Foo Fighters revive old-school Valley music shop

By KALEA HALL

khall@vindy.com

NILES

The Record Connection has become somewhat of an attraction.

A few weeks ago, the Foo Fighters rolled up to the store in the Pine Tree Place plaza on Youngstown-Warren Road and brought the rock concert of a lifetime.

Hot, loud and inspiring, the show brought 150 lucky fans together in a garage-like concert setting with a larger-than-life band that typically rocks in places like Madison Square Garden.

“[The concert] has brought a lot of new attention and brought people back to the store,” said Jeff Burke, owner of Record Connection. “It’s a relief for me because we were beating our brains out trying to get people back.”

Burke has been the owner of his 1,020 square-foot store since the 1980s.

As a young man, he found his love for music through records like many listened to before the age of CD’s and downloads.

Burke’s store started with the records and 8-tracks. Then, there was a transition to compact discs.

The CDs came from Japan, at first, and were pricey — at least $30 for one.

“Everyone told me I was crazy about selling compact discs,” Burke said.

But then they took off. The store would offer two CDs for $20 on certain days, which brought in a crowd. Record Connection had 24,000 CD titles stacked and stocked everywhere.

When the 2000s hit, so did downloading and the Record Connection’s business took a hit.

“Something made me hang on,” Burke said.

And then something happened. Records started to become popular again. Younger generations were back in the store fishing through the records and buying them up.

Burke was down to two last bins of records and had to add more.

Today, he has seven bins — and counting — from newer records to the classics. Cassette tapes and CDs are still a part of the inventory.

The store still has an old school feel to it and maybe that is why it was selected for the Foo Fighters’ gig.

A “customer” dropped by Burke’s store one day and asked some questions. Little did Burke know the “customer” was a scout for Foo Fighters’ management team. When he got the call about bringing a Record Store Day celebration concert to his store – his knees buckled.

He kept the concert a secret until fans were alerted about how to get into the concert: they had to be in line to buy Foo Fighters’ “Songs from the Laundry Room” vinyl record the Thursday before the Saturday concert.

People camped outside – sleeping on the sidewalk and in their cars – just to be certain they got a ticket.

Saturday, April 18: Record Store Day, and the biggest day for Burke and his beloved store.

“They were already lined up at 6 a.m.,” Burke said. “It never stopped. The lines just kept growing.”

It was a historic day in more ways than one: Burke guesses he sold about 1,200 to 1,500 records.

The store was packed, the plaza was pulsing and the crowd was pumped. Vernon’s Cafe parked a food truck outside, and a local radio station blared songs before the concert.

The excitement of the crowd grew when band front man Dave Grohl rolled up on his motorcycle, hair flying in the wind. He was ready to rock.

The concert began at 12 p.m. – sharp.

Burke missed Grohl’s shout out to him. Once he got there he was stunned.

“It was just so cool,” he said. “Things just went so smoothly. We were very fortunate.”

Though the crowd outside has died down, the attention on the store and the plaza continues.

Area business owners saw some uptick in business that day and told Burke about it.

Cindy Perkins, owner of Cindy’s Health & Vitality Center in the same plaza as the Record Connection since 1997, said the event was a positive for the plaza and the area.

“It had a good impact of letting people know we were here. It wasn’t about us, it was about [Burke’s] store,” Perkins said.