Perhaps in honor of its humble musical origins, First Avenue began life as The Depot. In 1968 the original depot relocated and, the next year, a 25-year old Minneapolis native named Allan Fingerhut, an heir to the Fingerhut catalog fortune, saw a rock club where there was but a café, cigar store and barbershop.

He found a partner with a liquor license, invested $150,000 and opened the only venue in downtown Minneapolis with both rock music and alcohol. When The Depot opened, on April 3, 1970, local papers raved. They "have done some remarkable things with the interior of the old depot. The curved wall which used to embrace the gates to departing busses is now the backdrop for a large, purple plush-covered stage." Joe Cocker played two sets that night, to local fans described by one reporter as "beautiful people…with resplendent sun tans and $250 hippie outfits."

The Depot, however, proved as seasonal as its patrons’ skin tone. The club’s name and management would change several times over the decade, as the country went crazy for disco and DJs. But somehow, live music managed to hang on in this space. Performers in the '70s included national and local acts: Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, Ike & Tina Turner, Iggy & the Stooges, Chubby Checker, The Kinks, The Allman Brothers, B.B. King, Rod Stewart, The Small Faces, John Lee Hooker, Canned Heat, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, Dwight Twilley Band, Chris Osgood of the Suicide Commandos, Peter Jesperson, Pat Benetar, The Ramones and U2. -->