101 Biltmore Avenue
This location has welcomed generations of Ashevillians. From 1950 to 1962, Skateland Rollerdome was the place to be on Saturday night and hosted many birthday parties for children of Asheville. The downtown skating rink proved to be the perfect place for kids to have fun while moms and dads shopped in the department stores that once dominated the downtown landscape. Later, the building housed a series of R & B and soul clubs. Coincidentally, most of those clubs had colors in their names: jade, emerald, and orange. The Orange Peel was the best known of these establishments and had a reputation throughout Western North Carolina as the hottest nightclub around. Artists such as The Commodores and The Bar-Kays appeared on the carpeted, three-tiered stage, and when live music was not available, recorded disco and funk blared from the elevated DJ booth, which featured DJs from one of the few black owned radio stations in the country, WBMU-FM. The Orange Peel was the last club to occupy the location before it became vacant for many years.
After a stint as an auto parts warehouse, The Orange Peel was reborn. PIP President Pat Whalen believed downtown Asheville needed a live music venue big enough to host national touring acts. Opening in late 2002, the club has already hosted a diverse and impressive number of music legends, including Bob Dylan, Daniel Lanois, Joe Cocker, Beirut, Jack White, Keb Mo, Gillian Welch, The Avett Brothers, Jamey Johnson, Lucinda Williams, Arcade Fire, and the Beastie Boys. It is ranked one of the Top 50 live music clubs in the world (Pollstar) and named as 1 of the Top 5 independent music clubs in the U. S. by Rolling Stone magazine.
