The music venue at the corner Linden Street in Old Town Fort Collins has gone through many changes over the past several years. Formerly The Coast (prior to that it was The East Coast Bar, and prior to that the Artery), what hasn’t changed is its importance to the Fort Collins music community. Now rebranded as Sound Bar, the latest owners of the business say they plan to keep it that way.
While the name is fresh, it’s been a long transitional period for owners Gabe Torres and Manley Feinberg III, who launched the new name this fall after starting to take over the venue in January 2024. Housed in the building that draws on a long history as a music hub, and the owners say the community here hasn’t skipped a beat amidst the latest transition.
Just as a band started loading in for the evening, Feinberg and Torres spoke to BandWagon inside the venue about how the idea for Sound Bar came about, what challenges they’ve faced in keeping the space afloat, and how the community has remained strong through the years-long process.
“It really started when we met each other at CSU,” Torres says. “We were just two really driven guys, and our freshman year we were like, ‘Are business degrees it? Is that what we want to do with our lives?’”
Feinberg says the two were having “an ethical dilemma,” and ended up having a long conversation about the woes of capitalism, leading them towards music. As they asked themselves how they could help make the industry better, Torres went on to found and become the first president of the CSU Music Business Collective, and as freshmen, the two developed the Music by Masses app.
“Our intentions have always been to change the industry on a big scale, but we have to learn how to make a change locally first,” Feinberg says of what was behind some of those initial conversations.
Music by Masses started as an app and competition that let users vote on bands, the winners of which would receive cash prizes. At its peak, they say it had nearly 2,000 bands involved, and as many as 3,000 users and fans. They started asking the bands what they wanted out of the app, and many replied that they wanted more shows, ultimately leading Torres and Feinberg to start throwing Music by Masses shows around town.
They eventually connected with the owner of The Coast Billy Chelales, who brought them onboard to promote shows, and later asked them to partner on ownership of the bar. Feinberg and Torres agreed, and shortly thereafter put together a plan for buying 100 percent of the business over time, which was finalized by early January 2024.
“Sometimes I’ll get all down in the trenches, or we’ll be worried about finances or something like that, and then we’ll have a show that reminds us of why we started.”
Still, it has taken almost two years for the owners to get to this point with full ownership and a new name, and they’ve faced multiple hurdles in that time, including the suspension of their liquor license for almost a month over financial misunderstandings with the city. According to Torres and Feinberg, they narrowly made it through that time as bar sales dropped to almost nothing, and it was again the community and music overall that helped them pull through to the other side.
Torres recalls when Jack Van Cleaf came through in August near the end of the suspension, describing it as a particularly moving show as the two thought there was a good chance they might go out of business.
“That show, just his songwriting, it really brought out like, ‘Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. And you’ve got to believe everything will be okay. You just gotta trust the process,’” Torres explains.
“We were both crying,” Torres continues. “He went on tour with Zach Bryan, opened up Red Rocks, and came and played over here. We didn’t have any liquor, but it was basically a sold out show.”
The two note that, even at this low point awaiting the reinstatement of their liquor license, the show was yet another testament to the community that had brought them to that point, and Torres says that was a really beautiful and memorable set despite the circumstances.
“Everybody was quietly just sitting there, it was kind of cool,” he adds. “And it made me realize, like, ‘Wow, there’s so much community here.’”
Having made it through that time with the help of the community and an amazing team, the two say they now have their sights set on 2026, and they’re expecting a big year. They’re already booking into the late Spring for some of the touring bands planning to come through, and they also say that, for the first time ever, the venue is slated to have two stages for FocoMx—one outside and one inside.
The day-to-day remains busier than ever for the owners, with six different shows going on the same week we spoke. Even with the future looking up and staying busy, the owners say they’re more focused on community than ever, adding that it’s a regular reminder of why they’ve been on this road for so long.
“Sometimes I’ll get all down in the trenches, or we’ll be worried about finances or something like that, and then we’ll have a show that reminds us of why we started,” Feinberg says. “And it’s just bringing people together at the end of the day. You’re getting to impact these people for a couple hours and change a little bit of their life, you know?
“I remind myself when I’m up in the sound booth sometimes and I see a room full of people, ‘Okay, this is why we’re doing it.’ And then all the stress and everything doesn’t matter in those moments.”
Catch some of the venue’s first December shows below, or keep tabs on their website and Instagram to stay in the loop.
