Pilot Light

Our bizarre little hole of Knoxville. I’ve been to packed shows where the roof is rocked off, to the empty nights where even our bartender is trying to get out to go to Urban. Our town secret is Jason Boardman schedules and puts out the Facebook events. You’ve got to be friends with him, then friends with the rest of the town to figure out who’s gonna be there! Sneaky fishies. I missed Thelma and the Sleaze this way.
But. And a big old SERIOUS BUT… Most nights are awful. Like broken ukulele spoken word hipster awful. If you don’t know there is something there you like, consider deeply your choice and don’t commit. Just look in. I do not go here often at all. It’s kind of a put off to have to deal with the really bad things so regularly. More decent bands come through a little more often, my rating could go up.
They also do super nifty things like record swaps and daytime little events. Tiny miniscule things that you may meet and greet everyone there. Make friends. Connect.
But ask before you pay the cover, is this the last band? Because I always get stuck with that. But it balances out, no music, no cover. Yay.

This place is super bizarre
The bands on their website happen or not
Ask before you pay the $ 5 cover.
However this place is weird and I highly appreciate that. Preferred audio is turntable punk.
And it’s old school good.
I would check this place out every time I was in Knoxville.
But a super interesting place to see some avante garde artists practicing some shit.
And you are 1 of 5 people there.
It projects some responsibility onto the audience.

A divey dirty little venue at its best. One of the few venues that has a vast array of artist in, especially when the only other venue options are a bit larger around town. They only carry canned beers and there are about 15 different kinda with five of those being talboys. There is also an outside area so you can smoke and take your drink with you! The only bummer is that the Pilot Light is cash only, so don’t forget to run over to the Regions Atm next to Urban bar to get yo cash!

Great place! Saw a killer stand-​up comedy show here. Very attentive audience, very respectable selection of beers. They’ve changed the seating arrangements, they sorta have pews now. One of my fave bars in all of Knoxville!

The pilot light is my second favorite dive bar behind Recovery Room in Charleston SC. Some very interesting bands. There is PBR High Life but you can drink Sierra Nevada Pale Ale w a pinky up as well. Beer only. They stopped carrying my favorite 2005 Chateaux Margaux.
One critique: Stop using Sharpies to write a P on peoples hands to track them… visual ID is doable for cover charge. Probably most unique men’s room w graffiti and stickers all over the head and walls. Appears unclean at first sight but OK after closer visual inspection.
There are a few banged up mannequins in the exposed crawl space — kind of creepy yet interesting. They spin some great records on a decent sound system. Overall, very fun, divey place quasi hipster. Enjoy it.

I used to go there a lot when they had bands I wanted to see. Now, I don’t even remember the last time I visited. It was probably 3 years ago. They don’t seem to get the same quality of acts that they used to. No liquor, beer only. The beer selection isn’t good. But they seem to have loyal customers who keep them open, so more power to em.

First off, I don’t drink so going to bars are only an option if they have a band I REALLY want to see, and The Pilot Light has had more then their share over the years (TRAILER BRIDE is still the best I’ve seen there, when they were around).
The stage is small, the bar is small. No, think smaller. Everytime I’ve been there everybody has been pretty cool but I don’t go to mingle, I go to watch and listen to the bands play.
Of course in that part of town, you’ll run into people on the sidewalk or parking lot that had cars run out of gas on the interstate and need change. If you go often enough you’ll figure out it’s a lot of the same folks that can’t seen to put gas in their cars…
I liked it when they had the same old couch in there forever, the stories that thing must have told.

The best place for unusual bands coming into Knoxville. The best music/​dive bar in town.

Great place to see a good band. Been going since it opened. Played there a few times too.

A beautiful labor of love if I’ve ever seen one. The staff here are wonderful, the patrons are interesting and fun. Great sound, great company, and beer! What more could you want?
This is the place to go in Knoxville if you want to see excellent unknown bands in an intimate setting for pennies before they blow up.

Home Sweet Pilot Light. When I visit Knoxville I get off the interstate and come straight here.
The ONLY underground rock bar in town. My favorite bar in the world.

The Pilot Light is as good as it gets in Knoxville when it comes to venues that showcase music that you would otherwise have to drive a few hours to see/​hear. Seriously. these are the folks that have brought Shellac, Lightning Bolt, Melt Banana and a whole long list of amazing bands to Knoxville. I’m not sure what show the first reviewer saw at The Pilot Light, but I rarely see any of the safety pin crowd there. they tend to hang out at Old City Java.
On the beer selection. they have PBR and Schlitz. if those don’t work for you then they have a couple of things in bottles. the typical dive bar/​hipster bar stuff. Why would you expect more?
The bathroom isn’t that bad on the typical night. no more so than any other public restroom. maybe an improvement in fact. have you been to any other Old City establishments? It’s as clean as any of the rest (oh and the staff are in it for the love of music and they are paid little so kudo’s to them for keeping the restrooms halfway clean).
As far as talent goes, The Pilot Light has had an amazing roster of artists perform. and as is true at any venue there has been no shortage of lackluster bands. But even if the music is bad, theres still cheap beer and a good chance of interesting conversation with whoever is working the bar or the door.