INTERVIEW: ANDREW MOOSE; THE HUM
The Hum was an outdoor venue located in downtown Hickory that was started by Andrew Moose and his business partners back in 2021. It was a huge gain for Hickory after going years, if not decades without a proper outdoor venue. After some good shows and a few years of solid growth, The Hum eventually dropped the curtains with the predominant reason being that is was simply unsustainable in its current form.
At the bottom of a vibrant green hill in downtown Hickory sits a grand concrete stage surrounded by metal and mulch. The grass is slightly overgrown and the wind sings melodies to itself in a solo concert.
The layout of the area is sort of a natural auditorium; perfect for concerts with it’s sloped audience-area converging towards the stage. While the venue is technically closed, the stage still stands and there is a lone sign still stuck to the fence.
A sign with The Hum logo, a hummingbird.
I was personally a part of almost every Hum show in the last three years, helping run sound and lights with Larry’s Music and Sound. I met up with Andrew (referred to as ‘Moose’ from here on) on the Hum stage to reflect on the venue and it’s successes, it’s problems, and it’s potential future.
I’M JUST HERE FOR THE MOOSE-IC
Moose has been a Hickory resident for over 20 years, going to college at Lenoir Rhyne for soccer and graduating with degrees in political science and sociology. His mother taught music out of the house and was over chorus and a few other ensembles at Statesville High School. He mentions his Grand-Dad was a hell of a flat-picker and brought him to the Doc Watsons and bluegrass players of the world. Soon after, he gravitated towards bands like The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, and The Allman Brothers. Eventually, he started putting his own groups together.
Andrew Moose; manager, traffic-coordinator, emcee, part owner, publicist, booking agent, and generally “The Big Dawg “ at The Hum.
“When I was in college I played music with some guys and we played some bars, you know. The first dollar I ever earned playing music was at Maguire’s Pub (a Hickory staple). We’d move the jukebox to the side and me and my buddy would set up and play music to a bunch of drunk people late into the night ya know, that was super fun!”
Moose’s current musical endeavor is Moose and Friends, which always features Moose, but includes a revolving cast of musicians that can drop in for support. Music has always been at the surface of everything Moose does and it’s reflected by his passion for live music and putting so much energy into The Hum while it was going. I’d see him at every step of the process at The Hum. Helping set up the stage, booking bands, directing traffic, picking up trash, announcing to the crowd, even making social media posts for the venue. Just about everything. He’d even take down the fabric roof of the Hum stage after every show. Myself and others got reluctantly roped into helping with that after he stated it would “only take two minutes” which was in-fact false.
“I JUST KNOW THAT MY CAREER IN PROMOTION IS NOT OVER..I KNOW THAT FOR SURE.”
Around five or six years ago, Moose and his now business partner were at a fantasy football draft kicking around some ideas when Moose mentioned that he’d always wanted to own and run a music venue.
“We had this plot of land where we’re sitting right now that was kind of destitute. A bunch of overgrown trees and a big metal shed right here where the stage is. Tore that down and had the stage built. We manicured the yard area to a point where people could come and sit nice. Then started throwing shows. It started off slow but started gaining momentum every year but, man..it’s a hard business. Owning a venue is like, the hardest thing I've ever done. I wanted it to be my full-time job, man. This is what I wanted it to be and this is what I wanted to do…and still do.”
The Hum’s first show was in October of 2021.
MUSIC, FOOD, LIGHTS, AND GOOD-TIMES
The Hum in action; Trial by Fire-Journey Tribute. Photo from Moose’s phone.
While the Hum was running, it did pretty well and threw some sick concerts. Opening night was a band called Big Daddy Love; It was also a charity event. The proceeds from the show went to Council on Adolescents of Catawba County which directly helps kids and parents in the area.
“If you could describe running The Hum on show night in two words, what would they be?”
“Chaotic, Fun.” He says after thinking for just a few seconds.
"I’ve personally got a lot of memories from the Hum whether they are from the acts that played here, the late-night load outs afterwards, or just being with my friends and hanging out. Are there any standout ones for you?” I asked.
