The Provo music story most people know is the Velour.
Corey Fox opened it in 2006 — all-ages, alcohol-free, the room where Neon Trees and Imagine Dragons cut their teeth. It launched what people came to call Provocore Indie: anthemic pop and folk built on a tight-knit, mutual-aid scene culture where bands actively supported each other rather than competing. That story made the national press.
ABG's Bar and Grill was the other Provo music story.
A Bar in Utah County
ABG's was operating at least six years before the Velour opened its doors — and it catered to underground, blues, and roots-oriented acts that had no place in the all-ages, smoke-free world. Not anthemic pop. Not folk with clean production values. The other Utah County underground.
The documented shows tell you who was in that room: the Barnyard Playboys and Unlucky Boys in October 2000. Decker, Smokestack and the Foothill Fury in March 2011. The 7th Street Blues Band. Professor Gall and Hectic Hobo. Hillfolk Noir with John Ross Boyce and His Troubles. And a band called the Utah County Swillers — a name that says everything about what ABG's understood about its audience.
Two Provo undergrounds
The Velour (opened 2006): all-ages, alcohol-free, indie pop and folk, Neon Trees and Imagine Dragons. ABG's (active by 2000): a bar, blues and roots and alt-country, the crowd that wasn't looking for a major label deal.
They Crossed Into SLC
The Utah County Swillers weren't just a local bar band. They were active enough in the club circuit to cross over into Salt Lake City venues — including a SLUG Magazine“Localized” showcase at the Urban Lounge in January 2005, alongside the Salt City Bandits. Later they shared a stage at Burt's Tiki Lounge with Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band.
That kind of reach means ABG's wasn't just keeping a scene alive inside Utah County. It was feeding acts into the wider Utah circuit — a pipeline the Velour wasn't built to run.
The Room Was Gone by 2013
The last documented show at ABG's was April 2013. The Velour is still running. But the roots underground ABG's sustained for over a decade had its own story, its own bands, and its own crowd — one that showed up on a Tuesday for a blues act nobody had ever heard of, in a bar in Provo, in the middle of Utah County.
That's a different kind of scene-building than launching Imagine Dragons. It's not less important. It's just the version that doesn't make the press.
The Salt Vault · History · Provo's Roots Underground, 2000–2013