After success in Peoria and Champaign, Pour Bros. introduces self-serve bar in downtown Moline

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The new self-serve Pour Bros. Taproom opened next to The Element Hotel, at 1209 4th Ave., Moline, on Jan. 4 (photo by Jonathan Turner).

There’s a whole new tasty game in town when it comes to Quad Cities bars.

Pour Bros. Taproom, at 1209 4th Ave., Moline, opened recently next to The Element Hotel and just a block away from the TaxSlayer Center, with a soft opening New Year’s Eve, and full opening Jan. 4. Co-owner Rob Mathisen said their first location opened in 2016 in Peoria Heights, Ill., then in Champaign in 2018. (In honor of the trio of bars along I-74, he’s already got “Pour on 74” T-shirts, and other merchandise for sale.)

Pour Bros. — with partners Nathan Monroe and Jason Fowler — was the first self-serve bar to open in Illinois, and there are about 200 such bars across the country, the co-owner said Thursday.

Patrons use a debit card or credit card to get a Pour Bros. card, that uses RFID technology to scan at each self-serve tap, and customers can pour whatever amount they want, within a 1/10 of an ounce. Each of 28 taps is topped with a small tablet that shows what the drink is, where it’s from, its price per ounce (generally 38 cents to 80 cents), alcoholic content, and if you tap the screen, you can get more detailed information.

Two of the wines and their tablet taps at Pour Bros. Taproom in Moline (photo by Jonathan Turner).

“You can sample one ounce at a time,” Mathisen said, noting your card is charged for whatever you drink. “If you sampled everything, you’d drink 28 ounces of beer.”

Actually, of the 28 rotating taps, four on the left are wines. The taps range from mead and hard cider, to seltzer, and dark, amber, ale, traditional, fruit and sour style beers. If you get a full pint from the taps, prices average $6 to $9 a glass.

As soon as one keg is emptied, they put on a different beer in a similar style, averaging 1,000 varieties of beer on the pour walls annually, Mathisen said. “It’s a constant rotation of beer,” he said, adding they always feature about eight Illinois and Iowa beers at a time, including from the QC. Currently, there are taps from Bettendorf’s Crawford Brew Works, and Moline’s Bent River.

The row of taps — with prices and styles in chalk above them — at Pour Bros. in downtown Moline (photo by Jonathan Turner).

The dazzlingly varied current lineup features:

Blueberry Lemony Winks wheat beer (Hills Brewing)

Hickster cream ale (Scorched Earth Brewing)

Ruthie pale lager (Exile Brewing)

Blood Orange hard seltzer (Mighty Swell Spiked Seltzer)

Hawaii Five Ale fruit beer (DESTIHL Brewery)

Strawberry Cheesecake mead (Unpossible Mead)

Jingle Java holiday stout (Bent River)

The Pour Bros. system will shut off the card at 60 ounces, and staff can shut it off earlier if they see a patron is over-consuming, Mathisen said. A new card must be obtained at each visit.

“We always have someone here working the wall,” Mathisen said. “They’re taught, don’t let it get out of hand. We take a lot of effort so that doesn’t happen. We understand that it’s a privilege to offer this, so we gotta be real careful.”

“People that drink this beer and spend this money, they’re not usually driving the race car,” he said. “They’re sampling, they’re enjoying. Very rarely do we get a problem – the problem arises when they’re coming from other places.”

Why choose Moline to open?

The Peoria area (formerly a whiskey capital) has very few craft breweries, compared to about 15 in the QC area, he said. Pour Bros. doesn’t make its own beer, but likes to highlight local, regional and national craft brews, Mathisen said, adding he hopes to feature local wines as well.

Pour Bros. in Peoria Heights has done very well, which includes an outdoor music series on warm weather Saturdays, which average 800 in attendance, he said. “It’s a huge concert and huge party, and in Champaign, we’re close to the university, a mile from campus downtown. We’ve got 30,000 cars a day past our front door, so it does really well.”

In Moline, he’s impressed with the downtown bar and restaurant scene. Pour Bros. hopes to have acoustic music inside, and in the summer, have live music on the lawn outside by the train tracks. Mathisen dreams of the day (as many people in the QC) that passenger rail finally gets here, with the station next door.

