All Time Low Guitarist Opens Music-Themed Bar

Baltimore pop punk mavens All Time Low have featured in a movie, released a documentary, sold out arenas around the world and now, the band's lead guitarist Jack Barakat has announced the launch of his very own music-themed bar in LA.

Called The Riff, Barakat's new bar will draw influences from late-'90s and early 2000s punk, garage and alt rock and will open on 17 June to coincide with his upcoming birthday.

As AP reports, the bar will launch in collaboration with Dirty Model Movement's Jon Nichols and was born of Barakat's love for rock-themed bars in his hometown of Baltimore. 

"There are so many bars in Baltimore that are just, you know, you just go in and drink. Some of them have like open mics and some of them are just sports bars. There wasn't anything like a theme bar, where people wanted to hear good rock music and early-2000s emo/pop punk go.

"We would tour England, and they had tons of places like this. It's so common over there to see that, and I was like, "Why isn't that over here in the U.S.?" There are just as many fans of this style of music in this genre of music in the States."

This will be Barakat's second venture into the bar industry since he opened Baltimore's The Rockwell in 2014, following in the footsteps of Fall Out Boy's inimitable bassist Pete Wentz. Wentz opened Angels & Kings in LA a few years ago with Barakat and All Time Low vocalist Alex Gaskarth's help.

"I'm pretty biased to the pop punk, pop rock genre. My [birthday] playlist, I'm doing Green Day, Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World, Good Charlotte, you know the stuff I grew up on.

"There are a lot of clubs in LA, where it's all about who you know to get in and you're standing on a table to buy a bottle. We just want a whiskey-inspired bar. There's no cliques, there's no anyone kind of looking down on you. It's just going to be very kind of chill spot."