the building had been converted and was being utilized as an assembly/event space without the required approvals, permits, and fire/life safety protections necessary for that type of occupancy,” a JFRD spokesperson told Jacksonville Today. “As a result, a cease-and-desist order was issued due to multiple fire and life safety code concerns associated with the unapproved use.”

Card has diligently worked to get his building in compliance with the city’s requirements, and while he could have held some concerts if he paid to have JFRD onsite, Card instead plans to reopen Hard Love with a bang this week. 

The time off hasn’t been easy, he says. Shortly after he closed up shop, Card started a GoFundMe to help pay rent and utility bills while Hard Love wasn’t hosting shows. 

Since it launched in May, Card’s fundraiser has earned nearly $20,000.

Rather than be angry that the venue had to close, Card says the community came together to support him and the space he wanted to create.

He says that hit close to home.

“I’ve been crying every day over this. Not in a bad way,” Card says. “I was gone for 10 years, you know, and I came home, and … I knew how important it was. When I say I felt like I had to do this, I really felt like I had to like a spiritual responsibility.”

The venue is scheduled to reopen Saturday, June 27, for a one-year anniversary event with vendors, a kid zone, tattoo artists, food and drinks by Flamingo Coffee and more. There will also, of course, be music. The 11-band ticket includes performances from Jacksonville bands Wisdom of the Gods, Starscream and more.

The anniversary event kicks off at 12 p.m., and tickets are available at Hard Love’s website.

Fans who have been coming to the venue since it first opened, like Natalie Woodin, hope this year’s anniversary event is the first of many.

More than anything, longtime Jacksonville punk Dan Knieremen says he’s happy to see venues that have space for young people, no matter what kind of music they listen to, thrive.

“In my opinion, it’s never going away, it’s just gonna keep evolving,” he says. “The music’s too good.”