Co-owner Rob Mathisen also owns a barbecue restaurant above the Pour Bros. in Peoria Heights, Ill. (photo by Jonathan Turner)

The 38-year-old Peoria native had never worked in bars before, but had a sales background.

Mathisen chose to expand in Moline because he loves towns with history and especially, industrial history, as the longtime home to John Deere.

“That was a big thing for me, and when you look at downtown Moline, it has a lot of assets,” he said of the larger QC metro area. “Here, you’ve got the TaxSlayer Center; we’re hooked onto the hotel. There’s a lot going on. We found this older industrial building. We wanted that; we wanted good bones. We didn’t want some strip mall somewhere. Moline’s looking like a good spot for us.”

The entrance to Pour Bros., a block away from Moline’s TaxSlayer Center (photo by Jonathan Turner).

The 1920s building is owned by the Element Moline (which opened the 95-room hotel in March 2018), Mathisen said. Pour Bros. took about five months to totally renovate the vacant 4,500-square-foot space, at a cost of $850,000. He credited Davenport-based Bush Construction for the excellent work, including installing new plumbing and electrical.

On one wall, the new business had Peoria artist Devin McGlone paint a big Pour Bros. logo (including the 309 and 217 area codes).

“I just love working with artisans that care about what they do, as opposed to run-of-the-mill crap,” Mathisen said, noting he had woodworkers handcraft walls around the taps. McGlone did a lot of painting at their Champaign bar.

No food available yet

The bar has a staff of seven, and they hope to open limited food service just outside their doors down the hall, across from the Urban Farmhouse store.

Pour Bros. owns their own restaurant at the Peoria location, Slow Hand Craft BBQ, on the second level of that New Orleans-style building (with patios), which opened in 2018.

“I’m not ready to move that yet, because it’s a hard process – we smoke everything outside daily,” Mathisen said of barbecuing. “If our partnership doesn’t work out with the other one, maybe we’ll put our barbecue shop down here.”

The actual bar, without any draft beer taps, at Pour Bros. (photo by Jonathan Turner)

At Pour Bros., they offer domestic and craft beer in cans, as well as a full line of spirits for cocktails.

Since Mathisen is a history buff, he installed a huge black-and-white mural near the entrance of an old-time photo of downtown Moline with John Deere’s factory and headquarters, and Moline Plow Company. The Deere buildings were on the current site of the TaxSlayer Center.

Near the entrance is a large photo of John Deere’s former factory (circa 1912), where today’s TaxSlayer Center stands (photo by Jonathan Turner).

The hotel owner, Amin Group (which also owns the nearby Radisson on John Deere Commons), “really took care of us,” he said of launching the bar. “They wanted a concept and we did it.”

Serving during COVID is tricky

Opening during COVID has been a challenge for the bar, especially with the current Omicron surge in cases.

“It’s been really difficult at the other locations,” Mathisen said. “I think we’re hitting this market at the right time. As the virus lessens its strain, the variants are becoming less powerful – I think we’re at the right time to get over it, with this launch in the new market. Bottom line, I hope we’re at the tail end.

“Is it tough? Yes,” he added. “Twenty percent of people who normally would come in here, won’t come in here because they’re not going anywhere. There’s 20 percent gone right away off the top. We just have to do our job in keeping people safe, keeping people distanced, just cleaning the place well. We’re really anal about that.”

“We’ve been known as guys in the market who go the extra step,” Mathisen said. in Pour Bros., which eventually hopes to have about 10 locations in Illinois altogether.

“This location is killing our Peoria and Champaign stores already,” he said. “It’s dry January, it’s COVID. This store is really holding its own, in the face of the worst weather. It’s doing good. We’re the closest bar to the TaxSlayer, so we’re going to push that.”

“We felt like with 10,000 people leaving the TaxSlayer, we give a nice advantage for people to get a drink quickly, and sample,” Mathisen said. “It’s a great concept. I like history – it’s kind of like the Henry Ford of beer. You can try a lot of different ones at once. It’s the assembly line concept.”