“Late night load-outs? Are you trying to get me to talk about that girl that took her shirt off out here?” He bursts into laughter “Yeah! Yeah, that was crazy; everyone was like ‘OH GOD, NO!’ That was hilarious! That was a really funny one… #neverforget.”
“I also remember, and you were freaking out, I get it.. But there was a time it was about to storm and we had just finished covering stuff up on stage and you showed up and yelled at us for drinking and then you immediately hear 5 beer cans crack open behind you.”
“Yeah you guys are fuckin’ dickheads!” he laughs “Yeah it was coming down! Me, Ben and Bobby were holding this thing down and y’all were drinking? God, it made me mad! It’s fine though! All those nights man, I'll never forget The Hum. It’s seared into my memory..those fun nights… it was really good.”
Moose and some staff behind the bar.
We continued talking about goofy memories for a bit and I asked him:
“What was the most difficult part of running The Hum on show-night for you personally?”
“It was crossing people across the street. That was the most difficult, just making sure people didn’t get merked off the planet. I mean every show we’d see people going the wrong way [driving wrong way on the one-way street]. People would fly down the road! We asked numerous times..we’re in a kind of a weird situation because this road is maintained by North Carolina, they call it a NCDOT road and cannot be impeded by crosswalks or speed humps because it’s a main thoroughfare that gets emergency vehicles in and out of town. So like..speed humps, flashing lights and stuff like that, they can’t have any of it. That equaled me and a couple of my brave staff out there with our yellow vests and light wands [laughs] But yeah, There were a few times it was really close and really hairy.”
Moose in his vest for directing traffic.
“What’s your favorite food truck?”
“Without hesitation, it’s Gas Up. They’ve got the best grilled cheese and French fries on the planet, I’m convinced. A close second is—do you remember the taco truck that caught on fire that night?? It was year two or three and there was a fire that happened and an extinguisher went off in their truck and they were still able to pump out tacos and they were bangin’!”
How did you go about booking bands? What influenced your lineups and dates?
Well, There’s a lot of variables. There’s budget, there is routing, there is lineup and availability like ya know when you’re trying to get certain bands..I was always trying to front-load our season and back-load our season with two really strong acts to fill the coffers at the beginning of the season and fill the coffers during the off season. The last few years we’ve been working primarily with NC, SC, GA, TN, VA acts just because we can get them to be able to come here and back in a day and its easier on them. As far as who and when, it just all depends. The last 2 years we opened, or had scheduled to open with The Chain, a Fleetwood Mac tribute fronted by Dani Kerr, she’s great. They’d always have a big pull so we asked them to open a few times. It was always a hard time to pick acts and try to determine what you think might work.”
Sol-Driven Train, Live at the Hum. Source: Moose’s phone, unknown.
The bands that played at The Hum were the reason for all of this and they were a varied collection of genres and vibes, I was curious about which show was his favorite.
“Oh man.. There were some really good ones out there, we had some really, really awesome shows. My favorite show was probably The Fritz. They were here year two and they blew the house down. Datrian Johnson was here..I’ve seen him on the Christmas Jam Stage singing with like..John Medeski and Warren Haynes and ya know, He’s really, really good, man. And Jamie Hendrickson, he plays with a couple different bands and he played here with The Fritz. We had some really good times and we raised a bunch of money for a few different charities that I’m super proud of”
“What charities were they?” I asked.
“The first couple years that we were open, we partnered with a group out of Exodus Homes, kind of a subset called ‘The Den.’ Like, we were some of their first jobs out of rehab, [they] helped us park cars and some of their mentors were volunteering here too. There was another called ‘Walk With Me Healing Steps,' they helped park cars the last couple years and they’re an awesome non-profit therapy group out of Hickory. They help a lot with veterans groups, some women groups, and they work with horses which, that’s pretty cool.”
Before this interview, I was only vaguely aware of how many charities and non-profits that The Hum has helped and donated to. It almost transforms the view of The Hum into a by-the-community, for-the-community event space rather than just a simple venue. Super cool.