Sally May, director of sales for The Element Moline, said the hotel is ecstatic to have the new business next door.

The Element Hotel, which opened along 4th Avenue in downtown Moline in March 2018, and Pour Bros. at far left, opened early this month.

“We can’t say enough good things. We’ve been waiting two years for them to be here,” she said Thursday. “We’re just really excited to have them there. It’s a huge addition…They’re delightful to work with, and they’re so unique for the Quad Cities.”

May held her birthday party at Pour Bros. last Friday night, with 35 people.

“They all loved it,” she said. “They have wine on the wall. I don’t drink beer, and I had never had mead. I tried it and it was fantastic. They have hard cider. It’s fun. It’s like going to a wine tasting. The people behind the bar were fabulous.”

Their hours are Tuesday-Thursday 3 p.m.-12 a.m., Friday and Saturday noon-1 a.m., and Sundays noon to 10 p.m.

A big wall logo was painted by Peoria artist Devin McGlone (photo by Jonathan Turner).

“We’re laid back, we’re good people, and we have a great environment,” Mathisen said. “Number two, we have a lot of space, so you can spread out here and enjoy a brew. We set up our bar as kind of a beer hall atmosphere, so you can have groups come in.”

The bar also has some retro board games and other, like Skee ball and bubble hockey, and tabletop bags.

“It’s an experience; we’re not just a bar,” he said. “We’re extremely happy to be here. We’ve had great support from The Element Hotel, the Amin Group, the city of Moline.”

For more information, visit the Pour Bros. website.

KORN Guitarist Says The Band Is Proud To Be Nü-Metal “Scene Elders”

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Korn is still going strong nearly 30 years after their inception, and are experiencing a bit of a revival now that nü-metal is making a comeback. Guitarist Brian “Head” Welch said in a recent interview with Metal Hammer that the band is proud to be seen “as scene elders” and notes that the genre has stood the test of time.

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“We’re proud to be seen as scene elders. It’s funny, every band that would be associated with nü-metal never liked that title, because we never gave that tag to ourselves, it was whoever made it up, you know? When you’re in a band, you want to call the shots, you want to be in charge of your branding, and it was someone else who branded us that. And so we were like, ‘No, that’s not cool. So we didn’t like it.

“But nü-metal, love it or hate it, and Korn, has stood the test of time. And we’re very grateful that we can be looked at as the originators, and that we started something that still reverberates all these decades later, and people are still liking it.

Welch later added that he feels nü-metal shows are still a blast, adding that “you come to a Korn show, you’re going to see energy, you’re going to see a party.”

Korn will hit the road about a month after the release of their new record Requiem with Chevelle and Code Orange. The trek begins on March 4, and prior to that Korn will play a handful of shows with System Of A Down, Helmet, and Russian Circles. Get all those dates below.

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w/ System Of A Down, Helmet & Russian Circles

1/31 – Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center [Tickets]

2/1 – San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena [Tickets]

2/4 – Los Angeles, CA @ Banc of California Stadium [Tickets]

2/5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Banc of California Stadium [Tickets]

w/ Chevelle & Code Orange

3/4 – Springfield, MO @ JQH Arena [Tickets]

3/5 – Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center [Tickets]

3/7 – Fort Wayne, IN @ Allen County War Memorial Coliseum [Tickets]

3/8 – Evansville, IN @ Ford Center [Tickets]

3/10 – Knoxville, TN @ University of Tennessee – Thompson-Boling Arena [Tickets]

3/11 – Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum Complex [Tickets]

3/13 – Huntington, WV @ Mountain Health Arena [Tickets]

3/15 – Hershey, PA @ Giant Center [Tickets]

3/16 – Providence, RI @ Dunkin Donuts Center [Tickets]

3/19 – Manchester, NH @ SNHU Arena [Tickets]

3/20 – Albany, NY @ Times Union Center [Tickets]

3/22 – Rochester, NY @ Blue Cross Arena [Tickets]

3/23 – Saginaw, MI @ Dow Event Center [Tickets]

3/25 – Moline, IL @ TaxSlayer Center [Tickets]

3/26 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center [Tickets]