“Yeah man, I can’t say enough about the relationships I’ve built with my staff, the charities, you guys at Larry’s… That’s what I look forward to the most. The shows were fun and always went well and ran smoothly because of the team I had.”
ONE LAST CALL
Despite showing financial growth every year, The Hum closed at the end of the season in October 2025, sharing the news in this somewhat controversial post on Facebook.
In this post, they state that places like The Hum go dark because people fail to come out and support them. While this is true and definitely a huge factor, what I’d like to discuss with Moose is why? Why don’t people show up like expected? This was a huge talking point between Moose and his staff/business partners. Trying to predict “What would people come out for?” “What people would pay for?” “How much can we charge to get by?”
“All of these questions are ones that any venue owner would be asking themselves” Moose says. “Selling a $20 ticket to an event that would draw 400-800 people; like, there’s not a lot of margin there. You’d have to sell $12 beers to make money and like..I don’t wanna pay $12 for beer, I don’t want to charge people $12 for beer. You wanna bring in a good stage and sound, that’s super expensive. Good bands are super expensive..but people only wanna spend so much money to come see these bands. But, ya know, it’s one of those things like some of the best shows we’ve ever had with 600-800 people here.. we were only making a couple thousand dollars. We said ‘This is more like a community project and not an actual business.’”
We talked about some things that could have been done differently with Moose already having a full-stack of ideas. But, these ideas would require a huge capital investment. Building balcony seating, moving the stage in a corner to accommodate more people, building proper restrooms, VIP areas, and more. The money just isn’t there and “sometimes the math don’t be mathing” Moose states with a shrug.
There were also some complaints about cover and tribute bands playing most of the shows. While I do think they have their place, a lot of those bands were the same ones you could see multiple times around the area, even within the same month or so, leading to a burnout. On the other hand, not many local original bands at the moment have the pull to accommodate a venue that needs a good amount of ticket sales just to break even. The answer is difficult to find. Is the venue too big? Is the town too small?
“I kind of died on the sword on that.. I thought ‘more people came out to tribute acts so we should do more tribute acts..right? But, there are many subsets of people that do not want to come see tribute acts..but there are a also many subsets of people that would love tribute acts but would never go to a jam, punk, or metal show”
“I KIND OF DIED ON THE SWORD ON THAT..I THOUGHT ‘MORE PEOPLE CAME OUT TO TRIBUTE ACTS SO WE SHOULD DO MORE TRIBUTE ACTS...RIGHT?’ ”
I believe Hickory is on the cusp of being a great music city but it just isn’t quite there yet. There’s a ton of talent here, but up until recently with the addition of The Hum and The Premier, there weren’t really any venues at all; apart from some dive bars and restaurants. This leaves musicians feeling “stuck” in this town, playing the same places to a lot of the same people, and it can inhibit their growth.
TIME KEEPS ON TICKIN’ TICKIN’ TICKIN’
“The Hum as it was is over. What comes out of this space…it might be called The Hum again, I don’t know, it depends on how we…..like what happens with it. It might just be an event space like ya know the XYZ non-profit organization is gonna have a concert at the venue that’s formerly known as The Hum. We’ll keep our socials and websites up and run it like that. We’ve got a lot of different ideas I just know that my career in promotion is not over..I know that for sure.”
While The Hum is over for now, the space is still up and Moose and his partners are thinking of ways they can bring it back and keep using the space for concerts. One of their ideas is to throw charity events and reclassify as a 501(c)(3). [Organizations described in section 501(c)(3) are commonly referred to as charitable organizations. Organizations described in section 501(c)(3), other than testing for public safety organizations, are eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions in accordance with Code section 170.-IRS.gov] Learn more HERE.
“We needed time to ponder, ya know. It was… we knew that its direction..it wouldn’t become sustainable for a while. I have an idea of how we can continue running it and be successful with about the same margin if we take it a certain direction.
Only time will tell what will happen with The Hum, but one can hope with the influx of people moving into town, the creation of The Premier, and the renovations to Downtown Hickory and the surrounding areas will be more accommodating to larger acts and bigger crowds. In the meantime, keep supporting local musicians and venues and try to buy a ticket every now and then.