3/28 – Des Moines, IA @ Wells Fargo Arena [Tickets]

3/29 – Madison, WI @ The Coliseum at Alliant Energy Center [Tickets]

3/31 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Paycom Center [Tickets]

4/1 – Wichita, KS @ INTRUST Bank Arena [Tickets]

Watch Tool Play “Culling Voices” Live for First Time

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Tool had a surprise for fans in Sacramento. The prog-metal juggernaut hit the city’s Golden 1 Center on Saturday, January 15th — which happened to be guitarist Adam Jones’ birthday — and during their encore, they performed “Culling Voices” for the first time ever. The Fear Inoculum cut is one of the 2019 album’s more meditative songs, and Tool opened it in an unusual formation: the whole band seated at the front of the stage and drummer Danny Carey joining Jones on guitar. About a third of the way through, the quarter returned their usual positions for song’s heavier concluding sections, then they ended the show with “Invincible,” the go-to closer on Tool’s 2022 tour so far. Watch video of the “Culling Voices” live debut above, via Tyler Slavin.

The following night (Sunday, January 16th), at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Tool included “Culling Voices” in the setlist again, so hopefully for attendees of coming dates, it will remain a live staple for the rest of the run. The group’s Fear Inoculum tour is set to continue Tuesday, January 18th, in Anaheim, California. See the full remaining U.S. itinerary below.

Tool 2022 tour dates:

January 18 Anaheim, CA Honda Center

January 19 San Diego, CA Viejas Arena

January 21 Phoenix, AZ Footprint Center

January 22 Las Vegas, NV T-Mobile Arena

January 25 Salt Lake City, UT Maverik Center

January 27 Denver, CO Ball Arena

January 28 Colorado Springs, CO Broadmoor World Arena

January 30 Tulsa, OK BOK Center

January 31 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center

February 2 San Antonio, TX AT&T Center

February 4 Houston, TX Toyota Center

February 5 New Orleans, LA Smoothie King Center

February 8 Orlando, FL Amway Center

February 9 Tampa, FL Amalie Arena

February 10 Miami, FL FTX Arena

February 19 Boston, MA TD Garden

February 20 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center

February 22 Washington, DC Capital One Arena

February 23 Belmont Park, NY UBS Arena

February 26 Newark, NJ Prudential Center

February 27 Buffalo, NY KeyBank Center

March 1 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena

March 3 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena

March 4 Louisville, KY KFC Yum! Center

March 6 Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena

March 8 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena

March 10 Chicago, IL United Center

March 12 Omaha, NE CHI Health Center Arena

March 13 Minneapolis, MN Target Center

March 15 Kansas City, MO T-Mobile Center

March 17 Moline, IL TaxSlayer Center

March 18 St. Louis, MO Enterprise Center

March 20 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse

Korn release new song “Forgotten”

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Alt-metal giants Korn have released their new song titled “Forgotten,” which you can check out below.

“Forgotten” appears on the band’s new album, ‘Requiem,’ which comes out on February 4th, 2022 through Loma Vista Recordings (pre-order).

‘Requiem’ track listing:

1. Forgotten

2. Let The Dark Do The Rest

3. Start The Healing

4. Lost In The Grandeur

5. Disconnect

6. Hopeless And Beaten

7. Penance To Sorrow

8. My Confession

9. Worst Is On Its Way

ICYMI, Korn recently announced a 2022 U.S. tour with Chevelle and Code Orange in tow — see those dates after the new tune.

Stream:

Upcoming Korn Live Dates:

^ = w/ System of a Down, Helmet, Russian Circles

• = w/ Chevelle and Code Orange

—–

1/31 – Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center^ [TIX]

2/1 – San Diego, CA @ Viejas Arena^ [TIX]

2/4 – Los Angeles, CA @ Banc of California Stadium^ [TIX]

2/5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Banc of California Stadium^ [TIX]

3/4 – Springfield, MO @ JQH Arena* [TIX]

3/5 – Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center* [TIX]

3/7 – Fort Wayne, IN @ Allen County War Memorial Coliseum* [TIX]

3/8 – Evansville, IN @ Ford Center* [TIX]

3/10 – Knoxville, TN @ University of Tennessee – Thompson-Boling Arena* [TIX]

3/11 – Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum Complex* [TIX]

3/13 – Huntington, WV @ Mountain Health Arena* [TIX]

3/15 – Hershey, PA @ Giant Center* [TIX]

3/16 – Providence, RI @ Dunkin Donuts Center* [TIX]

3/19 – Manchester, NH @ SNHU Arena* [TIX]

3/20 – Albany, NY @ Times Union Center* [TIX]

3/22 – Rochester, NY @ Blue Cross Arena* [TIX]

3/23 – Saginaw, MI @ Dow Event Center* [TIX]

3/25 – Moline, IL @ TaxSlayer Center* [TIX]

3/26 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center* [TIX]

3/28 – Des Moines, IA @ Wells Fargo Arena* [TIX]

3/29 – Madison, WI @ The Coliseum at Alliant Energy Center* [TIX]

3/31 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Paycom Center* [TIX]

4/1 – Wichita, KS @ INTRUST Bank Arena* [TIX]

Also Check Out: Saxon share new video single, “Remember the Fallen”

SAGU’s Barlow signs pro contract

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SAGU Athletics

Jordan Barlow, SAGU’s starting quarterback the past two seasons, has signed a professional contract with the Quad City Steamwheelers, who compete in the Indoor Football League.

Barlow ends his career at SAGU as one of the most decorated football players in program history, earning awards such as two-time All-Sooner Athletic Conference, SAC Preseason Player of the Year, and NCCAA Victory Bowl Offensive MVP. Barlow also led one of SAGU’s greatest offensive seasons in program history during 2021.

The QB from Van Buren, Ark. ended his two-year career at SAGU with 4,436 passing yards, 592 rushing yards, and 50 total touchdowns in just 19 games played. In his two-seasons, Barlow has a career record of 13 wins and just 6 losses. During the 2021 season, Barlow had a 149.2 passing efficiency rating, which set the SAGU football single season record. On Oct. 30, Barlow saw a career high 405 passing yards and 6 passing touchdowns in a 56-29 win over Wayland Baptist. Barlow accounted for 3 or more total touchdowns in 11 games throughout his celebrated career at SAGU.

The 2021 SAGU football team, led under center by Barlow, set the school record for wins (9), and for the first time in program history had back-to-back winning seasons, both of which were led by Barlow. As a team, the 2021 Lions offense set records in yards gained (2,896), points scored (489), points per game (40.8), single season rushing touchdowns (37), and first downs (284). They also won the 2021 NCCAA Victory Bowl over Sterling College.

Ryan Smith, Head Football Coach, said, “Jordan has been a tremendous leader, person, and a phenomenal player during his time at SAGU. He stepped immediately in and became the starting quarterback the day he walked on campus not because he can throw a football or because he can facilitate an offense, but because he is a leader. If you spend any amount of time with Jordan you quickly realize how competitive he is, but also how caring he is for players and coaches and for the advancement of this program, which is why we have seen the results we’ve seen from him the last two years. I am extremely excited for Jordan and this opportunity he has earned. I will be his number one fan, and I’m just as excited about him coming back in the fall and coaching our quarterbacks.”

Barlow will make the return to SAGU during the 2022 season as an assistant football coach, focusing on quarterbacks.

The Quad City Steamwheelers compete in the Indoor Football League, which is a professional indoor American football league created in 2009 when the Intense Football League and the United Indoor Football League merged. It has the largest number of currently active teams among indoor football leagues and has continuously operated under the same name and corporate structure longer than any other current indoor football leagues. There are currently 16 teams in the IFL, with 11 of those teams playing in 2021, and additional expansion is expected in the coming years. Eight of the 16 teams are in top 50 media markets. The IFL is considered to be the highest level of professional indoor football in the United States.

The Quad City Steamwheelers were rebirthed and began play in 2018. They are based in Moline, Illinois, playing their home games at the TaxSlayer Center. They were unable to play during the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was announced in September 2021 that they would return for the 2022 season. Since their re-creation in 2018, the Steamwheelers have a 15-12 record.